The Vestry Finance Committee is pleased to provide this financial update for the period of January 1, 2019 – October 31, 2019. In general, St. James continues to be in a good financial position, and our actual income and expenditures are in line with the 2019 Budget.
1. As was the case in our last update, the Other Income and Worship, Ministry, Outreach lines look over budget. $84,000 of this is explained by two “pass-throughs” for funds provided to the Pauli Murray Scholarship and for The Welcome Table. Nothing to worry about here, but it does make our numbers look “off”.
2. Again, the Operations budget looks over budget as well. As was explained previously, the Vestry is spending some of our savings on deferred maintenance. We are in a good place financially as a parish to afford these much-needed repairs.
3. We are ahead on budgeted Pledges by $13,546 – thank you so much! However, this year we have been running behind on Operating Contributions (by $34,504). Operating contributions are the unpledged contributions that people are just inspired to give from time-to-time, so it is sometimes difficult to budget this category of giving. It is possible that we overestimated our operating contributions for 2019 back at the end of 2018. Although operating contributions usually climb when Sunday attendance goes up, which it has, they tend to dip when we get complacent or when other worthy opportunities for giving crop up, like the Pauli Murray Scholarship Fund. If you are a time-to-time giver, now is the time! Help us to finish the year strong. Your Vestry Finance Committee is watching this number closely, and we think the gap will largely close by the end of the year.
Again, if you have any questions or would like more detail, please contact the office or Will Clark, Treasurer, at will.clark.jr@gmail.com.
