2024-2025 Annual Budget
This will be the 5th consecutive year that we see an INCREASE in the MISSION (annual) budget. The move from $1.934 million to $2.115 million ($167k) represents approximately a 9.36% increase year over year.
This budget of $2.115 million is made with the expectation of total generosity to our Ministry Fund (the fund that supports this budget) being around $2.223 million. The table above represents the overview of income and expenses for ‘24-’25 vs ‘23-’24
Here's a brief explanation of the increases or decreases for each budget category…
Staffing: The $120,000 increase year over year jumps us up to 59.43% of our budget being used for Staffing. Our long-standing principle is for the percentage of our budget being allocated for staffing to remain between 55 and 60%. We find ourselves approaching the top of that range because this year’s budget increase includes some initial staffing of a 3rd campus that could launch as soon as Fall of 2025. Related to 3rd campus staffing, we’ll officially be transitioning Eric Jacobs from Pastoral Resident to Church (Campus) Planter. We’ll be hiring a 10 hour/week Worship Resident, Messiah University student Ethan Narber, who has already been apprenticing with Eric Blas. Potentially, Ethan could become the Campus Worship Director for the future 3rd campus. Upon hiring a new Central Kid Min Director, Matt Wilkins will transition to a part-time role serving as the Campus Kid Min Director for the 3rd Campus as well as Assistant Campus Pastor at that 3rd Campus. In addition to getting started with 3rd campus staffing, the increase to the staffing budget is related to higher expenses for returning staff, including a 2% Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) and resulting increases to employee taxes and Daybreak’s contribution for the 403b’s of full-time employees. There is also a slight increase in the cost of medical benefits for full-time employees who utilize them. Finally, other new staffing dollars are allocated to strengthen some of our central systems and supports. We’ll be hiring Messiah University Senior Lauren Forlow to do a 10 hour per week paid internship as a Media Production Assistant. We will also hire a Mental Health Services Coordinator to meet the growing needs of our Mental Health & Support Ministries. Finally, the budget includes an increase in paid cleaning hours as our buildings are getting used more and more frequently. That’s a lot of movement in one year, but we’re so excited for the progress towards better central support in key areas, as well as strong beginnings for our future 3rd campus staffing.
Operations (Infrastructure): The increase to the Operations budget category ($25,500) is primarily due to some industries where inflation has impacted costs significantly. For instance, our costs for electricity and property & liability insurance combined are approximately $17,000 of the $25,000+ increase- in ONE year. Yikes! There are a handful of areas where we’ll see some cost savings year over year as we’ve been working over the 6 months to try to cut costs (without cutting quality) where possible, but there are also plenty of other areas where we’re just seeing the cost of inflation and the cost of doing “increased business”. Despite the increased cost, the overall percentage of the budget for Operations costs decreases almost ¾ of a percent from ‘23-’24 to ‘24-’25.
Ministry (Programming and Resourcing): While every area of the budget supports “Ministry”, this budget category looks at the costs of the resources and programming for each ministry department. Year over year, there is a $17,000 increase in this category, which raises the percentage of the overall budget allocated for ministry by 1/20th of a percent. In the ministry budget category, there are two department budgets with significant jumps: Worship Ministries and Mental Health & Support Ministries. There is 1 NEW Ministry, a Security Ministry, that will be starting with a modest $5,000 first-year budget. Outside of those three departments, the remainder of the additions and subtractions to the rest of the ministry departments nets to zero.
Generosity: We’re able to increase the percentage of the budget allocated for generosity for yet another year, moving from 7.5% up to 7.75% for ‘24-’25. There are other ways we’re able to be generous throughout the course of a year beyond the generosity given from gifts to the Ministry Fund, but our goal is to continue to increase this number towards 10%. The largest driver in this category is our “Fair Share” or our financial partnership with the Eastern PA Alliance in which the expectation is that every church gives 5% of their income (based on the previous calendar year’s giving.) Of the $164,000 in this category, almost $106,000 is earmarked for that. Other LOCAL generosity that this budget category supports is an annual Church Planting gift, and gifts to our Local Partners: Capital Area Pregnancy Center (CAPC), New Hope Ministries, 180 Ministries, and CWS. Wehave been giving an annual gift to CAPC, but we’re excited this year to begin to provide a monthly (albeit modest) gift to each of these other partners. Globally, we have three sets of SENT OUT international workers whom we support (the 3rd one is a NEW one starting in January). We give monthly gifts to the general Great Commission Fund as well designated Great Commission Fund gifts to four sets of international partners. We also set aside a little bit of money to help our international partners with one-time gifts/projects each year.
Reserve Funding: We’re going to continue to fund Reserves at $4,000 a month. While our reserves are financially healthy, we want to continue to be intentional about funding reserves for things like temporary dips in revenue, unexpected expenses, or God-provided opportunities. Staying at the same dollar amount slightly dips the overall percentage of our budget being allocated for Reserves from about 2.5% to about 2.25%.
Current Financial Report
Daybreak’s Ministry Year (and thus yearly budget) runs from September to August.
Ministry Year Financials
(Sep. ‘24 - Aug. ‘25)
- Total Income as of 10/31/24: $392,607
- Total Expenses as of 10/31/24: $335,196
Budget (Ministry Fund) Financials
(Sep. ‘24 - Aug. ‘25)
Questions? Email our Pastor of Operations, Jason Fickes.
