The operating budget for the Diocese of Newark is has historically been approved each year at Convention as the culmination of a five-month process that begins in August with a call for funding requests.
After all budget requests are in, the Finance staff, under the direction of the CFO, prepares a draft budget that is presented to the Budget and Finance (B&F) Committee of the Diocesan Council for initial review. Numbers are refined over the next few months, then the budget is publicly presented to the diocese and published shortly afterwards for comments. After any final revisions, the budget is approved by the B&F Committee and then by Council and added to the Convention schedule.
With the move to a fall Convention, it has become necessary for Council to act as the sole approver of the budget, so the final step in the above process is a second approval by Council.
The budget includes the compensation expenses of the Bishop's staff, costs related to Episcopal House, our pledge to The Episcopal Church, outreach, and all ministries overseen by Council. It does not include the income and expenses of the Trustees of the Episcopal Fund and Diocesan Properties, nor the Bishop’s Discretionary Fund, which are both maintained separately.
The CFO presents regular budget-vs-actual updates to Diocesan Council at their meetings.