Checks & Balances
By Bruce Ragan
Diocesan Finance Officer
July/August 2010
Over the last few months this column has focused on parish finances and the policies that are the guide on how each parish should manage their daily expenses. But what guidelines are in place for how a parish should safeguard its savings accounts, its excess cash, its reserves? All parishes in our Diocese have access to the Diocesan Deposit and Loan, (D & L), program.
Per Diocesan policy, parishes are to deposit their reserve cash in excess of two months of their normal daily expenses into the program. These deposited funds continue to stay in the control of the parish. As a safeguard, if a parish receives a gift from a parishioner for a specific purpose, the parish will create a separate D & L account so that the funds can be only used for the specific restrictions set forth by the donor.
The deposited funds in the D & L cannot be used by the bishop or diocesan offices. The funds earn a higher interest rate than can be obtained at a bank. Since these parish funds are pooled together, they are also the funding source when a parish requires a loan for a construction, remodeling or maintenance project. These funds are also granted at a lower interest rate than can be obtained at a bank.
I have sometimes heard the comment when a parish is paying on its loan granted from the D&L program that “the diocese wants its money back.” This statement is completely inaccurate. The loans from this program are available due to deposits from all parishes. When a parish is paying back its loan, that parish is really paying back all the parishes that have deposits in the program.
The use of this program by the parishes in our diocese enables our parishes to be good stewards of the treasure that their parishioners have given back to God. This program also reinforces the definition that our Catholic Church does not stop at our parish walls; we are one in our Diocese of Kalamazoo and beyond. May God bless you.
Checks & Balances
By Bruce RaganDiocesan Finance Officer
June 2010
This week I had the privilege to meet with the newly ordained priests and new pastors in our diocese.
The Office of Priestly Life, (which is funded by the Bishop’s Annual Appeal) under the direction of Fr. Kenneth Schmidt, pastor of St. Thomas More, Kalamazoo, arranges informational training discussions for priests to help them learn about parish life and administrative responsibilities.
If you think about it, the seminarians of our diocese receive formation for their blessed vocation at the seminary. Typically there are not accounting, business or management courses at the seminary to help them be an administrator at a parish. They experience on-the-job training when it comes to running a parish.
My discussion with the priests gives them a laundry list of major responsibilities that they need to learn and be aware of when it comes to overseeing the employees and the finances at the parish.
This is where finance councils, financial policies and procedures, and internal controls provide for the pastor a guide and a checks and balance system as they also develop as an administrator of the parish.
Our priests take care of our souls and lead us on our individual faith journey. These same priests also take care of our parish home, our churches. This is a responsibility they learn over time with the assistance of people that God sends their way. As parishioners, we need to recognize this learning curve and growth that all our clergy go though during their ministry and offer them our support and patience.
As we wind down the Year of the Priest, remember all the things that we rely on our priests, pastors and bishop to accomplish for us. Pray for them to be good shepherds. Also, pray for them to receive the grace they need so that they are given the wisdom, patience and prudence to be the administrators of our parishes.
May God bless the clergy of our diocese.
Checks & Balances
By Bruce Ragan Diocesan Finance Officer
April 2010
This month our diocese will begin the Bishop’s Annual Appeal in all parishes. During Bishop Bradley parish visits one topic that parishioners offered feedback on was the former appeal the Kalamazoo Diocesan Services Appeal (KDSA).
As you may have read in The Good News, Bishop Bradley formed two ad-hoc committees consisting of lay leaders, clergy and Diocesan Pastoral Center staff members to review and assess the existing process of KDSA. The recommendations from the committees to the Bishop focused on two main areas: how the appeal is presented and executed at each parish and also how parish goals are formulated.
This year, the appeal’s emphasis is to better inform parishioners on all the many components of the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. One significant change to the appeal this year is the introduction of a direct mail brochure from the Diocese and Bishop Bradley to each parishioner’s home address. This mailing will include a message from Bishop Bradley and an informational packet about the appeal.
At the bottom of the enclosed letter from Bishop Bradley will be a customized pledge card for this year’s appeal. Also included in the mailing is a return envelope to use to mail your pledge card back to your parish or to drop in the collection basket at your parish.
