Strengthening our parishes is essential to face the challenges of our age.

The heart of our diocese is our parishes. Always mindful that we are a universal Church, it is unquestionably at the parish level where we most regularly feel God’s presence through the celebration of the Sacraments and involvement in our local Catholic community. 

With this understanding that a parish is the community that nourishes our spirituality as Catholics, the Catholic Community Foundation is committed to helping create more vibrant parish communities by advancing philanthropy and catholic stewardship in several ways including introducing offertory enhancement, legacy giving, and endowment management.

Offertory Enhancement

We invite you to view the above recording, "Driving Increased and Sustained Giving Through an Enhanced Offertory Appeal" featuring Fr. Michael Matusz, pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish which experienced an offertory increase during the challenges of the pandemic; Joanie Lewis from Our Sunday Visitor; and, Patrick Grace, executive director of the Catholic Community Foundation. Recorded May 24,  2022.

The Catholic Community Foundation has partnered with Cathedral Corporation and Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) to provide a unique offertory enhancement program that combines critical faith formation with successful techniques of inspiring increased giving.

Components of Running an Increased Offertory Program (IOP)

  • The program is conducted over 6-9 weeks (depending upon the vendor selected) and includes personalized letters to registered households, use of lay witnesses, a Pastor in-pew commitment weekend, thank you letters to responders and follow up letters to the non-responders.
  • The appeal concludes with giving thanks and providing a summary of result reported to the parish community.
  • Two experienced partners to select from who manage the week-to-week administration of the program from fulfillment of printed materials to reporting of outcomes and recommended next steps. 

Benefits of an IOP

  • The communications provide increased parishioner investment in the mission and ministries vital to the Church, while cultivating stewardship awareness.
  • Parishes experience an immediate increase in offertory beginning with commitment weekend.
  • Each vendor offers an investment guarantee.
  • Additional outcomes include increase in utilization of electronic giving, new member registrations, legacy giving disclosures, and new requests for envelope usage.

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