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St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room in Menlo Park has switched to providing to-go lunches to guests. Advisory board member Rickey Ono said the nonprofit has strong financial support, but “when you start dipping into cash and cash reserves, if this goes on too long it’ll cause some concern.” (Courtesy photo)
April 4, 2020
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
Catholic San Francisco
Archdiocesan tithing has crashed up to 80% since public Masses were cancelled on March 17, forcing parishes and the chancery to draw up plans to bring down costs while maintaining employment.
“The difficulty is there will be at least eight weeks in which parishes receive a very small percentage of their ordinary collection because there are no Masses,” said Jesuit Father John Piderit, vicar for administration and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said. “The challenge is, how do you make up that reduced revenue and still as much as possible keep everyone on board?”
Because most parishes are receiving about 20% of their usual Sunday collection, the chancery office in San Francisco has cut salaried employees’ compensation 18-25%, reduced hourly workers’ schedules, and frozen hiring until July 2021. Going forward, the chancery offices will be closed on Fridays and nonessential travel and expenses have been suspended.
Father Piderit told Catholic San Francisco that archdiocesan leadership is encouraging pastors to adopt a similar approach or come up with a financial plan that makes an equivalent reduction in spending and keeps as many people employed as possible.
“We’re trying not to shed people at this point, not impact adversely hourly workers and make sure that people retain benefits,” he said.
The archdiocese is overall in a sound financial position, Father Piderit said, and the cutbacks have been designed to make up for two lost months of income as well as an anticipated lower rate of donations after so many job losses.
Development director Rod Linhares has encouraged pastors to embrace online giving so parishioners can donate to their church when the doors are closed. About 30 parishes in the archdiocese are set up to receive them on their own.
Fewer than 10 parishes in the archdiocese have a significant percentage of parishioners tithing online, Father Piderit said. At the majority of them, a tenth of parishioners donate online.
The Office of Development is helping to bridge that divide through an online donation portal on the archdiocese’s website. Parishioners can select the church to donate to, the amount and the frequency. Parishioners can also mail or drop off collection envelopes at their parish’s mailbox.
In a YouTube video, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone asked Catholics to continue to support their parishes during the pandemic. “Parishes are definitely feeling the economic impact as others are,” he said, pointing to the continuing costs of salaries, maintenance, and insurance incurred by a church.
“I ask you to be mindful of continuing your stewardship of treasure and supporting your parish financially,” the archbishop said. “Your pastors will be deeply appreciative for this, as I am as well.”
Nonprofits have struggled as well during a sudden economic crisis that has tripled unemployment in California. Many fundraisers have been canceled, while activities to raise revenue like summer camps are in limbo. Catholic Charities in San Francisco estimated a budget deficit of $3.5 million by June, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A survey published March 24 by University of San Diego’s Nonprofit Institute found 80% of local nonprofits have reduced program services after school closures and shelter in place orders. More than half of respondents said they would be very or somewhat unlikely to provide any services in eight weeks if current conditions go on.
According to the Nonprofit Institute, the majority of nonprofit organizations have savings that would allow them to run for up to two months. Almost 60% of nonprofit leaders surveyed said they would “very likely” make payroll in the next four weeks, while only a third said the same about paying staff in eight weeks.
In a press release, Emily Young, the Nonprofit Institute’s executive director, said the “economic crisis is taking a major toll on the capacity of these organizations to help others. They need immediate economic assistance from government, philanthropy, and the community at large. We encourage everyone to do their part in donating to the organizations they hold dear.”
In the past few weeks, St. Anthony’s Padua Dining Room in Menlo Park has been serving about 300 people a day for lunch, a nearly 25% jump in daily guests. Before San Mateo County issued its shelter in place order, the dining room had decided to switch to providing hot to-go meals to its guests rather than having people eat inside.
While there have been increased expenses from packaging food and offering single-serving drinks, Ono said local businesses and individual donors have been very supportive of the dining room.
“The fortunate part is the last couple of years the economy has been pretty healthy, and there have been some significant donors, individuals and companies, that have provided a fair amount of donations,” Ono said. “But the thing is that when you start dipping into cash and cash reserves, if this goes on too long it’ll cause some concern.”
Ono said there are no concerns about being able to keep on paying staff. Building improvement and maintenance projects they hoped to do with their freezers, flooring and heater have had to be paused.
“Our objective is to keep serving because we know there's a need out there,” Ono said. “And we’re anticipating it's going to be a growing need at least for the next couple of months.”