This pledge card is important in the accounting process of the appeal from both the parish and diocesan perspective. The parish will use this pledge card as its main record for recording your pledge. The parish will then forward that card to the diocese so that your pledge can be entered into the accounting system.
This pledge card is pre-printed with your home address, parish information and your unique diocesan ID number. By using this
pre-printed card, each parishioner helps to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the appeal process for staff at your parish and the
diocese.
Please look for the Bishop’s Annual Appeal mailing in your home the week of April 19th. The information in this mailing will coincide with presentations that you will hear at your parish around the same time. The second change to this year’s Bishop’s Annual Appeal pertains to the calculation of the parish goals. This year the Diocese has changed the appeal formula to better align the appeal’s overall goal with the parish’s financial outlook.
The formula for determining the parish goal is as follows: Total parish offertory (as reported in the 2008-2009 annual report) is subtracted by the total credit given for the number of children from your parish attending a Catholic elementary or high school. Then, 16.5 percent of this total equals the parish goal for the 2010 Bishop’s Annual Appeal. Overall, the total amount of the 59 parish goals reflects a 5.5 percent reduction over last year.
Thank you in advance for prayerfully considering a gift to the appeal and utilizing the pre-printed pledge card.
Checks & Balances
By Bruce RaganDiocesan Finance Officer
March 2010
I was in a meeting at the Diocesan Pastoral Center and my colleagues stated how long they had been working for the diocese. I heard people state that they had worked for the diocese 10, 20 and even 30 years.
I am sure if I could gather the employees from our parishes and schools, I would here similar longevity answers. There is a dedication in their voice that I hear when I talk with them on the phone.
I am always quoted as saying that the church is not a business but that does not mean that we can’t use sound business principles. Dedicated employees and sound policies and procedures are important in all organizations. The world of finances is constantly changing and the church needs to constantly adapt to those changes.
I would like to take a moment to remind all parishioners about a few key procedures that you can keep in mind regarding your offertory and appeal donations which ensure accurate tracking of your gifts. At your parish, you have contribution envelopes. On that envelope is your parish ID number. It is how your parish tracks your gifts. If you ever forget your envelope on a Sunday, if you enter your envelope ID number on your check in the memo field, it is a valuable aid to parish employees to properly identify your gift.
Soon parishioners will be hearing about the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, formerly known as KDSA, and the number of changes to this annual appeal vehicle [see related article, cover]. In addition to your parish ID number, you also have a diocesan ID number. It will appear on your 2010 pre-printed pledge card (to be mailed next month) and also on your monthly statement mailings. If you ever need to contact the diocese by mail or by phone regarding your pledge please provide this ID, it helps us to identify and better assist you.
Additional business practices the diocese offers is electronic payment which you may use to pay your appeal balance. Simply check the box on your 2010 pledge card and the diocese will contact you to set up the process. Who knows, maybe the person who contacts you may have worked for the diocese for more than 20 years.
Checks & Balances
By Bruce RaganDiocesan Finance Officer
February 2010
As we have entered into 2010 as a new calendar year, the Diocese and parishes have reached the half
way point of the accounting fiscal year which ends June 30, 2010. Each January, all parishes have an important task that is required by the Diocesan financial policies and procedures. By the end of January, all parishioners who have made an offertory contribution should receive in the mail to their home a recap of their total
offertory contributions for the prior calendar year.
As a parishioner this reporting of your contribution recap is an important internal control step in the accounting process. It is also a way that your parish acknowledges and thanks you for your support. As a parishioner you should review this statement and if your expected total of contributions to your parish does not match the
total reflected on your statement, please contact your parish office.
This recap also provides an opportunity for you to reflect on your stewardship commitment to the Church.
The reporting of contribution totals to parishioners, the presentation of parish financial statements and budgets, the review of student tuition statements by parents and the regular meeting of parish financial councils are just a few of the important pieces in the checks and balances process. All of these steps are both a good communication tool for parishes and also a vital way to promote financial disclosure and support internal controls systems that are required to be in place at all our parishes and schools.
On behalf of Bishop Bradley, thank you for your support of your parish, school and the Diocese.
