By Ronald Kelly
Because festival offerings and estate donations have been greater than our projections, income for 2000 has been near what we planned.
Our forecast was for $24 million from January through October, and that is on target. I hope you don't get tired of my good-news-bad-news comments. The good news is our income is meeting budget projections; the bad news is that our expenses are well above income, meaning we will use up to $6 million from the reserve fund.
While festival offerings and estate donations are up, regular mail income is lower than projections. Because this is our primary source of income, it helps if this figure remains steady. At the end of October, mail income for the year-to-date was $16.5 million. We had anticipated this amount to be closer to $17.5 million.
As I write, we are into our 2001 budget planning. Part of that planning is to forecast, as accurately as possible, the various categories of income: regular mail, festival offerings, estate donations, PTM, asset sales, fees and foundation grants.
We hope that regular mail income and festival offerings will level out and even increase. As you well know, the trend for the past few years has been a dramatic downturn in income. In 1998 it began to level out. For 2000, total income is down six percent from 1999. As we plan for 2001, we hope that income will be close to this year's, but history tells me to be a bit cautious in the planning process.
As noted above, we have received $24 million in income, but our expenses have been about $28 million. Simple math shows we have had to use $4 million from the reserve fund, so far, to meet budget.
Obviously using reserves for daily operation expenses cannot continue for long. However, in order to close escrow on the Pasadena property sale and to relocate our headquarters to a much smaller facility without making personnel cuts during the interim, we will have to use some of the reserve fund next year.
To bring you up to date on the property sale, Legacy Partners is now projecting closure in late April. Of course this is disappointing to us, because an earlier projection had been December 2000--later changed to February 2001. Each month the property does not sell is an added expense of more than $700,000 (half of this is for upkeep of the facility and half is for discretionary assistance).
Relocation might not take place till the middle of the year. So please hang in there with us. The light is at the end of the tunnel. It just isn't moving toward us as fast as we would like.
In the meantime, our task force continues to develop the financial model we hope to put in place after the property sells. We will present this model at the district conferences that begin in Jekyll Island, Georgia, in January and proceed throughout the districts during the following months. We hope many of you will plan to attend these informative and inspiring weekend conferences.
Thank you for the wonderful fall festival offerings. They have been higher than expected. Next month I will give you more details. We are still in the process of tabulating the offerings as I write.
This would be a good time to plan your stewardship for next year. While we will not ask for pledges, it does help if member families plan their giving and establish a regular and steady system of donations. We look forward to 2001 as an exciting year in our fellowship.
For the Month For the Year-to-Date
Income
Donation Income $ 1,809,372 $ 19,340,712
Other income 86,391 4,982,679
Total income 1,895,763 24,323,391
Expenses 2,292,255 27,759,080
Net loss to bank reserves $ (396,492) $ (3,435,689)
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000