Dear Brothers and Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
It is financial reporting time in the life of our parish. You will see that we are blessed. The primary blessing is our community – that would be you! You come regularly, you respond to the call of service frequently, and you contribute faithfully. Ergo, we are blessed.
The enclosed report covers operating income and expenses for the fiscal year from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. You will see that we have come out favorably, but if you read the numbers more closely, you will note that we received a major gift of over $99,000 this past fiscal year that enabled income to exceed expenses. This gift was in the form of a bequest from someone who passed away in 2002. We received the bequest in the fall of 2016. Obviously, we are very appreciative when parishioners include OLMC in their wills, regardless of the size of the gift.
Additionally, some parishioners have been very generous by providing “restricted use” donations that have been used solely for the specific purpose intended (e.g., church and rectory renovations such as replacement of the front steps, improved lighting, renovation of the narthex, and altar flowers). In the summer of 2017 you would have observed that we renovated the south parking lot at a cost of $65K and will be shown in next year’s report. This project was partly funded by a few parishioners through restricted gifts. The “restricted use” funds are not used to pay the Archdiocesan assessment or the routine operating expenses of the parish and are not subject to the annual Archdiocesan assessment.
Also, some parishioners have made generous donations of securities (e.g., stocks) as part of their year-end tax planning. Please speak with me should you wish to make similar forms of contributions before year-end.
Our parish is also blessed to have a very healthy reserve fund. This blessing is watched over by our finance committee. There is a further blessing: Members of the community who come faithfully, contribute generously and put their expertise to work on behalf of our parish. Those parishioners are: David Oaten, Chip Clingham, Daniel Lee, Phil Reicherz and Tom Izzard. I am very grateful for their good counsel and wise guidance.
Thank you and thank God that financial sustainability is not something we are worried about here at Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Sincerely yours in Christ and Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
fr. Dan