FY24 Q3 Financial Recap

Time Flies! That is sure an understatement. One year ago we were excited for the ordination of our soon to be associate Father Dan Tracy and his arrival here as our associate. It is hard to believe that we are coming up to his one-year anniversary. 

With time going by so quickly, we also find ourselves already into the fourth quarter of our fiscal year. Our fiscal year ends on June 30. We now have our third quarter financial reports in and have sent our proposed budget to the Diocese for approval. 

On the whole we are continuing to financially do better than anticipated. Our adult envelopes are up almost 5% over what we budgeted and 2.2% over last year at this time. Our gifts are up $72,000 over last year. This is in large part due to the fact that we have received four gifts this year in excess of $25,000. Last year we received only one gift greater than $25,000. Interesting, our loose collections are this up year by $17,000 or 38%. 

Overall our revenue is up by 20% or $605,000. $100,000 of the increase is due to an increase in tuition. This was the result of both an increase in school tuition and enrollment. $110,000 is related to the combination of realized and unrealized gains in investments. However an additional one-third of this $605,000 is due to a one-time government payment for Covid relief through the Employee Retention Tax Credit. Most people think because we are a nonprofit that we don’t pay taxes. While we don’t pay income taxes, we do pay FICA taxes on our employees’ wages. This year we will pay over $100,000 in taxes. 

Our salaries are currently up this year by $91,000 over last. This is the result of a nominal increase we accorded our staff and the hiring of an additional teacher for our school. Despite this, salaries are still $108,000 below budget. This is the result of a number of reasons, including: delayed hiring of staff we had budgeted for until the second quarter of the year; not hiring an additional maintenance person; and some staff being out on extended unpaid medical leave. 

Remarkably we have not seen an increase in health insurance over last year, except for the fact that we are now providing insurance for a second priest. Not surprisingly gas is down $16,000 from last year and snow plowing down $22,000. Overall our expenses are up $200,000 or 8% from last year, half of which is related to salaries. Compared to our budget our expenses are $104,000 below what we anticipated, almost completely related to salaries. 

The bottom line is that we are tracking almost $547,000 ahead of what we budgeted. Our plan is to carry the surplus forward, which will enable us to give our staff a much needed 7-10% increase in salaries and wages, which will put us more closely in line with our St. Croix Valley wages. This is not to suggest that church and school employees make a comparable salary to the private sector, or even public-school employees. But it is an appropriate wage for our community and means.  

This year we were only able to balance the budget because we knew we were receiving the Covid relief funds. Without that – and with the increases we are giving our staff – results in proposing a deficit budget. We know, however, that with this current year’s net income we will be able to cover this deficit. 

My three takeaways from all of this are: 

1. We have many generous people in our parish who support our vital work of helping people grow in their faith and love of Jesus. Without your generosity we couldn’t do this work in the manner we do. 
2. Wave a large budget. Next year we will be the first parish in the Diocese of Superior with a payroll in excess of $2 million. We are a significant employer in our community. People depend on us for their livelihood. We need to be grateful to them for their willingness to be a part of our team. 
3. Finally, we are doing better than we expected at this time, which we pray continues for the rest of this fiscal year and into the next. At this time next year – which I’m sure will come quickly – we can hopefully again report that we are doing better than projected.

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