September 21, 2020
End of the fiscal year 2020 report

There is an old joke that says if you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans.

This year has not gone according to plan. And while I don’t know that God is laughing, I do think our parish has given Him reasons to smile. 

This pandemic has taught all of us, I think, a great lesson about what is important in life. Perhaps it was important for us to go without the Eucharist so we could value it more fully. Maybe the loneliness we felt at home was important so that we can better appreciate how it feels to see a warm smile from a friendly face across the aisle at Mass.

This year has also caused us to take a hard look at how we operate as a parish, and the ways in which we make ends meet in order to fulfill our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

With that in mind, I want to take a moment and share the numbers on where we are at as a parish. This is not just my parish, and it doesn’t belong to our parish staff… it’s your parish and it’s important that you know how things are going.

Offertory Giving
The fiscal year ended on June 30, 2020. At that time, we had received $740,309.00 which represents a $76,091.00 decrease in support over our prior year offertory giving ($816,400.00).

Changes We’ve Made
Given all that has happened this year, our parish took a number of important steps to reduce our expenses.  Those included:

1. Cancelled two Acts Retreats. This was because of the social distancing. 
2. Cancelled Vacation Bible School. Saving of $1500.
3. Cancelled IT groups from school and church office in July 2019, with the installation of fiber optics internet this will save on maintenance issues. Savings of over $15,250.00
4. Cancelled the after-hours answering service and replacing with in house person saved $1063.00
5. Cancelled maintenance contract of air conditioning units in church saved $1,677.00
6. Cancelled lawn care and volunteers doing the yard upkeep saved $3,900.00.
7. Reduced the number of times the dumpster was emptied each week saved $800.00
8. Volunteers provided much needed grounds maintenance:
   • Pequenas Communidades ministry team excavated and repaired holes outside of the gym area.
   • They also added and paid for security fence inside of the decorative fence (someone kept kicking in the fence and Early Childhood Center children could get out of the playground area), and repaired picnic tables.
   • Other volunteers have cut and hauled the rose bushes, palm trees, trimmed vines in the plaza, and painted the gate entering property.
   • Cabinets were added around sinks in boy's restroom area give sinks addition strength with updating the fixtures in restroom.
   • Electrical plugs were added to the classrooms to help with additional technology for the school children.
   • Rain gutters were cleaned out of school awnings

Unexpected Expenses

1. The fire alarm system in the church had several smoke detectors that failed, several batteries that needed replacing, and the fire alarm panel needed replacing for a cost of $14,233.46.
2. Several leaks developed in wing one and two roofs and needed repaired at a cost of $3156.00.
3. Several Air Conditioning units in school area needed repairs which totaled almost 6,000.00 

PPP loan
Our parish was one of thousands of organizations who took advantage of a federal loan program to help keep people on the payroll during the early days of the crisis. We were granted a loan of $117,000.00 for the church and $101,400.00 for our Lady of Fatima School. This used as intended – to keep our employees working and paid instead of laying them off when we had to close our doors. By doing so we helped reduce the unemployment
costs that would have been carried by the government. The funds helped keep our staff employed during the first couple months of the pandemic, but they were a short-term, stop-gap measure. We can’t rely on the government to support or fund the important work of calling people to Jesus Christ and making disciples.

Year-end Giving
Year-end giving has always played an important role in our annual budget. Many families make large contributions around this time, and we’re counting on that trend to continue – and perhaps even get a boost from the tax incentives that were put in place to encourage families to make charitable donations in 2020.

Financial Outlook
Given what we’ve been through, I’m cautiously optimistic about where we are, and where we can be. But we’re going to need help from every parish family. Many families have reflected on their level of support and have moved their giving online. If you need assistance to moving to online giving please call the office.

How you can help
As a member of this parish, you can help in three important ways:

1. Pray for our parish, our community, and the world
2. Reflect on your level of support, and increase if you can
3. Move your giving online through our portal at https://www.eservicepayments.com or by setting up ACH giving straight from your bank

We thank you for your continued support. You and your family are in my prayers, and I hope that I am in yours.

Gratefully in Christ,

Fr. Clint Ressler