LOUISVILLE — About six months ago, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands fundraising campaign was in trouble — finding some success at getting donations for international mission and new church development, but not having enough money on hand to continue to pay its staff through 2007.
The basic problem was that most donors were restricting their gifts — offering money for specific causes, but not providing funds to pay the operating costs of the campaign.
That potentially put the five-year, $40 million fundraising campaign in jeopardy — and leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) weren’t willing to let that happen.
To get around the problem, the General Assembly Council will provide the Hearts & Hands campaign with a $720,000 loan to cover operating expenses. And the Hearts & Hands steering committee has voted to impose a 5 percent administrative fee on all gifts received after Dec. 8, 2006, through the end of the campaign in 2008.
With the campaign still $14.5 million short of its goal when that decision was made, it was estimated that 5 percent fee would bring in $725,000 — which should be enough to cover the remaining costs of the campaign, according to information provided to the council at its meeting March 15.
Tom Gillespie, a retired president of Princeton Theological Seminary, has become an advocate of the campaign and its honorary chair. Gillespie told the council some friends asked him, “Are you out of your mind?” and expressed disbelief that so much money could be raised in such a troubled church.
So far, the campaign has raised $27.7 million of its $40 million goal, with $12.2 million still to be found. About $11.5 million of the money raised is for church growth in the U.S., under programs initiated by presbyteries, and $1.8 million for church growth projects administered by congregations.
“I believe our church needs a success story,” Gillespie said — saying he intends to go to the General Assembly in 2008 and say, “We did it. We raised $40 million for mission and ministry. … We need that kind of story, and it’s possible.”
Gillespie said he’s excited, because “these numbers get translated into ministry and into mission.” Already, the PC(USA) has deployed 15 mission co-workers internationally using funds from the campaign, sending them from Guatemala to Pakistan.
Others are waiting to be deployed if money can be found to send them — among them, Ingrid Reneau, who would work in education in Sudan; Denise England, who would be a consultant for geriatric and nursing services in Egypt; and Brett and Shelly Faucett, who would become regional consultants for health and HIV/AIDS work in Asia.
“Friends, we have the money,” Gillespie told the council. “We’re going to come whining at your church. … We’re going to whine in presbytery offices. We’re going to whine until we raise another $13 million for this cause.”
David York, the campaign’s director, also presented answers to some of the questions council members raised last fall when the operational funding issues arose.
Among those answers:
– The PC(USA) will have 239 mission co-workers by May 2007 (following some anticipated coming-and-going).
– The current budget for People in Mutual Mission is $15.2 million. But about $17.4 million will be needed by 2010 to maintain that level of deployment — another $2.2 million above what’s in the budget now. So “the number of mission personnel in the field will inevitably decrease unless additional dollars are raised to fund the core budget” of People in Mutual Mission, the report states.
– The cost of sending a mission co-worker out into the field varies, depending in part on the cost of living in a particular country and whether an individual is being sent, a couple or a family.
– When the mission co-workers being sent out with Hearts & Hands funds finish their terms, “their support will become the responsibility of the core mission budget,” the report states. “Of course, it is expected that many of the congregations and individuals who have initially supported them will continue their support once the initial term is up.”
