By Matthew Gambino • Posted May 18, 2018

Two reports on fundraising activities of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017 were made public today, May 18. They join 15 other audited financial statements for various entities and offices of the archdiocese – see them all here.

All were audited by the accounting firm Grant Thornton and cover the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

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The audited financial statements for the Catholic Charities Appeal shows an uptick in donations over the previous year to the archdiocese’s largest annual fundraising effort. For fiscal 2017, contributions to the appeal combined with other income to total $12.64 million in revenues, exceeding the total of $10.72 million in fiscal 2016.

The higher revenues meant more available funds to distribute to the good works of the church in the archdiocese. The total expenditures of $12.17 million in 2017 include more than $10 million in subsidies to various archdiocesan ministries. The subsidies exceeded that of 2016 by almost $1.3 million.

According to the report, the fund allocations of the Catholic Charities Appeal for fiscal 2017 include (figures rounded down): Catholic Social Services, $4.9 million; Schools for Special Education, $1.3 million; Interparochial Parish Cooperative Commission, $1 million; Sick and Retired Priests, $920,000; Cultural Ministries, $613,000; Life, Family and Laity, $511,000; Nutritional Development Services, $362,000; Archbishop’s Christmas Benefit for Children, $369,000; and Apostolic Impact Fund, $200.

For every ministry except the last three, 2017’s allocations exceeded those of the previous year.

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The audited financial statements for Heritage of Faith-Vision of Hope, the archdiocesan capital campaign launched in 2008, shows the latest activity in pledge collections and disbursements for the goals of the campaign.

A document accompanying the report explains the history and highlights of the campaign, and its current status. The document accounts for the $225 million in pledges reported. After subtracting for 18 combined parish capital campaigns ($36.5 million), planned gifts “not recorded in the financial statements because the ultimate receipt is not guaranteed” ($6.9 million), an allowance for doubtful accounts ($700,000), write-offs of $53.7 million and a net allowance of pledges receivable of $2.1 million, a total of $122.9 million in pledges and gifts were shown to have been collected from donors through June 30, 2017.

After subtracting allocations to parishes ($36.2 million) and campaign expenses ($17 million), $69.7 million was available to allocate to remaining archdiocesan beneficiaries. Some of them have already received allocations totaling $29.5 million.

The balance, or money remaining to be allocated, stands at $40.2 million, of which existing cash and investments are sufficient to cover.

The beneficiaries are indicated in three groups: endowment funds, other funds and operation or capital priorities. Most of the seven endowment funds were shown to be earning interest, as intended. The clergy retirement fund received its full intended allocation of $6 million.

Most of the seven funds of the last group have received the lion’s share of their intended allocations. These include a Catholic high school building fund ($10.1 million distributed of $16.8 million available), a renovation fund for the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul ($7.5 million distributed of $9.8 million available) and an improvement fund for Villa St. Joseph, the priests’ retirement home in Darby ($4.1 million distributed of $4.2 million available).