Financial Budget Update

Fiscal Year 2025 – 6-Month Financial Report (July 2024-December 2024) 

Dear Marble Congregation,

We are pleased to share with you the 6-month financial report for Fiscal Year 2025. 

Congregant Revenue has been strong. Congregant Revenue comes through three categories – Pledges, Livestreaming and Special Gifts. For this fiscal year, we strengthened the Pledging line in our budget as we have seen increased giving from the congregation in both Fiscal Year 2024 and the current Fiscal Year 2025. We are very close to our challenge goal for the first six months of Fiscal Year 2025, and we thank you for your support! 

Program Revenue has also been strong. Please note the revenue for the Rose Castle Trip (and the corresponding expenses, which are reflected in the Pastoral Care, Stewardship and Missions line), account for some of the increased giving in Program Revenue. 

As of December 2024, we have taken $450,000 from the endowment, which is less than what is budgeted through December. The full draw at the 6-month point would have been $864,386; we have taken $414,386 less than budgeted.  

Congregant Revenue is now larger than what we take from the Endowment (5.5% draw in Fiscal Year 2025, with the final stepdown to a 5% draw for Fiscal Year 2026). 

The Grant funding line reflects an Outreach Grant received from the Collegiate Church Corporation of $29,861, using up the remaining Transitional Funds made available for each of the Collegiate Congregations as we move toward independence and self-sustainability. That Grant will not be recurring in future years. The remaining $10,000 in Grant Funding is from a family foundation. 

Expenses are tracking well for this year and in line with budget. The Finance and HR expense line through December 2024 is lower than budget as we have not yet paid our denominational dues, for which Marble is now responsible starting this fiscal year. 

Although you see a deficit of $94,234 at the bottom, we would have income over expenses (surplus) of $320,152 if we had taken the full budgeted draw at the 6-month point of Fiscal Year 2025. 

We have made great progress in moving through the significant financial changes we have faced since 2021 and the removal of the appropriations from the Collegiate Church Corporation.  

As we move toward Fiscal Year 2026, we have immense gratitude to God, and to each of you who have helped us navigate through this time. We are truly, deeply and sincerely grateful for your support. 

Dear Marble Congregation,

We are pleased to share with you our results for Fiscal Year 2024 (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024) and the approved budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025).

View the Fiscal Year 2024 results.

View the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget with a summary of the budgets and actuals from Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024.

Highlights from Fiscal Year 2024: 

  1. Congregant Revenue through pledges was strong. We received $1,297,682 in pledge giving which represented an increase of $15,450 over the budget of $1,282,232. This is also an increase in pledge giving of $1,273,515 in the previous year.

  2. Christmas Offering was strong with $34,569 received against a budget of $20,000, representing an increase of $14,569 over the budget and a doubling of the Christmas Offering from 2023 when we received $17,042.

  3. The bulk of the deficit in total Congregant Revenue of $80,377 comes from decreased Easter Offering and Disaster Relief Funds (see next two points).

  4. In Fiscal Year 2023, we received $197,515 for the Easter Offering. In Fiscal Year 2024, $140,609 was received and distributed against a budget of $200,000. This represents a deficit of $59,391 from what was budgeted. All monies received for the Easter Offering have been distributed to the organizations vetted and selected by the Marble Outreach Committee; no monies received for the Easter Offering were retained by Marble.

  5. We had no significant disasters in Fiscal Year 2024 so that line is low. We received $1,036 against a budget of $30,000, representing a deficit of $28,964 from what was budgeted.

Of significant note is that we took $106,981 less than budgeted in our endowment draw, representing a draw of 5.3% ($1,890,441) against the 6.5% draw that was budgeted ($1,997,422) because Congregant and Program Revenue generated enough cash on hand for us to not need to draw more from the endowment.

On the Expense side we are pleased to note that every department prudently managed their budgets so most came in under budget for FY24. This was due to open staff positions that were filled late in the fiscal year and the continued cost-savings and cost-containment efforts on the part of each staff member to a person. 

We were able to accrue $75,000 from the FY24 surplus, primarily to repair the main Chiller in the church building that failed early in the summer. That is a costly item to fix (estimated around $44,000). The remaining monies accrued to this line will be used for other property maintenance and repair needs that come up through the year. Remember we are now responsible for the expenses related to our sacred property (formerly paid for by Collegiate Church Corporation) so creating an ongoing building fund to keep our property in excellent condition will be a priority going forward.

Even with the reduced endowment draw and accrual of funds for building repairs, we ended FY24 with a surplus of $218,358. 

You will notice in the FY25 budget that we are working to begin building back in some program areas and are looking forward to the time when we can strengthen our staff again and restore some budget areas to stronger levels. The attached FY25 budget has some adjustments that have been made from what was released to the congregation in June.

We were blessed in FY24 with some large-scale rentals of our facility and have strengthened the external rentals line in our FY25 budget to reflect more usage of our building for rentals. Program Revenue continues to increase the further we move from the pandemic.

Also note that in our FY25 budget, the congregant revenue line ($1,733.000) will be larger than the endowment draw line ($1,728,772) for the first time since the funding from the Collegiate Church Corporation ceased in 2021. This is the direction we will continue to go in as we move toward full financial sustainability.

We look forward to the next Congregational Forum on Sunday, November 3, immediately following Worship to be able to provide more detail and a larger overview of our financial path as we move forward.