Year-End Financial Report
February 22, 2024
Through the end of 2023, our pledge income remained below budget, as was the case throughout the year. On a positive note, December was a very successful month for pledges, reducing the difference from just below $92,000 in November to just over $81,000 in December.
Other income continued to trend above budget through December, ending the year at over $25,000 in excess of budget. While this has been a great help, we still ended the year over $55,000 below budgeted income.
Other income does not include a bequest of $48,423 received in 2023. Per Cathedral policy bequests are invested in our managed account to grow our endowment reserves.
Expenses continued to remain below budget for the year by just over $3,000, reflecting not only wise management by our staff but accurate expense estimations by your finance committee in preparing the 2023 budget.
However (and you’ve heard this all year!)…
Our expenses for the year were $134,408 above our income, requiring us to withdraw funds from our managed account for the everyday costs of running the Cathedral: Utilities, Payroll, Music, Worship, Routine Maintenance, Office Supplies. We withdrew close to half of our available endowment funds in 2023 just to run the Cathedral. Our endowment is intended to be available for emergency, unforeseen expenses, not for daily operations, and using these funds for daily operations is not sustainable, even in the short term. In just a few years those funds will be gone unless there is growth in the endowment through planned giving as well as growth in our pledge and non-pledge income to support operations.
Our budget for 2024 again calls for withdrawals from our endowment. Our expense budget is up only 4% to account for inflation. The income budget is based on $325,000 in pledge income ($285,000 pledged as of February 2024), $75,000 in other income and $51,000 in Trust distributions. In order to balance our budget without invading the endowment we would need another $120,000 on pledge and other income. A big ask, but members of the Cathedral have always stepped up when a need arose. Your support is vital, now in 2024 more than ever!
George Clarke,
Treasurer