On behalf of the entire parish family, thank you to all who have continued to share your financial gifts to the parish during the past year. Your generosity continues to support the operations and ministries of the parish.
Each year we are required by the Diocese to provide a year-end financial report to the parish. In normal times, that report was inserted in the bulletin for all to review. In this letter, I will give a high-level review of our financial performance for the 2021/2022 fiscal year ended June 30, 2022 for our parish, the school and pre-school. A more detailed financial report will be found on the parish website at www.saintraphael.org/financial-reports.
For the purposes of this letter, I am restricting my comments to the parish offertory income and the parish operating surplus, and the school and pre-school tuition income and operating surplus. As we were able to reopen our church and many of the negative effects of the pandemic have eased, our operating results have improved over each of the last 2 years as we had posted operating deficits during those years. I will use round numbers for ease of reading.
For fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, offertory for the parish was $1,903,000, an increase of $169,000 over last year. While we have made good progress on increasing our offertory, we are still below our pre-pandemic offertory of $2,045,000. With this increase in offertory and great expense control by our staff, we achieved a $76,000 operating surplus for the year vs. deficits for the previous 2 years. We were also blessed with an unrestricted bequest during the past year of $400,000 from the estate of one of our parishioners. We have already received another (smaller but significant) bequest this year. As you work on your personal financial plan, please consider adding the parish or our schools to your plans.
For the school, revenue from tuition was up $283,000 to $3,019,000 as enrollment increased to near capacity. Our teachers and staff should be commended for keeping the school open during some very difficult times. Due to the increased tuition revenue and expense control, the school ended the year with a cash surplus of $191,000. This number was aided by some one time federal and state government grants that helped schools during the pandemic. For the pre-school, tuition was up $182,000 to $453,000. That resulted in a cash surplus of $49,000. For the current school year, enrollment both at the school and pre-school are running at capacity.
As we move into the 2022/2023 fiscal year, I am encouraged to see more people coming back to Mass on a regular basis. I am encouraged to see some new faces at church. I am encouraged to see our weekly offertory continue to grow a little. Even with all the good things happening in the parish and schools financially, we still have some significant challenges. We had a professional campus wide repair and replacement reserve study performed last year to identify our capital needs over the next 20 years. The study identified our need to spend about $750,000 per year for each of the next 20 years just to maintain our campus. We continue to be good stewards of your financial gifts and spend wisely. We continue to be aware that the mission of our parish is not to just replace air conditioner units, replace roofs, or repair parking lots, but to bring people closer to God and help the poor and needy. To accomplish both these goals, we need your help. First and foremost, invite family and friends to join us at St. Raphael to continue their faith journey. Share your talents and gifts with the parish or schools. Think about how you could use your financial gifts to help us meet our financial needs. While we have not calculated the exact amount, we need to grow our offertory significantly by 25% or more over the next couple of years to help us meet our financial needs. We have received some very generous one-time gifts over the last couple of years. If you are able, they can be very helpful.
Fr. Tom has challenged us with the fiscal and spiritual needs of the parish. Please take a few minutes to think about all the needs of our parish and the needs of those less fortunate and how you may use your gifts to help. Thank you for your generous support. If you have any questions or concerns on this topic, please contact me or the parish staff.
If you are interested in more financial information, please look for the more detailed report on the parish website.