Stewardship - Understanding Our Parish Finances

We have asked for a significant increase in our Sunday collections, but we also believe that any request for support must be based on a well-documented need.
 
We rely on three main sources of funds:
 
Sundays, Holy Days, UPP: This is our regular revenue and is by far the largest source of funds to pay for our parish operations. In a sense, this is what “keeps the lights on” by paying for our staff, our routine repairs and maintenance, and the day-to-day costs of running our parish.
 
Long-Term Savings (our Endowments): We are blessed with savings resulting from the generosity of those who have gone before us, including our parish and school endowments. The earnings from these accounts are used to supplement our regular revenue to balance our parish and school budgets and, on occasion, to pay for extraordinary repairs. In the last several years we have drawn upon those savings to pay for the unanticipated basilica ceiling project and the bell tower project, and now must take steps to replenish those savings.
 
Capital Campaign: Our last capital campaign drive began in 2016 and was carefully designed to make our older parish buildings more suitable for today’s and tomorrow’s needs, including making better use of space for our school and for our increasing numbers of lay ministries. We are deeply grateful for the over 800 families who responded to our call to join our vision for our shared future and whose names are now memorialized on a plaque at the northwest corner of the basilica.  
 
To restore our parish savings, which is an essential safety net for our parish future, we have set a goal of replenishing our endowments by $5 million, by increasing our Sunday collections by a minimum of 25%, or though direct contributions to our endowments. (See “Blue Envelope” to the right.)