The Other Six Days
By Jane KnuthJuly/August 2010
Becoming the Gift
I’ve been volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store on Eleanor Street in downtown Kalamazoo for fifteen years now. That makes me feel like an old-timer, but that would be an exaggeration in the St. Vinnie’s world.
Alice and Mary, two of my co-workers, have been volunteering there a combined fifty years. They were members when the tornado of 1980 took the back off the building as it skipped over the city.
Many of our customers have a long history with the place, too. The other day, I was visiting with a familiar gentlemen who stops in to browse from time to time.
“I see you here a lot,” he said to me.
“Usually once a week,” I agreed. “I’ve been here since 1995.”“Oh, you’re just a newcomer,” he said with a smile. “This has been my favorite store since the 1960’s.” I began to wonder about other parts of our history. We have a framed document on the wall that tells us that we were “aggregated” in 1926. There are stories passed down of Fr. Hackett’s fierce support of our mission during the Great Depression.
Most poignant for me is a sepia photo of a lovely lady in a 1940’s hairstyle and shoulder-padded dress which hangs above the sorting room door. When I was a new volunteer one of our longtime members, Bernie, told me that the photo must be saved because the lady was the one who donated the property where our store stands.
“What is her name?” I asked, studying the friendly face in the picture. “No one here remembers anymore,” Bernie said. “But it’s important not to forget her gift, so we keep the picture hanging there and from time to time we include her in our prayers.”
I carefully dust the photo of our benefactor. We have lost her name, but her smile shines over us every day. The part of her which remains in this world is not her name, not her accomplishments, or her words. What remains is her gift — the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store which has become a part of the neighborhood. It’s as if she has become her gift.
The Other Six Days
By Jane KnuthJune 2010
Corpus Christi
This school year, the students at St. Monica in Kalamazoo made dozens of fleece blankets for our St. Vincent de Paul store. We gave away many of the fluffy warm coverings in our Christmas baskets. Many people were more grateful for the blankets than for the toys.
Last month, my two daughters were coming home for a visit, so my fellow volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul ordered me to take the week off while the girls were home. “Family comes first,” they said. “We’ll be fine without you.”
Last week, a man with a swollen cheek came to us for help. He needed $120 to pay an oral surgeon to remove his badly infected tooth. (I’m pretty sure that the cost of the surgery was not $120, but that’s all the dentist asked for.) The man was in such pain and he was so relieved to have our help that he said to me, “Can I give you a hug?”
Yesterday, one of my fellow volunteers mentioned during our prayer time, “I’ve decided from now on that I’m going to ‘wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior, Jesus Christ.’ Waiting in anxious fear is not doing anybody any good, especially me.”
Today I look a woman in the eye and told her that Jesus loves her very much.
She is a single mother of three and she has been making it on her own in the world since her seventeenth birthday. She lost her job when the factory where she worked shut down in February. She is worried and very tired — her face tells me this.
I write a promissory note for money to help with the rent on her apartment, and I say to her, “You know, God really does love you to pieces. We prayed for you before you walked in here today, and we’ll pray for you again before we leave. Don’t be afraid to ask God for his help, he wants to hear from you.” She looks at me with a small flicker of hope, and a tear rolls down her cheek.
From where I’m standing, this is what the Body of Christ looks like.
The Other Six Days
By Jane Knuth March 2010
Where Non-Heroes are Needed
One of the best feelings for me is watching the snow come down during a blizzard. At that moment, there is no priority greater than sitting still. Public announcements are made over the radio directed at teachers and students: “Please stay off the roads so that snow plows and emergency personnel can do their work.” Until the storm is over and most of the clean-up is done, it is perfectly wise and practical for me to stay home.
I am sometimes aware of my own motives. I did not become a math teacher in order to be a first-responder.
The problem of poverty has always seemed to me something like a snowstorm. Poor people’s troubles used to make me feel like closing the doors and staying put. I told myself that it was both wise and practical to let the social workers, the politicians and the Mother Teresa’s of the world do their jobs. It was better if I kept out of their way.
