Parish Stewardship Report – the short version…
Though we will mail out a complete version of the parish financial report with your year-end statements, and will have that report online within a week or so, I wanted to give you the ‘thumbnail sketch’ of the parish finances for this past fiscal year, ending June 30, 2014. If you are like me, numbers tend to swim in my head, but words I can grasp. So here is the narrative version of the report.
For those who like the bottom line first, we showed a total parish deficit of $21,007 after capital expenditures and bad debts were added in. In terms of ‘normal’ operating budget items, we showed a slim ‘profit’ of $25K, compared to a ‘profit’ of $85K last year. Cash in our checking account and money market fund total $75,797, down from $121,789 last year.
So, what were the major variances in income and expenses from last year? In a word:
Salaries
School enrollment decline
Teacher salaries and benefits, set by the Archdiocesan School office (and mirrored in the rectory staff in-creases) saw an increase of $38.7K. (4.6%) School enrollment two years ago hovered in the 157-159 range. Because of the Missouri Transfer Law ruling, last year’s enrollment began at 143 and crept slowly to the 150-152 range by February, with a resultant loss of $43K in tuition revenues. (FYI – current enrollment as of today is 152, with more than a few families on a Pastor’s scholarship plan to make up the difference between their Alive in Christ Scholarship, what they can afford to pay, and the tuition we charge.)
Salaries and Enrollment – those are the two biggest challenges to our parish finances. In terms of the rest of the budget report – an increase in Archdiocesan Assessments for the Alive in Christ Initiative was offset by in-crease grant Revenues from the Alive in Christ foundation. The Early Childhood Center showed a slight profit once more. Unrestricted revenues were flat; we saw modest declines in restricted offerings and gifts, rental income, (parish center), and fund raising (Pay it Forward and Visitation). On the positive side, “Ordinary expenses’ of supplies, fees, services, and utilities were down. We are running as tight a ship as we know how.
So, what does this mean for us? Simply this. We have an opportunity before us to keep our St. Ann school and parish solid as the rock of Normandy that we have been for 158 years and counting. But it will entail a deliberate choice to deepen our stewardship of all the gifts God has entrusted to us. More details on what that will look like in today’s homily…
p.s. Anyone who provided us an email address should have received a link to our stewardship survey. If you did not, please contact Meg Naes (341-9498) or Bill Hook (382-5786).