Mid-Year Financial Update: Revenue, Expenses, and Parish Giving Trends

As promised last week, I have financial updates from the first half of our fiscal year. It is important to remember that when we look at our financial statements, especially at the end of the first six months, when comparing them to the budgeted numbers, we simply divide the numbers budgeted in half. In some cases, it is realistic to assume half of our revenue or expenses in a particular category come in evenly throughout the year. However in many categories, they do not.

Our two most significant sources of revenue are Adult Giving and School Tuition. Through the end of the first six months, our Adult Giving is slightly more than what we budgeted. You have contributed $507,088 or $5,701 more than last year by this time. Payments for school tuition total $598,610. This is a category where we collect more the second half of the fiscal year because more of the school year comes after January 1^st. By the end of the fiscal year, we are projecting to collect at least $10,000 more than budgeted based on our current enrollment. 

Gifts are becoming a larger source of revenue as people opt to make gifts to the parish once or twice a year rather than place money in the weekly offerings. We collected $332,012 in gifts to date, which is 85% of what we had projected collecting for the entire year. We know the end of the calendar year is a prime time for people to make gifts, but are optimistic we will meet or exceed what we budgeted. Our Christmas collection was also greater than we anticipated at $39,692. That is over $7,000 more than budgeted. 

Overall our revenue for the first half of the fiscal year is $2,003,070. It is $288,114 behind last year. Remember last year by this time we had received $231,294 from the government as our final payment from the Covid relief program known as the Payroll Protection Program. We had another $95,000 come in as final payments for our capital campaign. We chose not to do a fall raffle, which last year netted $5,457. Removing the first two items from last year’s revenue means we are $95,000 ahead of this time last year. 

On the expense side of our financials, our expenses are up $109,667 over last year at this time. The two largest increases in expenses categories are for ‘Furnishings and Equipment’ and Wages. 

Furnishings and Equipment is because we finished off our final capital campaign project, updating security at the church and school. When we computed the budget, we were not sure when the work would be completed and so did not budget for it. We budgeted the wage increase as we gave between 8% and 17% wage increases and added some staff. Overall, our expenses are in line with what we budgeted. We are not seeing anything that is raising an alarm at this point. 

We did budget a deficit for this year, knowing that we had a few years in a row when we ended the year with net income. As a result, we know that if the fiscal year ends with a deficit, we can tap our savings. It is too early to tell for sure, but if I had to guess at this point, as long as giving remains strong and we have no surprise expenses, minimally our deficit should be less than anticipated. 

Thank you for supporting Saint Patrick Parish, our mission, and the work we do. We do depend heavily on the generosity of our donors. You have a history of supporting our parish well, and we pray that our steadfast supporters will continue to reward our prayers well into the future.