Because of accounting errors, the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts & Hands campaign https://www.pcusa.org/joiningheartsandhands/ has overstated the amount of pledges it has received by $1.4 million.
The error means that, as of the end of 2006, the Hearts & Hands fundraising campaign had actually received $26.1 million towards its $40 million, five-year goal, instead of the $27.5 million originally reported.
As of March 31, 2007, the campaign reported raising just over $26.3 million in pledges and gifts.
A news release from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) attributed the inaccuracies to accounting errors, and said, “the errors were simple mistakes between campaign staff and accounting staff, but they had significant consequences.”
A gift of $1 million was apparently counted twice, for example.
Joey Bailey, the PC(USA)’s deputy executive director for Shared Services, expressed regret in the news release for the errors, and promised improvements to prevent reoccurrences.
The Hearts & Hands campaign is trying to raise $40 million for international mission work and for new church development in the United States.
It’s had both successes and some bumps in the road — determining last fall, for example, that it hadn’t raised enough unrestricted money to continue paying its staff without help from the General Assembly Council.
But the campaign has convinced Presbyterians from a variety of backgrounds — from wealthy individuals to tiny congregations — to provide new funding for projects ranging from supporting a missionary health worker in Cameroon to supporting the development of new Presbyterian congregations in the U.S.
