CALL FOR MORE ACTIVE FINANCIAL AND VOLUNTEER PARTICIPATION TO IMPROVE PARISH VIABILITY
Dear friends of our Croatian Parish of the Nativity of Mary in Edmonton,
First and foremost, on behalf of the entire parish community, we wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of you who regularly contribute to the needs of our parish. At the moment, however, our expenses exceed our income. Therefore, we are reaching out to all families who wish to maintain an active and vibrant Croatian parish in Edmonton to register in the envelope system and commit to giving $25 weekly for the needs of our parish community. Further details on these funding initiatives will be presented at a town hall meeting November 30th at our church hall. Further details to come.
Income sources
Our parish income comes solely from three main sources during the year:
1. Weekly Sunday offerings and donations from parishioners, which total between $75,000 and $100,000 annually through the online donation system. Our attendance to church is only about 40% of those 132 families that have envelopes. This is critical that we increase engagement and further details are below.
2. Extraordinary or designated donations, which must also be recorded in the online donation system (for example, donations for replacing doors, materials given for specific projects, etc.).
3. Funds from parish events, such as ticket sales for community lunches and proceeds from the Heritage Festival, which in the past two years have brought in about $24,000.
Every parish in the Archdiocese depends most on its regular and consistent Sunday income. In our parish, there are 132 families registered in the envelope donation system, of which 121 families have made at least one contribution during the year, however only 40% of those 132 families are attending regularly. If each registered family were to donate $25 every Sunday, either through envelopes, online giving or new donating initiatives our annual income would exceed our yearly expenses.
In simple terms for every $1 we get in donations from the three sources noted above we have over $1.20 in expenses so we need to collect at least 20%-30% more just to cover our costs which isn't enough.
Expenses
Among our main parish obligations are the regular annual expenses, which continue to grow from year to year with inflation:
1. Our regular yearly expenses include utilities (Epcor, Direct Energy, Telus), insurance which cost between $50,000 and $60,000 annually;
2. Priest’s annual salary and car expenses of $40,000;
3. Property insurance for parish buildings of around $20,000 per year; and
4. the Cathedralicum, which is a required annual contribution from each parish to support the Archdiocese, amounting to 25% of all parish income. In addition, there is a mandatory annual charitable appeal from the Archdiocese, which costs our parish about $7,000 per year.
Altogether, the annual regular expenses for our parish are approximately $120,000+, not including any extraordinary costs such as repairs or special projects. To cover these additional expenses, the parish must rely on extra income throughout the year to function smoothly.
Challenges
Our parish relies heavily on volunteers and your generous donations. Unfortunately, over the past six months, the number of donations, volunteers, and regular Mass attendees has nearly been cut in half. If this trend continues, the parish will soon no longer be able to cover its regular operating costs. We need to collect at last 30-40% to remain viable in the eyes of the archdiocese.
On November 30th, after mass, the Parish finance committee led by Michael Zvonkovic will present quarterly results and details on attendance, our plan of action to improve donations through a few initiatives. Also present will be Tanja Pavelic to talk about the administration initiatives to help support bringing in more parishioners. So I encourage you to attend with any questions, comments or ideas you may have.
Lastly, the month of January 2026, we will need to show progress in hope of showing the archdiocese we are addressing the challenges we are facing as a community. Also the Parish Finance Council will review the financial figures again, comparing the number of active envelope users with the number of families and individuals attending Sunday Mass. It is critical we show progression in numbers of attendance. Their observations and recommendations will then be presented to the Parish Pastoral Council, which will submit the report to the Archdiocese and the Croatian Bishops’ Conference for review.
Again we are reaching out to all families who wish to maintain an active and vibrant Croatian parish in Edmonton to register in the envelope system and commit to giving $25 weekly for the needs of our parish community.
Dear friends, we truly hope this message helps remind us of the importance of active participation in the life and mission of our parish community.
With gratitude and blessings,
Parish Pastoral Council
Parish Financial Committee
Pastor.
