It is that time of the year again. The Diocese of Venice and Saint John the Evangelist have fiscal years that range from July to June. We have completed all the closure of Fiscal Year 2018, and it has been a significant one for all of our Parish Family. I can understand how some people may find discussions about finances to be dry and boring. I was not a math person myself, preferring History and Shakespeare to Micro Economics and Accounting. In my role here at Saint John, I have made it a clear directive to ensure the amazing gifts our Parish Family provides to us should be directed towards our Mission. Each and every dollar needs to be identified for the purpose necessary in our community and for our Parish Family. Our budget reflects these foci and we have taken strides to become efficient and effective across our program areas in the church, Liturgical, Faith Formation, Operations, and our latest area, CYO/CAO. FY2018 was a unique time for Saint John, and our financial picture reflects it clearly. From Hurricane Irma to our Capital Campaign ending to record breaking Christmas and Easter attendance, this year showcases the clear progress that Saint John is making to be a year-round Parish that can withstand even the harshest challenges. This week, I want to focus on the income, the gifts, of our Parish family from FY2018. We will delve into our Expenses next week.
The total income of Saint John for FY2018 was $6,494,285.75. Please take a moment to let that sink in. Never in our history has our Parish Family given so greatly to the causes, activities, and mission. This is of course inclusive of the final wave of our Capital Campaign, as well as the relief efforts for Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, the direct support to Immokalee, our own Hurricane Repair campaign and the countless other efforts serving the poor in Jamaica, Africa, and right here in Naples Park. It can be seen clearly in just how many people Saint John has been able to positively impact this past year, from personal counseling services to providing homebound individuals with rosaries and comfort to feeding 40,000 people with Catholic Relief Services. Thank you all for making all of this happen.
This huge amount may never be surmounted again here given the confluence of all these activities that occurring within a single fiscal year, and I hope that is the case. It has been a tremendous effort to manage, maintain, and execute all of these activities. I want to thank Karen Beebe, our Bookkeeper, for her diligence and effort during this year. Oh, and by the way, did I mention we had our internal audit from the Diocese of Venice that occurred during this same timeframe? Karen was able to support all of that and more.
Of course, these outlying events notwithstanding, how is our Parish Family growing? The numbers do not lie. Our Offertory Collection, the basis of which we measure the basic support and gifts of our Parish Family, was also a record-breaking number this year, at $2,162,751.57. This represents a full 8% increase from last year. We had two years of negative growth in our Offertory due to the Capital Campaign, and we had been planning on that, but the significant increase illustrates a clear direction of our Parish Family. We have more families giving more of their gifts to our mission than ever before. In fact, this represents a 14% increase from the FY2014.
We had record breaking moments in FY2018 that contributed to these spectacular numbers, mainly Christmas and Easter, both of which illustrate our appeal to those who might be visiting, and also to those captured by our vision and wished to contribute to what we stand for. We will continue these efforts and more due to these amazing gifts. Those moments, however, skew a flattening regular Offertory trend that we have been noticing. If you take a look at the FY2018 Monthly Income graph, other than September (Hurricane Irma closing us for 2 weeks), December, and April, we have stabilized between $100,00 and $200,000 or so for the rest of the year. No longer do we have a large discrepancy between February and June, where we are in a “feast and famine” financial structure. It will assist us as we develop programs that are year-round to know we have a Parish Family that desires bocce, even in the summer months.
Words cannot express how blessed I feel to be on this journey with all of you and your continued gifts, prayers, support, and most importantly, your actions of joy, mercy, respect and love that are our Catholic Faith. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. God Bless you!