Pledged giving was $2,180 below budget for October, so our pledge shortfall is now up to $7,733. (In recent years, the "summer slump" has been extending into October, but this is an unusually large shortfall.) Unpledged giving was also below expectations (though not by nearly as much), increasing our shortfall in unrestricted giving to $8,456. Other income was about on target for the month, leaving us about $3,100 below budget on total income.

Expenses were about \$3,300 under budget for October, with about half of the savings coming from personnel, and about half of the rest from buildings & grounds. (Most of the personnel savings was from one-time gaps in the organist and secretary positions.) Since we beat our expense budget by more than we lost on our income budget, our deficit has dropped to $6,410 (vs. $13,268 budgeted). The quarterly DCTF distribution has eased our cash flow, and as a result I have not had to dip into our primary investment funds; however, I still anticipate having to do so, either in December or early next year.

Both of our investment portfolios gained value during the third quarter of 2012: our US Bank investments (Dobyns Trust and St. Paul's Trust) gained 4.8% for the quarter (for a 10.9% gain year to date), and our DCTF investments gained 4.2% (for a 9.1% gain year to date). These figures are net of all fees, but not net of distributions, which were about 1% for each fund.

As of this writing, we have received 42 pledges totaling $63,580, and six "hope to give" responses totaling $5,272. By comparison, as of last year's November Chapter meeting, we had received 49 pledges totaling $76,228, and ten "hope to give" responses totaling $4,712. We started our stewardship campaign earlier last year, but Chapter also met earlier, so the numbers represent roughly the same point in each year's campaign: we are clearly lagging behind last year (which in turn lagged behind the previous year, and so forth for the last several years). Since we are already operating at a deficit, and have been for several years, this does not bode well for the 2013 budget.

Budget Summary