Bethesda Mission 
The information on this page was last updated 4/14/2022. If you see errors or omissions, please email: [email protected]
Summary
Bethesda Mission (BM), located in Pennsylvania's capitol city of Harrisburg, is a non-profit Christian Rescue Mission. The organization has been meeting the needs of hungry and homeless people in the Greater Harrisburg area since 1914, when the mission was founded by fifteen laymen representing nine different denominations across the city.
The goal in 1914 was the same goal by which Bethesda is operated today:
To provide food, shelter, clothing, and life-changing counseling based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all who seek their help.
Contact information
Mailing address:
Bethesda Mission
PO Box 3041
Harrisburg, PA 17105
Website: www.BethesdaMission.org
Phone: (717) 257-4442
Email: [email protected]
Organization details
EIN: 231389397
CEO/President: Scott Dunwoody
Chairman: Andrew Groop
Board size: 13
Founder: Mr. James W. Barker
Ruling year: 1914
Tax deductible: Yes
Fiscal year end: 06/30
Member of ECFA: Yes
Member of ECFA since: 1991
Purpose
Our Vision: Rescue. Redeem. Restore.
Rescue - A soft pillow, a warm meal, and peace from life's storms are what Bethesda offers the men, women, and children who walk through our doors. Our walls offer safety from chaos-filled homes and noisy streets, and our hospitality returns a small portion of the grace we've been given to the people we serve.
Redeem - A brightly lit green cross is the trade-mark symbol of our flagship facility at 611 Reily Street in downtown Harrisburg. This city icon defines our driving passion - to introduce others to the power and love of Jesus Christ.
Restore - Equipping each person with tools for life is the aim of Bethesda's community re-entry blueprint. From learning to balance a checkbook to finding a Christ centered, nurturing church, these foundational skills help existing guests lead lives of character and great purpose.
Mission statement
Since 1914, Bethesda Mission has been a missionary arm of the local church, reaching out to men, women and children of all races, nationalities and creeds, providing the poor and homeless with shelter, food, clothing, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and discipliing them in the Christian life.
Statement of faith
We believe there is one God, eternally existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is God the Son, that He was born of a virgin, that believers are redeemed by His substitutionary death through His shed blood, that He bodily resurrected, and ascended into Heaven, and that He will come again in power and great glory. Furthermore, because of Christ's full but sinless humanity, we believe He has experienced and overcome all temptations that we face. Because of this, God is approachable through Jesus Christ and is concerned with our condition and human struggles.
We believe the Bible, as originally given, to be the revealed, authoritative Word of God without error.
We believe God originally created man in His own image, and free from sin; but through the temptation of Satan, man disobeyed God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness. Because of this all mankind inherits a corrupt nature and is under God's condemnation.
We believe that people can be removed from the eternal condemnation of sin only through a personal decision to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross as their substitutionary payment for their sins. We hold this event to be a personal experience rather than a religious or doctrinal supposition.
We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells all believers empowering them to live a godly life of obedience as they grow toward Christian maturity in the process called sanctification.
We believe that the Holy Spirit unites all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and that together they form one body - The Church. Furthermore we believe that The Church is under the leadership of Jesus Christ and that His leadership will be evident through the harmony and love within The Church.
We believe it is the duty of all believers to glorify God in thought, word and deed.
Donor confidence score
Transparency grade
A
To understand our transparency grade, click here.
