Our Queens goal for the diocesan campaign for Catholic education is $2,650,000, representing 1.25x our annual offertory. One month into Queens’ S3 campaign, I can announce what we are already 57% of the way to our goal, with pledges of more than $1,500,000 from only 224 donors representing just 14% of our 1,550 registered households! This is an amazing start!
Now it’s your turn. If just 14% of the people can account for nearly 60% of the goal, the other 86% of our parishioners should surely be able to make up the difference between $1,500,000 and $2,650,000! Have you made your pledge to S3? The Diocese now has over $16,000,000 in pledges to the campaign!
In the Diocese of Lansing, we have 8,500 students enrolled in 28 grade schools and 4 regional high schools with more than 600 teachers. Nationwide, there are currently 1,700,000 students enrolled in nearly 7,000 Catholic schools with some 150,000 faith-filled teachers.
The campaign funds raised at all 72 parishes of our diocese will go to increase financial aid and scholarships for families using our Catholic schools and giving raises and retention bonuses to Catholic school teachers.
20% of S3 raised at Queens stays at Queens. This would be over half a million dollars that we will bank toward the support of the administration and programs of the Jackson Catholic Schools. Any amount we raise over goal will stay in the parish.
Though a specific gift amount is suggested in the Bishop’s letter, every gift is optional, and every ‘ask’ for your gift is ‘aspirational’. The amount is based on a three year average of your offertory giving and then multiplied out over a five year anticipated pledge.
Please consider the specific gift amount requested as an amount to pledge and pay over time on a schedule of your choosing, not as something you have to give now. All of us are able to give more when we extend the gift for a period of years.
If you feel you absolutely cannot give anything close to what Bishop is asking, the alternative doesn’t have to be to give nothing at all, something I am encountering in some of my outreach to donors. A one-time gift of any size is preferable!
The Catholic Foundation would love to hear from you if you wish to discuss gifts of stock or real estate, planned gifts or IRA distributions. I would be happy to put you in touch with them.
I am asking that you place pledge card envelopes in the offertory collection at Mass or drop them off at the parish office. Please do not stamp them and mail them to the Catholic Foundation. Checks should be made payable to ‘Stewardship for Saints and Scholars.’
This is a ’boutique’ campaign allowing you to make your commitment however you like: how much to pledge, when to start giving, how often you will be billed, how to pay, etc. The power is in your hands.
‘THANK YOU’ to all those who have made their commitment to the S3 campaign. We had 717 donors during the Witness to Hope Campaign of 2016. We have a long way to go before we surpass that participation rate. Here again is the link to the S3 campaign video:
