Midyear Treasurer's Report

It's time for a mid-year Treasurer's report. First, let me say thank you for your consistent, steady, generous giving to this church and its ministries. It is only through your generosity that we are able to keep our various ministries moving in the right direction. 

Mid-way through the year, contributions to LaSalle Street Church are higher than expected. This is largely due to a 25% increase in non-pledged giving compared to the same period last year, which is really great news. Seems to indicate there are some newer people who have decided to start giving to the church. 

Church expenses year-to-date are about 2% higher than expected. This is mainly due to health care costs and some front-loading of expenses for Church Life. Church staff is looking closely at expenses and working hard to ensure they are lower in the second half of the year. 

Cornerstone Center, which has a separate budget of its own, is tracking very close to budget for both revenue and expenses - actually slightly over for revenue and slightly under for expenses. No worries there. 

Both the church and Cornerstone Center have cash reserves equivalent to about four months of expenses (5.5 months of unreserved cash.)  

That's a pretty dry and dusty report. Not sure how to spice it up. I'll just say that it feels like we're moving the right direction from the depths of the post-covid days. We face the same challenges that many churches across the country face, but Sunday morning at LaSalle feels very different to me than it did 18 months ago. 

One other comment about giving. Two key areas that directly affect our ability to help people in need - Benevolence (which is used to support church members with specific immediate needs) and Breaking Bread (our largest Outreach and Advocacy ministry feeding Near North residents each Wednesday) - have not received the kind of designated giving they have in the past. We'd invite you, if you're not sure where to give outside of the general fund, to consider giving in particular to these two core budget items that support folks within our church walls and also those in our larger community. (You can give online at the Give tab on our website, or by contacting Katie at the church office.)  

We'll be sending out Q2 giving statements in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for those.  

Any questions or comments please feel free to contact myself or Rev Liz. 

Karl Lauger 

Treasurer