Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Folks,

There has been a bit of confusion over electronic giving.

Here is what happened, our third-party vendor for electronic giving is Faith Direct. Faith Direct migrated its online service to ParishSoft Giving on September 25th. As I understand it, essentially they sub-contracted a portion of their service, which is not unusual for contractors or businesses.

Yes, it was marketed as an upgrade, but not all of you have experienced the transition as such. Here are a few changes:

— Donors will now be receiving email notices from ParishSoft Giving regarding their donations to the parish, before this was something you had to opt into, but it has been turned on by default. Some folks thought these emails were a scam, but they are not. (However, always be careful to never click on links!)

— Donors who give Weekly Offertory as opposed to Monthly Offertory will now have their weekly donation drawn from their account every week. Pray for our bookkeeper, as this means many more entries for our bookkeeping software as folks choose different days!

— Donors now need to use the the link below to check their accounts and make any changes to their information. (Didn’t I just tell you never click on links? Ooops). And at least one parishioner couldn’t get this link to work. (Maybe because of formatting in the bulletin, it may have removed part of the link)? Here is the link on it’s own line.

— Sorry this has not been a smooth transition. You can contact ParishSoft Donor Support at donorsupport@parishsoft.com or 866-507-8757.

I’ll say a Hail Mary for you in gratitude for your generous support of St. Mary’s!

pax,

Father John Mosimann

P.S. Another reminder to all parishioners, there is a nationwide scam going on that targets parishioners and uses their pastor, in our case, me and sends fake emails, texts etc. asking for you to “do me a favor” which includes buying gifts cards and such. I WILL NEVER ASK A PARISHIONER TO PURCHASE A GIFT CARD OR SEND ME MONEY! Please delete emails and text that come asking – note the email address sending you the request is similar to mine but not correct. If you are ever unsure, please call the office for clarification. Be vigiliant.

Good news!  We are excited to confirm that the upgrade from Faith Direct to ParishSoft Giving has been completed.  Please bookmark the new link so that you have it to log in:  https://giving.parishsoft.com/app/giving/FD-635. Your recurring gifts and payment information were securely transferred at your current gifting schedule. Don’t forget, if you originally signed up for weekly giving, your gift will now be processed weekly, no longer a bulk transaction once a month.  If you want to change that, please log in to your account and you will be able to make that change.  Your login information will be the same that you had in Faith Direct.  However, if you have any trouble with it, click ‘forgot password’ and instructions will be sent to your email to reset your password. The following link also has some very helpful information: https://help.ministrybrands.com/hc/en-us/sections/10876162718747-Overview-for-Givers. If you have any questions, you may contact Donor Support at donorsupport@parishsoft.com or 866-507-8757. Thank you for your generosity and support, and your patience as we go through this transition.

Dear Folks,

The first Sunday in October is the week we traditionally target to share the Fiscal Y ear Report with parishioners. Thank you Elaine, for your work in getting it ready for the bulletin!

If you look at the very bottom line of the income statement, you’ll notice, we spent $2 million more than we brought in. I bet that got your attention! But don’t worry—this is expected. We just dedicated the approximately $6 million expansion of our parish school! W e’ve been saving for years to make this possible. That’s why previous years showed positive net income—as we were intentionally saving in advance so we could build what we can afford.

I also want to highlight the net operating surplus of $560k. This shows that even while construction was underway, we kept our operating expenditures below our regular revenue. Our ability to do this consistently over many years is a big reason why we’ve been confident in our ability to fund projects already completed, currently underway, and in development.

The balance sheet portion of the report shows our assets and liabilities. This section may interest those who love accounting, but fundamentally, it reflects our assets (cash, restricted savings, even buildings!) and liabilities. One unusual number you’ll see is ‘unrestricted net assets’ of -$440k. Sometimes this would reflect loans or debt, but in our case, it means that most of the money for the school expansion is temporarily restricted—it was donated for a specific purpose and can only be used for that purpose. You’ll see the corresponding ‘temporarily restricted assets’ listed at $1.146 million.

Let me also give you a few bonus stats:

• 77 people became Catholic through the OCIA program

• 41 already-Catholic adults were confirmed

• (If you saw the Easter Vigil photos, now you know why the line of folks receiving sacraments stretched

across almost the entire Expo Center—and this year’s class looks even larger!)

• 64 weddings were celebrated

• 54 funerals were held—curiously, the exact same number as the year before

• 368 people were anointed with the Sacrament of the Sick

• (Though I must confess I don’t always record every one when folks grab me after Mass—so the real number

is likely even higher!)

The annual report lists 6,939 families in the parish as of July 1st—and with recent RE registrations, we may have cleared 7,000! Oh my!

Have a blessed October, and thank you for helping make this parish so faith-filled, growing, and vibrant!

Pax,

Father John Mosimann