The Conference Council on Finance
and Administration is providing you this initial[i]
report on how we finished Fiscal Year 2019 in terms of income and expenses.
We wrote to you in September,
2019: “The
message is mixed. Our income is down; through reduced spending we are in the
black, but this surely has an impact on mission accomplishment.”
There is good news with a
positive message: we finished 2019 with income exceeding expenses by a over
$60,000.
As part of our responsible
stewardship, we forecast expected income over the course of the year. Our 2019 income forecast hovered in the $5.6M
range. This forecast started early and continued through the end of November. Very
positive church giving in October and December saw us nearly $300,000 better
than that forecast of $5.6M.
Our initial estimate for 2019
total income is $5,893,082. Our expense estimate is $5,829,372.
To return to the mixed
message: the conference accomplished
this good news despite income under budget by over $766,000. Further, 2019
income was under 2018 income by a little under $222,000. This is part of the
mixed message statement I offered in September and continued to address with
two more reports in the fall (November
4 and November
18).
In
order to finish in the black (a positive position for the year) we had to delay
and slow down hiring actions and under pay our General and Jurisdictional
Apportionment. Chart 1 shows how we spread the shortfall from what was budgeted
to our income. Over half of what was budgeted, that was not spent was General
and Jurisdictional Apportionment. Intentionally slowing staff fills accounted
for a savings of a little over $300,000.
We will say a positive message is
that we were paying our General and Jurisdictional Apportionment for most of
the year at a 65% rate until the very positive end of year results. The combined positive impact of October and December
highs allowed us to finish the year at 80%.
We focused our decrements and
supported Africa University, Black College Fund, Methodist Education Fund,
Episcopal Fund, Western Jurisdiction and Interdenominational Funds at 100%.
On behalf of the Conference
Council on Finance and Administration, we wish to say “thank you” to everyone
who contributed this year.
The local church apportionment
year ends on January 31st.
Payments made on your Mission Shares through that date will be credited
at the individual church level for 2019.
We move from
one apportionment process to two on February 1st, 2020.
The conference will be supported
by our income model moving from 13% to 10% on Adjusted Gross Income. An article on that is here.
We will support the General and
Jurisdictional Church with a direct assessment that is explained here
and shown for each church here. We know this change will require adjustment
and education. Our webinar of January 14th
(here)
focused on that change.
Your financial leadership
continues focus on our mission: “The Mountain Sky Conference of the UMC
will live in God’s grace and abundance as we lead a re-energized peaceful and
compassionate movement to claim the life-changing love of Jesus Christ for ALL
people.”
Again, our gratitude and thanks
for those who have supported from their own abundance, in Grace, this new
thing: the Mountain Sky Conference.
[i] We
call this report “initial” because the numbers in many cases are still
preliminary and subject to minor adjustments.
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