Financial efficiency ratings
Sector: Rescue Missions/Homeless Shelters
| Category | Rating | Overall rank | Sector rank |
| Overall efficiency rating | | 278 of 1034 | 53 of 161 |
| Fund acquisition rating | | 360 of 1036 | 57 of 161 |
| Resource allocation rating | | 261 of 1036 | 43 of 161 |
| Asset utilization rating | | 534 of 1034 | 90 of 161 |
Financial ratios
| Funding ratios | Sector median | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
Return on fundraising efforts Return on fundraising efforts = Fundraising expense / Total contributions | 9% | 7% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 10% |
Fundraising cost ratio Fundraising cost ratio = Fundraising expense / Total revenue | 8% | 7% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 10% |
Contributions reliance Contributions reliance = Total contributions / Total revenue | 91% | 97% | 96% | 95% | 100% | 98% |
Fundraising expense ratio Fundraising expense ratio = Fundraising expense / Total expenses | 10% | 9% | 8% | 9% | 8% | 9% |
Other revenue reliance Other revenue reliance = Total other revenue / Total revenue | 9% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 0% | 2% |
| Operating ratios | Sector median | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
Program expense ratio Program expense ratio = Program services / Total expenses | 80% | 86% | 87% | 86% | 85% | 85% |
Spending ratio Spending ratio = Total expenses / Total revenue | 87% | 79% | 100% | 91% | 102% | 107% |
Program output ratio Program output ratio = Program services / Total revenue | 69% | 68% | 87% | 78% | 87% | 91% |
Savings ratio Savings ratio = Surplus (deficit) / Total revenue | 13% | 21% | 0% | 9% | -2% | -7% |
Reserve accumulation rate Reserve accumulation rate = Surplus (deficit) / Net assets | 11% | 17% | 0% | 7% | -1% | -4% |
General and admin ratio General and admin ratio = Management and general expense / Total expenses | 9% | 5% | 5% | 6% | 6% | 6% |
| Investing ratios | Sector median | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
Total asset turnover Total asset turnover = Total expenses / Total assets | 0.55 | 0.54 | 0.68 | 0.54 | 0.59 | 0.52 |
Degree of long-term investment Degree of long-term investment = Total assets / Total current assets | 2.97 | 5.39 | 5.11 | 6.10 | 12.91 | 23.71 |
Current asset turnover Current asset turnover = Total expenses / Total current assets | 1.74 | 2.91 | 3.46 | 3.30 | 7.56 | 12.28 |
| Liquidity ratios | Sector median | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
Current ratio Current ratio = Total current assets / Total current liabilities | 14.30 | 4.74 | 5.19 | 4.47 | 1.97 | 1.17 |
Current liabilities ratio Current liabilities ratio = Total current liabilities / Total current assets | 0.07 | 0.21 | 0.19 | 0.22 | 0.51 | 0.85 |
Liquid reserve level Liquid reserve level = (Total current assets - Total current liabilities) / (Total expenses / 12) | 5.79 | 3.25 | 2.80 | 2.82 | 0.78 | 0.14 |
| Solvency ratios | Sector median | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
Liabilities ratio Liabilities ratio = Total liabilities / Total assets | 9% | 14% | 17% | 16% | 18% | 19% |
Debt ratio Debt ratio = Debt / Total assets | 2% | 9% | 12% | 12% | 14% | 15% |
Reserve coverage ratio Reserve coverage ratio = Net assets / Total expenses | 150% | 159% | 123% | 155% | 139% | 156% |
Financials
| Balance sheet | |||||
| Assets | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
| Cash | $1,964,242 | $1,896,365 | $1,707,774 | $445,539 | $135,845 |
| Receivables, inventories, prepaids | $668,310 | $518,710 | $580,207 | $584,864 | $439,127 |
| Short-term investments | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Other current assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total current assets | $2,632,552 | $2,415,075 | $2,287,981 | $1,030,403 | $574,972 |
| Long-term investments | $5,149,546 | $4,451,775 | $4,613,896 | $5,000,431 | $5,445,924 |
| Fixed assets | $5,969,894 | $5,104,924 | $6,691,454 | $6,927,139 | $7,241,296 |
| Other long-term assets | $447,839 | $374,216 | $366,239 | $348,822 | $370,550 |
| Total long-term assets | $11,567,279 | $9,930,915 | $11,671,589 | $12,276,392 | $13,057,770 |
