August 19, 2020
Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish Financial Results – January through
June,
2020
As 2019 drew to a close and we prepared to become one parish for Monroeville and Penn Hills, we knew that we faced many challenges. One of these was to get our spending under control, because in 2019, our parishes spent about $500,000 more than we received in donations. In the first six months of 2020, we’ve seen both signs that encourage hopefulness as well as indications that are causes for concern.
Once the effects of our staff realignment will fully begin to take effect, in September, we will have cut our expenses by 33% this year. This is an amazing achievement, and it’s our staff’s diligent work that is the cause of this great outcome! We’re hoping to continue this trend, by maintaining our focus on managing our spending wisely. Our expenses also went down while the lockdown was in effect, but they’re back to prior levels now that we’re celebrating publicly-attended Masses again.
The revenue side of the story, on the other hand, is somewhat discouraging. Donations have been decreasing all year. (Collections for Easter were down from previous years, but were sufficient to help shore up our income just a little). We had hoped that, once we were able to re-establish a schedule of publicly-attended Masses, donations would stabilize. They haven’t. Looking at the statistics for 2020, we’ve found that donations are down 43% since January.
The practical upshot is that, although we’re doing a good job at reducing expenses, we’re falling further behind each month. If we obtain loan forgiveness for the PPP loan that we received this spring, that will help to a certain extent, but to be perfectly honest, our donations continue to be insufficient to meet our expenses, and that gap between what we spend and what we receive is growing larger and larger.
At our most recent meeting of finance and pastoral councils, when we discussed these figures, we noted that, if donations continue to decline, we might face a critical moment in the life of our parish. Council members asked that we remind you that your donations are vital to the continued existence of our parish. Our goal is to continue to provide Catholic ministry to the people of Monroeville and Penn Hills. We will continue to try to find ways to stabilize our situation, but without sufficient support from our parish community, it becomes increasingly difficult to do so. We’re confident that, with your continued support, we’ll be able to overcome these challenges!
Please keep praying for the Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish community!