Total receipts for General Assembly mission fell short of the budget by $1.1 million for the first seven months of 2013, but Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) entities underutilized the expense budget by a whopping $5.66 million over the same period, the PMA Board was told at its Sept. 25-27 meeting here.

Mission budget receipts totaled $39,478,625 through July, while expenditures totaled $39,056,899.

“Unrestricted income is a little above budget,” new Chief Financial Officer Earline Williams, told the board. “Overall we’re a little under because total restricted dollars are down. There has been a decrease in targeted [Extra Commitment Opportunity] giving of about $1.5 million.”

Senior Director for Funds Development Terri Bate attributed that shortfall to “some vacancies on our staff who raise those funds.” She said the Funds Development team is now fully-staffed, “and we believe we can reduce that deficit to about $1 million by the end of the year.”

Restricted (designated) receipts for the year-to-date are $31,983,844 versus a budget through July of $33,166,335.

Bright spots included a modest increase in special offering receipts ― $7.98 million has been received versus a budget of $7.93 million and bequests totaling $1.54 million: $669,000 of it unrestricted and $871,000 restricted.

Shared mission support ― unrestricted giving by congregations and presbyteries ― continues its steady decline. Budgeted year-to-date at $3,655,000, receipts are at $3,155,869, down $500,000. Receipts to date in 2012 were $3,536,210 and as recently as 2009 topped $4.3 million year-to-date.

“Thank God for those who have seen fit to bless us,” Williams said, adding, however, that “undesignated giving is less than planned.”

Controller Denise Hampton told the PMA board that current projections for the end of the year are “$7.6 million unrestricted projected income versus $8.5 million budgeted and $16 million total income versus $18 million budgeted.”

The total General Assembly mission budget for 2013 is $85,233,204.

“The year-end 2013 projected funding gap continues,” Williams said, “but it doesn’t look to be as severe as we had planned.”

Presbyterian Mission Program Fund ― the mission agency’s cash reserve ― utilization from January-July 2013 totaled $1,474,440, far better than the $3,165,889 that was budgeted to cover cash-flow needs.

“So we’re moving in the right direction,” Williams concluded.