Parish Financial Report

Dear Friends in Christ,

Consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

                                   - 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

Financial Report I pray this finds you well in what has been a very unusual fiscal year in the life of Saint John Neumann Parish. I want to thank all of you who have been so generous and helped keep the parish in good financial standing over the year.

Through your generosity and other factors, our bottom line overall was favorable for the year. How did this happen during COVID?

Although many parishioners continued to support the parish through Sunday giving during the pandemic, our Sunday Offertory still decreased by almost $100,000 compared to the previous year. Thankfully, we had unusually large Christmas and Easter Collections which combined yielded a total of $83,000 more than the previous year. In addition, many people chose to support the parish through special Gifts and Donations, including a handful of extremely generous gifts (over $10,000 each), from March through June.

In addition, we had already instituted a number of cost cutting practices at the beginning of the year, our expenses were considerably down due to the shutdown, and we were not hit with any major facility repairs or renovations. The PPP loan helped support the salaries of our staff for 8 weeks. Finally, we also raised more than $700,000 for the restricted building fund (there was one $500,000 donation) enabling us to move forward with the plans for the expansion of the Church. In the midst of some struggles, there has been much fruit this year. Thank you Lord.

For this coming year, we have developed a very conservative budget due to the uncertain economic climate and the expectation that the larger, one-time, gifts cannot be expected each year. We have had to cut expenses and cut salaries temporarily (including my own), until the parish gets up and running full steam again. Thankfully we have not removed any positions. My goal is to keep the parish in a good financial standing so as to better evangelize in the future.

I am grateful for your continued support. The need to continue to support the parish remains great. We are understaffed in some areas of the parish, which drains the ability to run a parish efficiently and allow the priest to be less administrative and more pastoral. Moreover, once the activities of the parish increase, our expenses will be challenging given our current level of Sunday offertory.

I also believe we are an incredibly generous parish which desires to look out for the needs of others and advance the mission of the Church. Our development of the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry and its success is a good example of how our resources can forward to the mission of the Church. We could also use more resources for our Youth Programs, our evangelization efforts and much more to proclaim that Jesus Christ is present!

Thank you once again for all that you do and know of my gratitude for your generosity.

                                                       - Msgr. Panke