Financial Budget Update

Dear Marble Community,

It has been a significant effort on the part of all of us to reduce the Marble budget by more than $3.2M from FY18 to FY25 (and with more than $1.8M of that reduction occurring since FY21). But with your help and the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been able to navigate through a very challenging and unexpected time in the life of Marble Collegiate Church.

We are pleased to share with you the 9-month financial results from Fiscal Year 2024 (July 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024). Marble’s fiscal year is July 1 – June 30.

  • Congregational giving continues to track well, and we are $171,455 ahead of where we were at this time last year. 

  • The Easter Offering is behind last year. The 2023 Easter Offering total at the end of the effort was $197,575 with a goal of $230,000. This year we lowered the goal to $160,000 and focused our efforts on specific causes and a smaller number of targeted organizations.

  • As of May 14, the total of the 2024 Easter Offering was $144,314.26. We will close out this year's effort on May 19 and report the final number received by that date. We will then open the FY25 Easter Offering in the Realm portal.

  • It is possible the lower Easter Offering is related to the Marble Match when we encouraged people to consider making a gift to Marble when they gave their Easter Offering. The increased congregational giving might indicate people made more matching gifts to Marble this year.

  • You will see a total budget deficit of $167,289. The reason for this is we have not taken the full budgeted draw at this point in the fiscal year. We continue to discipline ourselves to only take what is needed to fund our monthly expenses. If we had taken the full budgeted draw at the 9-month point, we would have taken an additional $545,625 from the endowment.

  • If we had taken the full budgeted draw at the 9-month point in the fiscal year, we would have income over expenses (surplus) of $378,336 ($545,625 - $167,289).

  • The draw rate this year is 6.5% and will be stepped down to 5.5% in FY25 and 5% in FY26.

  • Expenses are tracking well against the budget in every department.

The FY25 Budget (for the 12-months starting July 1, 2024) was approved by the Marble Board at its April meeting and will be shared with the congregation in advance of the June 9 Congregational Forum. 

While the budget is again reduced for FY25, we do not anticipate additional large-scale program reductions in FY25, for which we are very grateful and, quite honestly, relieved. 

We continue to covet your prayers and your continued, tangible financial support of this beloved community. If you have any questions, please reach out to us, Dr. J. Elise Brown, Executive Minister, or Renier van Aswegen, Treasurer.

You can also submit your questions for our June 9 Congregational Forum here. We will answer your questions to the best of our ability.