It is of vital importance that all donations raised are directed to the people that we serve in the most impactful manner.
Leon Rieger takes this to heart & cautiously leads our finance team to ensure that our mission goals align with our budget. Leon shares with us his personal story & how he goes above & beyond to get the job done!
Michelle and I were blessed to go on the first mission in 2014. One thing that I immediately realized was that the financial needs of our villages would always exceed our funds. This has affected my perspective in many ways although the most profound perspective is the value of our presence with the villagers along with our prayers. No amount of money can buy our presence and prayers as we see each year.
This also affects how we manage our limited funds for the mission. Our Core Team’s first goal is to be good stewards of all money from fundraising partners. Each year, we establish budgets for each category of spending with Core Team approval. All extra expenses are also approved by the Core Team. We challenge the cost versus the benefits of all expenditures which is difficult given the many requests for money from many different people and groups. Yes, we have to say “unfortunately, we cannot support this project” much more than we wish.
At the end of each year, we produce a financial report that the Core Team and others review. St. Anthony of Padua’s auditors reviewed our financial operations in 2018 and said that we were doing a great job.
What are our sources of revenue and expenses? The largest component has historically been tied to our week on mission. Each missionary is required to fundraise $1,700 for our mission trip. This covers the costs for transportation, lodging, and meals. This also covers the costs for priests and supplies for the medical, dental, and catechetical portions of our mission week.
Extra funds from other donors and 2nd collections are used for ongoing services through the year for our villages and other investments like building chapels, catechetical training, extra medical and dental equipment, etc. Each month, we wire about $1,000 (USD) to the parish in Trujillo to assist in fuel, insurance, and repairs for parish trucks and salary for a layperson hired by the parish.
Our next major investment for 2020 and beyond is high school education for students from our villages because the Honduran government does not plan to add a high school for our villages. In 2020, we sent 12 high school students to Escuela Agricola Virgen de Suyapa which is a private high school near San Pedro Sula. The total annual cost per student for tuition, supplies, room, board, and travel is $2,500. Only 6 of these students made it through the end of 2020 due to the pandemic. There were 16 students graduating from junior high last year. This means 22 students may want to go to high school in 2021. $2,500 times 22 students is $55,000. By 2024, we are expecting 51 high school students from our high school. Our mission cannot afford this without significant extra donations.
As you will recall, we had an anonymous donor contribute $80,000 in 2019 and that extra money was used for major investments in education, religion, and health in 2019 and into 2020. We are working with this anonymous donor and others to find a solution for 2021 and beyond for a high school education for our villagers. This was Deacon Mike Mims’ dream and now Deacon Mike Mort’s dream. Please pray for us as we work in this area.
Thank you for your financial support and more importantly thank you for your presence and prayers for our villages. You have improved the lives of many villagers from a health, dental, and Catholic perspective and now through education.
Bendiciones,
Leon