| Total assets | $14,199,831 | $12,345,990 | $13,959,570 | $13,306,795 | $13,632,742 |
| Liabilities | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
| Payables and accrued expenses | $359,183 | $280,553 | $281,381 | $299,582 | $262,903 |
| Other current liabilities | $196,021 | $184,733 | $230,403 | $224,557 | $226,943 |
| Total current liabilities | $555,204 | $465,286 | $511,784 | $524,139 | $489,846 |
| Debt | $1,347,787 | $1,504,439 | $1,625,608 | $1,819,752 | $2,022,514 |
| Due to (from) affiliates | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Other long-term liabilities | $106,604 | $122,757 | $104,603 | $96,120 | $98,419 |
| Total long-term liabilities | $1,454,391 | $1,627,196 | $1,730,211 | $1,915,872 | $2,120,933 |
| Total liabilities | $2,009,595 | $2,092,482 | $2,241,995 | $2,440,011 | $2,610,779 |
| Net assets | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
| Without donor restrictions | $3,720,668 | $3,522,696 | $4,970,839 | $4,844,366 | $5,341,311 |
| With donor restrictions | $8,469,568 | $6,730,812 | $6,746,736 | $6,022,418 | $5,680,652 |
| Net assets | $12,190,236 | $10,253,508 | $11,717,575 | $10,866,784 | $11,021,963 |
| Revenues and expenses | |||||
| Revenue | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
| Total contributions | $9,384,893 | $8,072,234 | $7,882,700 | $7,658,423 | $6,471,096 |
| Program service revenue | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Membership dues | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Investment income | $282,916 | $240,724 | $389,413 | ($34,401) | $96,964 |
| Other revenue | $35,234 | $56,126 | $63,899 | $15,026 | $32,229 |
| Total other revenue | $318,150 | $296,850 | $453,312 | ($19,375) | $129,193 |
| Total revenue | $9,703,043 | $8,369,084 | $8,336,012 | $7,639,048 | $6,600,289 |
| Expenses | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
| Program services | $6,585,508 | $7,295,518 | $6,468,972 | $6,656,979 | $5,997,071 |
| Management and general | $400,614 | $405,130 | $429,513 | $500,170 | $418,708 |
| Fundraising | $682,804 | $651,923 | $649,982 | $637,078 | $645,207 |
| Total expenses | $7,668,926 | $8,352,571 | $7,548,467 | $7,794,227 | $7,060,986 |
| Change in net assets | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
| Surplus (deficit) | $2,034,117 | $16,513 | $787,545 | ($155,179) | ($460,697) |
| Other changes in net assets | ($97,389) | ($1,480,580) | ($66,754) | $0 | $0 |
| Total change in net assets | $1,936,728 | ($1,464,067) | $720,791 | ($155,179) | ($460,697) |
Compensation
| Name | Title | Compensation |
| Scott Dunwoody | Executive Director | $66,308 |
Compensation data as of: 6/30/2020
Response from ministry
No response has been provided by this ministry.
The information below was provided to MinistryWatch by the ministry itself. It was last updated 4/14/2022. To update the information below, please email: [email protected]
History
"Heritage" is a good term to describe over 80 years of ministry to the hopeless, the helpless, and the homeless people of the street. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines Heritage as "Something transmitted by or acquired from a predecessor." Today, the Mission is still faithfully transmitting that which it has received from its founders.
Harrisburg's Mission tradition goes back to a Scranton Welshman named Griffith Jones, who started the predecessor of Bethesda at the turn of the century. This early mission was known as the Lafayette Mission, and was located where the State Education Building is in Harrisburg today.
On December 22, 1914, James W. Barker founded Bethesda Mission, taking the Biblical word for "mercy" as a name for his mission. He called it a "Christian workshop and workingman's hotel." "Uncle Jim" Barker (1853-1944) was the mission's first president. He was a thin, stately man with a moustache and goatee. It was often said that he looked like a cross between Monty Wooley and Sigmund Freud. Earning his livelihood in the feed and grain business, he lived on Evergreen St. near a political boss of the time, Ed Beidleman, and was Sunday school superintendent at the Stevens Memorial Methodist Church.
