By Ronald Kelly
By Ronald Kelly
PASADENA—For the second month in a row, we have positive income statistics to report. I mentioned last month that we had a small increase compared to March 2003. Now for April, I’m excited to report that member contributions are up more than 12 percent.
Specifically, last year’s April donations were $1.32 million. This year, members contributed $1.48 million. In addition, this month we closed the sale of the fifth and final single-family home on Orange Grove Boulevard. So we were actually able to supplement the reserve fund by just over $814,000.
We continue to be on track with our balanced budget plan for this year. Church expenses for April were $1.6 million. The small difference between donation income and expenses was more than made up by an estate donation and, of course, the home sale—thus actually increasing our reserve.
This month also helped bring our year-to-date totals into a better balance. Last year we had a contribution income of $5.4 million for the first four months of the year, while this year we have a total of $5.15 million. That means we are running about four percent under the previous year. However, considering all sources of income, we are actually up seven percent over 2003.
We are not including in these figures the sale of the east campus in Pasadena in February. As we reported, the bulk of the sale proceeds have been placed in a formal pension plan for current employees. With those funds, we also paid down some of the line of credit we had been extended and cleared up a few other financial obligations.
Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2004