Dear Church Family,
Your Finance Committee would like to share with you our financial results of our 2023 budget year, our 2024 approved church budget as well as some financial commentary which we hope that you will find interesting and helpful.
- We ended the 2023 calendar year with a total income of $2,187,402. During this same period, we had actual expenses of $2,287,401. This left us with a $99,999 deficit which as you may remember, we had anticipated and was covered by Unencumbered Cash Reserves which had accumulated in recent years.
- For the 2024 calendar year we have budgeted for an income of $2,140,578 and have budgeted expenses of $2,303,413. We are anticipating utilizing the balance of our current “Unencumbered Cash Reserves” to service this $162,835 budget deficit in 2024. This is consistent with our philosophy of actively utilizing all of the resources that we possess in the service of Christ. The approved 2024 Budget is presented at the end of this narrative.
- Our church continues to possess and maintain a 90-Day Operating Reserve which both services the church’s cash flow needs and provides near-term protection from unplanned budget variances throughout the year. We believe that maintaining such a reserve represents a “Best Practice” in churches avoiding unexpected short-term disruptions to their Mission and Ministries and we recognize that we are extremely blessed to have this resource.
- Even though we had spent more money in 2023 than we had received in gifts to our General Operating Fund, and we anticipate doing the same in 2024, our total gifts to the church have been more than adequate to support the church’s financial needs. We celebrate with gratitude, the spirit of all gifts that are given to Fairhope UMC and the impact that they have made on God’s community. It is important to note however, that many of these gifts have been given with very specific Designations or Restrictions on their usage, which make them unavailable to fund the current ministry plans or budgets of our church. We believe that these Designated / Restricted gifts are very likely unknowingly being directed by the donor toward programs and activities which are already fully funded, while other ministries within our church remain in need of incremental funding throughout the year. Our church ministry plans / budgets are the primary financial support of all programs, salaries of staff, building maintenance, utility bills for our water and the electricity which light, heat and provide air conditioning for our facilities, as well as the funding of our administrative and program supplies. Finance is actively working to develop a comprehensive Gift Acceptance and Management Policy to help ensure that your gifts will be utilized in a timely manner, that our church provides opportunities for incremental giving to Ministries which are in financial need and that as a church we demonstrate a compelling reason for your Un-Designated / Un-Restricted gifts, which are the primary vehicle for funding the Mission and Ministries of Fairhope UMC. You will hear more about our efforts to address these opportunities as we finalize our approach in the months ahead.
- Finance is continuing to refine our quarterly financial updates to the church body, and as such we would like to ask for your help in identifying any additional financial information about the church that you do not receive today but have an interest in and wish to hear more about. Please email your current Finance chair (
) with any ideas and suggestions that you wish to share about this. Fairhope UMC remains committed to being financially transparent and we thank God for your interest in our church’s financial health.
- Finance would also like to encourage you, the church body, to attend our Board of Stewards meetings throughout the year. In these meetings, you will hear reports from all of the Ministries of the church sharing how your gifts are being used to serve the community of God and will also hear an up-to-date report on the financial health of the church from your Finance Team.
- Please feel free to reach out to me, or any member of our Finance committee if you have church-related financial topics which you would like to discuss further.
Thank you again for your faithfulness and Peace and Grace to each of you,
Tom Slone - Finance Chair
Cell: (859) 893-1265
Email: