Early start for Partners' appeal

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

The  2020 Partners in Charity Appeal begins this month with a $5 million goal, the same as in the past several years.
St. Oscar Romero is this year’s patron, announced Michael Gillespie, diocesan director of the Office of Stewardship and Development.
Salvadoran Archbishop Romero “spoke tremendously against poverty and injustice,” Mr. Gillespie said. He was assassinated while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980 and canonized on Oct. 14, 2018.
“We want to help those in need” through Partners in Charity, Mr. Gillespie said.
Some parishes are preparing to collect Partners donations early, before starting their solicitation for the Legacy of Hope capital campaign, as some other parishes did last year, Mr. Gillespie said.
The annual Partners appeal helps support day-to-day operations of 26 ministries. The one-time, several-year-long Legacy of Hope campaign aims to assist in long-term funding of certain parish and diocesan needs.
The 11 parishes in Legacy of Hope’s Block 3 are to begin their Partners appeal this month, Mr. Gillespie said. Ideally, they will finish their Partners collection before embarking on the Legacy of Hope campaign in March.
He said all other parishes are to start their Partners collection at the usual time, the beginning of Lent.
Last year the first nine parishes to embark on the Legacy of Hope campaign started Partners in January, and eight parishes surpassed their Partners goal as well as reached their Legacy of Hope goal, Mr. Gillespie said. He called those achievements a “good sign” for this year.
Last year Partners raised $4,760,056, not quite reaching the $5 million goal, but the previous three years it surpassed the $5 million goal, Mr. Gillespie noted.
“Our numbers are not going in the right direction,” he said, pointing out Worcester diocesan figures reported to a national publication, The Official Catholic Directory by P.J. Kenedy & Sons. These figures included 2,986 deaths and 2,196 baptisms in 2019. Mr. Gillespie also said there was a drop in Mass attendance as indicated by the October parish pew count that went from 48,107 in 2018 to 45,982 in 2019.
He connected these declines with a national decline in charitable donations from a Giving USA report from last June.
“Following the four years of sustained growth in the domestic charitable contributions that exceeded $435 billion in 2017, the 2019 report documented a 1.7 percent decline in donations, due largely to reductions in individual giving,” Mr. Gillespie said.
“The Giving USA report unfortunately was unable to delineate the ‘why,’” but the data infers that traditional approaches like direct mail and in-pew solicitations are not as successful as they once were.
He offered the following suggestions for how Partners in Charity can respond.    
“We’re trying to reach out to our donors, especially ones who have lapsed” in giving, and to communicate better how Partners donations are used, he said. “It’s also about bringing new people on board.” He spoke of reaching working young adults who “want to give a gift back to God in gratitude” and people just joining the Church who may not be familiar with Partners in Charity.
“You’re engaging people, and … reminding them of the good works of the Church, especially at the local level,” he said.    
He also said Partners is trying to retain present donors, “reminding them how grateful we are” for their partnership.
Mr. Gillespie said communication about the appeal comes through mailings, parish bulletin inserts and Flocknote messages that parishes can display on their websites.
“The Catholic Free Press is one of our tools of evangelization, to reach out to donors who are in the pews,” he said.
“We want to support our pastors,” he added, noting that speakers are available to come to their churches, first to thank people for their support and seek their ongoing prayers that “hearts will be touched and generosity will be inspired.”

Agencies and ministries supported in 2020

Charities

Catholic Charities
Priests’ Retirement
Retired Priests Health Ministry
McAuley Nazareth Home for Boys
Pernet Family Health Service
St. John Diocesan Cemetery System
Diocesan Stewardship and Development

Education

Catholic Schools Office
Office of Religious Education
Ongoing Priestly Formation
Grant-in-Aid for Schools
Seminarian Education  
Advanced Studies for Clergy and Laity
Communications Ministry

Ministry

Catholic Campus Ministry
Pastoral Planning
African Ministry
Hispanic Apostolate
Office of Hispanic/Latino Ministry
Office of Marriage and Family
Minister to Priests
Office of the Diaconate
NEW for Youth and Young Adults
Respect Life Office
St. Paul Cathedral
Vocations Office and House of Studies
Office for Divine Worship