January Financial Report

In spite of all the challenges we have faced as a community this year our financial health is much better than may be expected. This report is part of our effort to shed some light on the overall picture of our financial state.

First in examining our primary revenue stream, our offertory, we see that we are down $214,163 as of the end of January. While the long term trends led us to anticipate a decrease in the offertory, the pandemic has exacerbated it to a greater degree than expected. While this is certainly not the best news we would hope for, there is still much reason for hope. The past few weeks have seen a bump in the number of people coming to Mass and we have seen a corresponding increase to the offertory. It is our hope that as Masses return to normal we will continue to see improvements. This is not the only source of good news as we examine our other income streams.

As has been mentioned a number of times, we have also seen a significant increase to the number of bequests and legacy gifts we are receiving. As of the end of January we are over $140,000 above our budgeted income for legacy gifts. Additionally the generosity of all who have given or pledged to our Elevator Campaign at St John Student Center have filled a significant gap, (over $90,000) in the budget that would have been incredibly difficult to fill. Between the support of our Legacy givers, and the elevator you can see we are filling the gap in our offertory.

Additionally every department has worked hard to keep expenses as low as possible. With limited in person ministries many of our costs are naturally lower. However as opportunities for community outreach, and in person ministries increase these costs will ramp up as well. It is our hope to come out of this pandemic with an explosion of the vibrant life and community support our parish family is known for. Thank you for helping us continue to prepare for the coming Springtime!

That said there are still challenges we face. Our teacher and staff at our school continue to out do themselves and have witnessed to the power of Catholic education throughout this pandemic. We would love to continue to continue to update their technology and learning spaces, to better provide for future generations of young Catholics! While we were restricted by the pandemic this past year and had to cap our classroom sizes, enrollment is higher than it has ever been in recent years!

Our HVAC renovation at St John Student Center will be a significant cost we are hoping to move forward with in the near future. While this long overdue project will be substantially funded by Witness to Hope pledges as they continue to come in, we have seen some families, hit hard by the pandemic, be unable to continue to fulfill their pledges. Those who are still able to commit to those pledges, thank you! Every single dollar given to Witness to Hope is coming back to our parish at this point in the campaign!

One final note even throughout all of these ups and downs this past year you continue to support those less fortunate, our Matthew 25 collections are nearly $33,973 above budget. That is above and beyond what comes out of our offertory! Consider all of the poor and disadvantages in America and abroad who have been provided food, housing assistance, refugee support, and more from your generosity. Thank you!

In closing, we continue to be well positioned to engage in the mission and ministry of our Lord’s work here in East Lansing. Thank you for your continued generosity. We look forward to the day when we can gather as we once did and sing and laugh and pray together as the family we are. Thank you and God Bless!

Ministry By the Numbers