Treasurer’s Two Cents | October 2026
By Chris Andrysiak, Treasurer
Our church’s financial year ended on June 30th. So how did we do, from a budget perspective?
Our largest source of income is from stewardship, where 99.97% of pledged amounts were paid. As planned, we drew $107,161 from our investment funds, which represents a very responsible 4% draw from eligible funds. Other sources of income were down modestly, such that overall income was $945,025, which is 98.9% of the budgeted amount.
On the spending side, we underspent our operating budget by 6.2%, or $59,255. Spending was close to budget in most categories, but there were a few larger exceptions.
- We spent significantly more than budgeted for snow and ice removal. It was a colder and snowier winter than we’ve had recently, leading to this higher expense.
- There were fewer small repairs to our buildings than normal. Small repairs are paid for from our operating budget.
- The biggest savings came from hiring a part-time sexton, to replace the janitorial service that we had previously. That service was a good solution when we had limited building use immediately after the pandemic, but as building use and cleaning needs have increased, it has become more cost-effective to hire an employee.
Adding it all up, we ended with an operating surplus of $46,463, which is 4.9% of our operating budget.
How should we think about an operating surplus? There are two perspectives I’ll share here. First, there are unpredictable events (such as a colder-than-normal winter) for which it’s good to have some room in the budget, rather than needing to make budget cuts elsewhere so that we can clear our walkways.
Secondly, our operating budget does not pay all our expenses for the year. In particular, large building repair costs are not budgeted for. When we have those expenses, we draw money from our capital fund, which is nearly depleted (but which we are refilling with the Opening Doors campaign). If we have an operating surplus, we can use that money for those types of expenses when they arise, rather than pulling money from the Capital Fund.
For the near term, the Parish Committee has voted to move the surplus to what we call Operating Reserves, but those funds may be transferred elsewhere (such as to the Capital Fund) as needed.
I’ll finish by thanking the staff and committee chairs for their continued work in spending the money we have budgeted to help live our values and achieve our vision, while at the same time being prudent about budgets and only spending money that is impactful and really needed. I also thank Silvia, who pays our bills and keeps our books – having accurate records of where we are spending the church’s money is important – we appreciate her work in that area.
