Did you know? Things can change quickly on the Internet.

Three days ago, I posted an article here questioning the new financial statements of Seattle-area Crista Ministries. Among other things, I examined the way its World Concern unit accepted millions of deworming pills easily purchased for 2 cents and said they each were worth $1.30–a 6,400% exaggeration by my reckoning. The effect was to make Crista look more financially efficient than it really was.

I linked to a World Concern Web page on the Crista site making a grand claim about its financial efficiency. Thanks to a screenshot I made to preserve the evidence, here is the relevant part of that page:

By my figuring, the true charitable commitment ratio–the amount of total expenditures in direct furtherance of the stated mission–really was a lot less, somewhere between 83% and 89%.

This morning, I dropped by the site again. Lo and behold, the 94% efficiency claim had disappeared, and a lower one put in its place! The language quoted above was gone, replaced by the following (courtesy of another evidence-preserving screenshot):

Now, I’m not sure I agree with that carefully qualified efficiency number, since it apparently still uses the $1.30 valuation for 2-cent pills. But it’s lower than a flat 94%, and therefore closer to my New To Seattle notion of reality.

Now you know.

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