I had always secretly hoped that it would be possible to get to heaven by reading books and articles, and sending a check in the mail. Haiti is a good example. After the earthquake, the call went out for money, shoes, sunscreen, Deet — I was on it. I sent it all. Then they asked for rescue personnel, medically trained people, and heavy equipment operators. I breathed a sigh of relief. As far as I heard, no calls went out for the country’s Geometry teachers to board planes and fly into the disaster zone. Thank goodness no one in Haiti needed to learn the Pythagorean Theorem right away.
I am not a hero. This is clear. I’ve volunteered for the St. Vincent de Paul Society for fifteen years, and it is no exaggeration to say that it has been one of the great joys of my life, and it requires no heroics at all. A friend once said to me about this column: “A person gets the feeling when reading these stories that, gee, if Jane can do this kind of work, anyone can.” It’s true. St. Vincent de Paul is a place where non-heroes are always needed.
I’m a math teacher.
The Other Six Days
By Jane KnuthMarch 2010
Super 8
It’s easy to miss God speaking when I’m tired. Especially at the end of a long week at the end of a long Friday. My fellow volunteer, Peggy, and I have just locked the front door of the St. Vincent de Paul store and we are leaning on the check-out counter mulling over the day. She has spent nearly an hour on the phone with the electric company trying to make a payment for a client’s utility bill. I’ve been wrestling with our cantankerous fax machine in order to send a check stub to a landlord. I’m still not sure if the problem is on our end or on theirs.
We are more that ready to go home when we notice a young man on a bicycle on the other side of the plate glass door. He is swathed in layers of clothing and scarves, which is good. It’s twenty degrees outside on this cold January day. He leans his bike up against the window and reaches for the door handle.
I step up close to the glass and shout, “We’re closed. Come back in the morning.” He waves a gloved hand at the basket on his bike and shouts back, “I’ve got a donation. Will you take it?”
Peggy and I look at each other and sigh. It can’t be much of donation if it’s in a bike basket, but then again, it couldn’t have been easy to ride that bike in this weather. I pull out my keys and open the door. The young man hands us four sample size bars of soap with labels that read “Super 8.” He says, “I wanted to thank you folks for putting me up in that motel a couple of days last week. I would have been on the street if you hadn’t helped. None of the shelters would let me stay in them because I have this infection that’s drug resistant. I understand that they can’t risk everybody else’s health but I was in trouble if you hadn’t come through for me.” He shoves his hands back inside his coat and shrugs at the little soaps. “Anyway, I just wanted to thank you by making a donation, that’s all.” Peggy and I both put our soaps on the windowsills in our kitchens. They keep us from missing God speaking.
The Other Six Days
By Jane KnuthFebruary 2010
All Heaven Breaking Loose
At the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop where I volunteer we have a few rules and mostly we find it difficult to stick to them. But a charity can’t run without rules or word gets around that we are easy targets for conniving knaves, and then all hell breaks lose when what we are trying to accomplish is all heaven breaking lose.
One thing we are firm about is that people to whom we have promised financial assistance must show us all their promissory notes from other churches and agencies so that we can verify that they have collected the necessary funds to pay their bill in full. It’s no good paying only part of an eviction notice because the landlord can take the partial payment and evict at will. That means we have succeeded in helping the landlord but we have not helped the client. Which is not our goal.
I was explaining this rule to one of our clients the other day.
She pursed her lips and said, “You’re telling me that I have to run around town to a bunch of churches and get them to promise me money and after that, I need to run around again and show everyonewhat everyone else promised?”“Yes.”, “Can’t I phone you?”“We need to see the notes and receipts.”, “A fax?”“Our fax machine isn’t reliable—it’s a cast-off that was donated.“E-mail?”, “Sorry, we don’t have a computer.”
She flung up her hands. “What a crazy way to run a charity! Who owns this place?”
I thought a moment. No one had ever asked me that before.“Well, um…God does, I guess.”
This time her eyes actually bulged. “God? Did you say, God?
I felt apologetic. “See, we’re all volunteers and our group owns the building but the church owns the land it’s on, so I guess, yeah, put it all together and God must own the charity.”
I thought she might start shouting, but she didn’t. She stared at me, taking in what I had said, and then—she laughed.“Okay, well. If God owns this place then I guess I’ll just have to follow His rules, won’t I?”
