Church Finances - Simple or Complex?

Finances at First Church are pretty simple: the majority of our income comes from parishioner pledges, and the majority of our expenses are spent on staff salaries and benefits. First Church, like other UU churches, does not get support from our national denomination or other outside entities. We - you and I - pay for the staff, programs, facilities, and everything else at First Church, through what we give at the annual stewardship drive. 

 

The complex part of church finances is how we manage the balance between income and expenses, how we communicate our vision, goals, and needs to our parishioners, and how we deal with the psychology of individual giving in a religious setting. Why is it that some members give generously every year? Why do some give at the last minute? Why do some give in a lump annual sum, and some every month? Why do others give nothing at all?

You’ll certainly hear more about this when we begin the annual stewardship drive next month.

In the meantime, there are many people taking good care of First Church finances behind the scenes. Marianne Leahy is in her 5^th and final year in the important role of Treasurer. When you see her, please thank her! She serves on the Parish Board, which regularly discusses finance, and on the Finance Committee, whose members are elected at annual meeting, and which is chaired by former Parish Board President, Ben Bauer. Working with the Finance Committee on managing our endowment is the Investment Committee, chaired by former Parish Board President, Mark Thurber. The members of both these committees are smart, dedicated, and highly knowledgeable.  They are all also volunteers who give many hours of their time to the well being of our church.

Some news about church finances this year:

• The Finance Committee has formed an ad hoc committee to study a sustainable budget for First Church. It’s a fact that church expenses rise every year, if only through cost of living and benefits increases for staff. It’s also a fact that income does not automatically increase every year. This group is investigating how we better manage to this reality.
• The Alfa Radford Legacy Music Endowment, under the leadership of Jane Minasian and John Howe, raised over $105,000 for the church’s endowment in honor of Alfa’s 50 years of service to the church. Income from this endowment will benefit our music program. What a fitting tribute to our Minister of Music.
• Elena Ivaska, who died in December at the age of 102, left $100,000 to the church’s endowment, income from which is designated for unrestricted operating use. We are very grateful to Elena and her family for honoring the church in this very personal way. 

It is interesting to understand the impact of such gifts on the church’s endowment and annual income from investment. Our endowment is relatively small compared to those of some churches. According to our investment guidelines, part of the income from the endowment is re-invested and part is disbursed for operating expenses. You can see from the chart above that income from the endowment is a small piece of the revenue pie. A gift of $100,000 will generate about $3000/year for operating expenses, or about the equivalent of what we hope each member family will pledge every year on average.

What do you think? If you have ideas or questions, please post a comment or contact me: mgallagher@uubelmont.org