St. John XXIII Congregation Financial Summary October 2024

Annually, all parishes within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee must submit a Confidential Financial Statement (CFS) to determine the amount of money each parish is to be assessed in support of Archdiocesan needs.  Along with the CFS mandate, St. John XXIII is required to share a financial summary of the prior fiscal year with its parishioners.  To this end, please see the flip side of this bulletin insert.  On top, you’ll find a summary of the June 30, 2024 cash balances across the three companies that make up our congregation (Cemeteries, Parish, and School), along with our Gather & Grow debt balance.  Beneath that is a 2023-24 budget performance summary for both the parish and school.

Even more so than last year, our year on year net balance significantly increased from $2,314,632 in June 2023 to $3,057,607 this past June.  Leading contributors to this nearly $743,000 rise were long term investment gains ($335K), an extraordinary parishioner donation ($253K), and Love One Another (LOA) Campaign distributions ($191K).  Speaking of the latter, in less than two years of this five-year Archdiocese of Milwaukee fundraiser we’ve already received more than 50% of our pledges, and have had the added benefit of being awarded two $25,000 LOA Catholic Schools grants.  Recall that rather than using these funds to pay down our Gather & Grow Mortgage debt, we have been investing them in U.S. Treasury Bills, earning nearly 2% more than our current mortgage rate (3.3%).  That rate, however, is set to expire in September 2025 at which time we plan on making a substantial principal payment and refinancing our remaining debt.

As for our 2023-24 operating budget performance, the parish ended with a $7,462 surplus despite not taking the $41,801 Parish Endowment Fund draw that had been budgeted.  This good fortune stemmed largely from a nearly $31,000 surplus in contributions, over half of which came from stewardship.  Given that nearly 84% of our revenue is dependent on our parishioners’ financial stewardship, this result was especially gratifying.  Blessings were experienced on the expense side as well, especially in connection with Buildings & Grounds, where an exceptionally mild winter yielded heating costs under budget by more than $11,000.

On the other hand, our school’s operating budget performance appears to be seriously lacking with an ending deficit of $35,259.  Nearly all of this shortfall, however, follows from not receiving $35,011 in technology expenditure reimbursement via federal pandemic relief funds by June 30, 2024.  Thankfully, all but $717 of this expected payout has since been received, but not in time to be applied to the school’s 2023-24 budget.  Moreover, as with the parish, the school did not take the $25,793 endowment fund draw that had been budgeted.  Absent these two significant circumstances, the school would have finished with a surplus in excess of $25,000 thanks to budget beating contributions ($7.1K, including a $5.3K bequest), tuition/fees ($6.4K given increased student enrollment during the course of the school year), fundraisers ($8.4K, with most of that following from PTO fundraising including the advent of SJ23 Bingo), and under budget salary & benefit expenses ($12.8K).

Putting it all together, we are blessed to be in a very solid financial position, enabling us to well address the needs of our cemeteries, school, and parish across all three worship sites.  Looking forward, our number one financial challenge remains our Gather & Grow Mortgage debt, but we can count on the offsetting LOA Campaign to prove effective in meeting this concern, at least through its duration (ends December 2027).  As always, we are most grateful for your support to this desired end, be it through the gifts of prayer, time, talent, and/or treasure.  Indeed, may the good Lord bless you for that!

Along with the CFS, we are required to hold an Annual Meeting to at least review the prior fiscal year’s financial performance and allow parishioners to raise questions/concerns about it.  In addition, we highlight the Christ inspired accomplishments of our pastoral ministries though which we joyfully live our call.  This meeting is being held on Saturday, November 2, immediately after the St. Peter’s 4:30 PM Mass in Rooms 141 & 142, and all St. John XXIII parishioners are welcome to attend.  If you are unable to make this meeting and yet have questions regarding the financial information at play, please feel free to contact Director of Administrative Services Bill Henkle at henkleb@stjohn23rd.org or 262-284-4266, ext.1418.