PMAB Finance Committee receives 2017 first half report

Giving from congregations and mid councils, large bequest bolster second quarter results

by Gregg Brekke | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE – The Finance and Audit committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board heard reports from financial services and audit team members today that painted a positive picture of the agency’s finances for the first half of 2017. Across all categories, the PMA’s budget showed a $2 million surplus against budgeted expectations at the end of the second quarter.

While finance team members pointed out there are still expenses and grants to be paid from this surplus, they highlighted that restricted and unrestricted giving numbers from congregations and mid councils beat projections by 36.8 percent and 20.5 percent over budget respectively. Overall restricted receipts were up 1.9 percent ($407,307) and unrestricted receipts were 30.4 percent over budget ($1.3 million.)

Additionally, the PMA received a $2 million estate gift that is to be divided evenly between the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Self-Development of People ministry areas.

Special Offerings receipts also did better than anticipated, bumped by over $200,000 in Special Offering Catalog donations. Independently, the other four offerings were $43,049 over budgeted amounts.

In spite of these gains unrestricted expenses outpaced receipts by $645,028 in large part due to maintenance costs of the Stony Point Conference Center ($122,185) and environmental mitigation costs ($771,419) attributed to the sale of the “Santa Fe” property at Ghost Ranch Conference Center.

On the restricted giving balance sheet, receipts beat expenses by over $3 million in large part due to the aforementioned outstanding grants and expenses, primarily in the areas of World Mission ($1.6 million), Theology, Formation and Evangelism ($1 million) and Racial Ethnic and Women’s Ministries ($849,655.)

The report from the Audit Committee noted the expenses for Ghost Ranch and Stony Point, including the accounting allocations approved by the Board for these expenses. With the oversight of outside auditors, the Audit Committee said there were no discrepancies in the PMA’s second quarter financial report.