news.zionbuffalo.org

The fact that I’m up in front of you again today should send a strong message to each of you: don’t ever miss committee meetings, or you will end up assigned to tasks that no one else wants to do!

Actually, though, we would like to take this opportunity to bring you up to speed on how we closed the financial year 2008, and on some of the initiatives and challenges we are dealing with in 2009.

As a reminder, we have two primary funds at Zion: the “General Fund” which pays the ongoing program and personnel expenses and our Building Fund, also called “Forward in Faith” which pays primarily the mortgage. 2008 ended with positive checking account balances in both funds and no borrowing between the two. Expenses were below budget, which was good, since income was less than expected too by a larger percentage. Meaning we continued to run negative in both funds on an income versus expense line (cash flow). Lower than expected income was not at all unusual for the vast majority of charitable and nonprofit entities last year, particularly as the economy sank in the fourth quarter.

Of Note re 2008:

• Income was negatively impacted for the first few months of the year by the fact that e-withdrawals were not automatically renewed as they had been in prior years. It took a few months for this to get back on track, and currently monthly e-giving is not only back on track, but running ahead of prior periods.
• Income, particularly in the 3rd and 4th quarters was below expectations. Tough to tell if this was economic or due to the broader structural challenges Zion was facing or both. We are watchful of giving trends
• Refinanced the mortgage a year ago, which dropped the monthly payment by around $1000.
• Conducted a special congregational meting to approve $150,000 loan (“Church Equity Line”) for roof/parking lot repair. The roof repair was completed, and the roof repair used the bulk of the$150,000 line of credit.
• Right now we are paying just interest on that loan, but it will convert to P&I in a few months, adding back roughly $1000 to our monthly expenses. New Finance Secretary, Sue Stensrud has been incredibly instrumental in bringing order and tidying up all the methods, procedures, etc. As well as creating reports to allow the Finance Committee and council to analyze monthly numbers and key trends. Sue’s expertise allowed us to scale back the work we had originally outsourced to Larson-Allen.

2009 Outlook:

• The budget process was thorough and rigorous. Many initial department requests were sent back for revision and reduction. We will be watching line items carefully in 2009 and monitoring the strength of weekly offerings relative to expectations and expenses. None of us is immune to the broader issues impacting our economy. We are working hard to watch expenses and trim costs where we can (e.g., bulk purchase of office supplies, renegotiation of insurance, etc).
• The challenge we face – as do so many – is that our ministry needs are growing and additional staff hours in the office and in ChrisEd needed to be added, meaning the budget approved for 2009 does show an increase over 2008. Finance Committee and Council will be watching these carefully as the year progresses, and developing plans and priorities should expenses continue to outpace giving.
• It is anticipated that the parking lot refurbishment will be accomplished this summer when it an be coordinated with similar City of Buffalo repairs. The project was put out for bid last year, but it was found to be more cost effective to wait until we could coordinate with Buffalo.
• While the bank balances have remained positive, cash flow – particularly in months with 3 payrolls and/or other large expenses can be challenging. As such we are in the process of researching a credit line to ease some of the day to day cash flow issues.

In summary, rest assured we are monitoring things closely. The Finance Committee used to meet quarterly, but we have been meeting monthly for more than a year…and often more than that during the final months of the year. We knowingly approved a stretchy budget this year, as we believe strongly that as the leadership structure of Zion stabilizes, confidence will return and Zion can reassert its focus on ministering to the broader community during these troubled times.