First quarter budget figures in
Filed Under: Budget, CFO, CMO, Finance, gift, Offering
Budget numbers from the first quarter of the synod's 2008-09 fiscal year are in—they show support of $8.4 million, which is $700,000 less than expenses of $9.1 million.
Results through September continue to point to a significant deficit for the fiscal year. The deficit was created when the convention added $2 million for Ministerial Education and $600,000 for World Missions to the budget proposed by the Synodical Council. While the buffer fund created by the fiscal year 2007-08 surplus should be more than adequate to fund the shortfall, Mr. Todd Poppe, WELS chief financial officer, points out that the ministries it is funding are ongoing and the buffer fund is one-time funding.
In his monthly Executive Summary, prepared for the Conference of Presidents and Synodical Council, Poppe says, "This use of one-time funding for ongoing ministries also enlarges the forecasted funding gaps for the next biennium and beyond."
One encouraging note in the report is that Congregation Mission Offerings, given by congregations for the collective ministry of synod, were up nearly $200,000 or 13.6 percent over the same month in 2007. The September increase partially reversed the downturn experienced for the months of June, July, and August.
