Parish Finance Update, March 2016

Part of my job as Director of Finance and Operations is to assist the Pastor in his canonical duty of being a good steward of the resources of our parishes. I rely on our finance and operations staff along with the Finance Councils of the parishes to help me in that work. Disciples in Mission charges us with bringing about the New Evangelization here in Walpole. We must take the needs of the New Evangelization into account as we consider recommendations and requests as to how to allocate our resources.

Since the realignment of the collaborative last June our financial challenges have increased and our opportunities for leveraging or sharing expenses have been reduced. Over the last several months, I have worked with the staff to come up with potential solutions to these challenges that would reduce the cash crunch while attempting to minimize the impacts on parishioners and the work of the New Evangelization that lies ahead.

Given the reality that our largest categories of expense relate to staff payroll and benefits, significant reduction of the cash crunch could not feasibly be attained without a reduction in staff costs. With great appreciation for the work they do and have done, over the last several days, Fr. Chip has enacted a number of staff reductions to help provide Blessed Sacrament a reasonable path to a balanced budget for the next fiscal year.

• Eliminating the position of Director of Communications (45 hours per week).
• Reducing the hours of the Pastors Assistant by 40% or 12 hours per week.
• Reducing the Director of Music’s salary by the equivalent of 2 hours per week.
• Eliminating cantors from the Sunday 8am Mass (Spring of 2016)

The above reductions will save the parish over $90,000 in staff related expenses next fiscal year. By beginning to put these changes into effect now, we will begin to reduce the cash crunch for the remainder of this year as well. The reductions to the collaborative staff will also have a financially beneficial impact at St. Mary Parish as well.

Reducing staff expenses is just part of the plan to put the parish on the path to a balanced budget starting this July 1. Later this spring, we will embark on a Revenue Enhancement Campaign. Blessed Sacrament Parish ran a similar campaign several years ago and saw many families increase their giving by over 20%. St. Mary Parish ran a campaign last spring and saw a 13% increase in offertory.

For this campaign at Blessed Sacrament, we are being more conservative in that we are seeking a 10% increase. That level of additional offertory support combined with the staff reductions outlined above will result in a balanced budget for FY17.

The finance and operations staff will continue to seek out ways to provide for financial savings to the parish while at the same time providing for the upkeep and maintenance of our beautiful church, buildings and grounds.

As always, if you have a question or comment, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at mmurphy@matt13catholic.org or 508-921-1028 x1020. Thank you.