Barker attracted some of the real "class" of Harrisburg at the time to be directors of Bethesda - men like Eli Hershey, J. Boyd Trostle, John W. Appleby, H. B. Alexander, E.S. Chronister, C. M. Thumma, Gus Steinmitz, O. B. Lank and Gus F. Larson. The only time that they ran into flak was when they considered purchasing the old Biley mansion at Front and Chestnut Streets, because a big controversy arose over the so-called "Front Street for the Front Streeters" movement. That was in the early 1930's when, as they used to say, there weren't any proletarians on Front Street, though John O'Hara knew otherwise.
In 1934 the Mission purchased the old Pennsylvania Railroad YMCA at 611 Reilly Street for $10,000. It had been built in 1902, and had housed Harrisburg's first indoor swimming pool. The swimming pool is now filled in and capped over, and the room is currently serving as a dormitory.
Henry Reinhart, a self-acknowledged former "booze-soaked, despondent salesman from Cleveland," came aboard when the mission was at 107 S. Second Street and moved on to Reily Street for 31 years as mission director. The depression days were the glory days (in that period of time), when the mission lodged as many as 36,000 men a year, including seamen from the Morro Castle and ex-bootleggers who wanted to go straight. Today the Mission sleeps more than that on a routine basis, and that does not include the women and children's shelter, which opened in 1983.
In 1975, an over-optimistic investment in what was to be a state-aided and funded alcoholism pilot program put Bethesda Mission in a financial hole of over $30,000, because the State pulled its promised funding after the mission had expended its funds to create the facility. While that isn't much money for most organizations, it was a critical loss for Bethesda, which operated on a $70,000 annual budget.
In the process of recovery, the mission reorganized much of its volunteer board, parted ways with an executive director, and adopted a retrenching, survival policy. "The easiest route for most of us would be to resign from the board and get ourselves out of this embarrassing predicament," wrote the Rev. Donald R. Javert, then of the Market Square Presbyterian Church. "Even more embarrassing would be to leave forgotten persons in the streets of Harrisburg unattended and without shelter. The Mission is a friend to those who are genuinely without friends."
Agreeing with Rev. Javert were the remaining board members, plus four new members who replaced the six who had left and by 1979 the mission had paid off its debt.
The mission at that time had 30 permanent residents and about five transients daily. Today it has no permanent guests but sleeps over 100 men on most nights, provides over 100, 000 meals per year, separately houses 40 women and children, and operates a full-time after-school youth program for neighborhood children that involves 50 or more boys and girls each afternoon. From a staff of one executive director in 1979 the mission has grown to an organization employing 43 dedicated workers. Increasing from the annual $70,000 budget of those years, the mission now requires $1,800,000 to provide for the expanding needs of its many services.
There is an historical paradox to the mission tradition in America. Bethesda and others in the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions began well before the American public welfare movement. The public might think that with the ubiquitous welfare check, the "down-and-out," as "Uncle Jim" Barker called them, do have security and don't need lodging, food, or counseling. The truth is the direct opposite, in fact. The boys don't ride boxcars into Harrisburg anymore, and the increased urbanization and impersonalization of society, coupled with alcohol and drugs, bad economics, and declining education, have all replaced the self-reliant, self-esteemed happy "bums" of yesteryear with faceless, alienated lost souls of mass man. Missions have a more vital role to play today than ever before, and it isn't that of middle-class hypocrisy or guilt-cleansing, either.
Above all, the Mission's quality board and staff have re-established the Mission's statement of purpose to conform to the original charter, thus assuring a continuation of the Heritage passed to it by its founders and supporters. "Uncle Jim" Barker would be pleased to see his Mission in the hands of those who are guiding it today.
(The material for this page was taken from Bethesda's Spring 1994 newsletter, which was in turn taken, verbatim in many places, from the column, "Reporter at Large" by Paul B. Beers. The original article appeared in the Patriot News on 12/11/75, and has been reprinted with the permission of Mr. Beers. It was adapted to reflect the current purpose of that newsletter and this page and also to bring it up-to-date. Our sincere thanks to Mr. Beers.)
Program accomplishments
60 men sheltered per night
6 women sheltered per night
5,036 meals served last month