An appeal to the heart
Annual Catholic Appeal changes
tactics in quest to raise $8 million

By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

Fourteen parishes learned a valuable lesson last year, one archdiocesan stewardship officials are hoping to pass on to every parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago: If you want Catholics to support the mission of the church, you have to ask them.

And with $8 million of needs to be met—everything from grants to needy parishes and schools, ministry to disabled Catholics, help to people around the world through Catholic Relief Services, and services provided by the archdiocese such as the publication of The Catholic New World—this year, each pastor is being asked to make the appeal personally.

That’s the point of a new procedure for the Annual Catholic Appeal that was piloted last year and is being rolled out to every parish this year, said Barbara Shea Collins, director of development services for the archdiocese.

“People need to understand that we are not a congregational church,” Collins said. “As Catholics, we have a responsibility not just in our own homes, our own parishes, but for the wider church. We are responsible for each other, all of us.”

This is the third year officials have said they need to raise $8 million in the appeal, but it has fallen short the past two years. Last year, it brought in about $6.5 million, Collins said.

The procedure sets up a three-weekend process in which the Annual Catholic Appeal will be announced Feb. 11-12, people will be asked to commit to a pledge Feb. 18-19, and those who missed the commitment weekend will be asked to submit their pledge Feb. 25-26.

Commitment weekend includes the playing of a homily by Cardinal George explaining the need—and how much Catholics have a spiritual need to give.

To make it work, each parish has been asked to select a three-person team to attend a training session with the pastor and coordinate the appeal. During the three-week process, the team will make sure information and materials are available. On Announcement Sunday, the pastor should preach about stewardship; on Commitment Sunday, each parish is asked to play a homily from Cardinal George. Immediately after the homily, volunteers are to distribute pledge cards, pencils and envelopes to one person from each household, and the pastor is to walk the congregation, step by step, through filling out the cards before they are collected.

The pastor should repeat the process the following weekend for anyone who did not fill out a card the first weekend.

“We shouldn’t be collecting a lot of money that weekend,” Collins said. “We really want to emphasize that this a stewardship pledge, not a second collection.”

This year also, each parish will be asked to meet a goal of 6 percent of its annual offertory income. Parishes that exceed the goal will get any extra money back; those that make a good faith effort to follow the plan but don’t meet the goal will not have to.

But parishes that don’t form a team, attend the training or follow the three-week process will have to meet their goal; if not enough pledges are received, they will be billed for the remainder in December.

Using the process, 13 out of 14 pilot parishes met and exceeded their goals last year. The one that didn’t made a good effort and came close, Collins said.

All of them far exceeded previous years’ collections, and the average amount collected from the pilot parishes topped the average amount collected in all parishes by $40,000.

Still, Collins said, the archdiocese knows getting people to donate is not easy in an era of economic uncertainty for many families, donor fatigue after a year of natural disasters and ongoing concerns about clerical sexual abuse.

None of the money collected in the appeal pays for costs related to the abuse crisis, she said.