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Did the FCCW receive a federal loan under Congress’s Payroll Protection Funds? How did the funds help our church?
After considerable discussion within both the Financial Resources Ministry and the Leadership Team, FCCW applied for and received a forgivable loan from the Small Business Administration as part of the Paycheck Protection Program established by Congress as part of the 2020 CARES Act. We felt that it made sense to apply for such a loan given the financial uncertainty we faced in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the likelihood of additional uncertainty going into the 2021 budget year. We received a total of $93,802 through Winchester Cooperative Bank, where we have banked for many years. The amount received was based upon a standard formula which considered 2.5 months of total payroll. The primary intent of these loans was to allow businesses to retain staff and continue to pay for utilities and other building-related items even if revenue fell off due to reduced business (or income from other sources such as pledges in the case of a church). In fact, we did use our funds during a period of 3 months (roughly mid-May through mid-July) to pay our payroll and utilities costs. We have continued to compensate members of our staff who have not been able to perform their regular jobs as a result of the church building being closed, and we have not had to use other resources–such as our usual quarterly Endowment draws–to cover these costs. This provided us some financial flexibility in the second half of 2020.
