Church Budget Summary & First Quarter Results for 2024
Here’s a summary of how our 2024 Stewardship Campaign closed and our expectations for our operating budget for 2024:
· We expect our total expenses for 2024 to be approximately $570,000.
· We expect to receive $72,000 from Little Lambs & Ivy.
· Based on prior years, we expect to receive approximately $88,000 in unpledged giving. This includes cash received in the offering plates and contributions from visitors and members who don’t pledge.
· That leaves $410,000.
· The number of pledges we received for 2024 is up 16% from last year, and our pledged dollars are up approximately 10% year over year. Thank you for this!
· Despite this, we have 2024 pledges totaling $357,116, so we were still projecting a shortfall of $52,000 when we closed the stewardship campaign in February.
The good news is that after the first three months of 2024, we are pretty much on track in terms of receiving ¼ of our pledged and unpledged giving expectations. However, allowing for some variations in the numbers, I’m still expecting a net shortfall of between $40,000 and $60,000.
Planned 1Q24 Actual 1Q24
Unpledged Giving $22,000.00 $17,691.40
Pledged Giving $89,279.00 $94,278.45
Add'l Required to
Balance Budget $12,500.00
$123,779.00 $111,969.85
As I mentioned at our February church council meeting, we don’t have an expense problem; we have an income problem. Many of our operating expenses are fixed, including our Methodist Conference apportionments, clergy and staff salaries, insurance, and utilities. And all of those increase every year (usually). We continue to work hard to be frugal wherever we can. However, any additional gifts you can make to SUM’s general offering (operating budget) would be greatly appreciated.
In addition to our yearly operating budget, which covers the items above, we have a separate account for our endowments that is managed by our Trustees. The Trustees cover expenses not in our annual budget and will pay for the sewer pipe repairs. Keep your fingers crossed and send up lots of prayers that we find a solution soon since we’ve been so close to having this figured out a couple of times already!
- Jennifer Acheson, Finance Chair and the Finance Team