The Catholic Community Foundation of the Diocese of Cleveland fosters faith-based stewardship in the community for the spiritual, educational and charitable needs of all. But its role became even more important during the coronavirus pandemic when the public celebration of Mass was suspended for more than two months.
As a result, many parishes experienced a sudden, significant drop in income. Patrick Grace, Catholic Community Foundation executive director, said plans were discussed to help parishes remain viable during the pandemic and beyond through the SECURE parish offertory/revenue recovery program. Pastors also can help apply for help to address the needs of parishioners during the pandemic through the Emergency Response Fund that launched in April.
All 185 parishes in the eight-county diocese were invited to learn more about the SECURE program, with nearly 80 deciding to participate, Grace said. Early results showed that participating parishes experienced double-digit increases in their offertory collections.
Grace said the program started just after the suspension of publicly celebrated Masses in late March. “We recognize that many parishes faced financial challenges and we wanted to help them remain financially viable,” he said. Those in the SECURE program are paired 1:1 with a relationship manager from the foundation staff. They also have an opportunity to attend weekly webinars that focus on topics like virtual communication, social media, offertory collections and online fundraising. There is a portal on the foundation website where participating parishes can access resources, learn best practices and review the archived webinars.
He also recommended that parishes offer a secure online option for donations and that they share that information prominently on their websites and other platforms. The foundation will work with them and help them secure a vendor, if needed. However, as a safety net during the pandemic, the foundation developed the Universal Offertory Program as a simple way for parishes to receive offertory donations online. Although churches are open for public Masses once again, capacity is limited, some parishioners are uncomfortable attending in person or are unable to because of their health, so online giving options allow them to continue supporting their parish financially.
As the pandemic continues, so does the financial impact to parishes, Grace said. Many have canceled summer festivals and other events that traditionally provided a revenue stream, while others decided to have their raffles, but not the carnival. “We are working with them to provide ideas and suggestions,” Grace said. And the diocesan legal staff is available to offer advice and answer questions.
Some parishes offered drive-through pickup of palms on Palm Sunday while others distributed flowers on Mother’s Day and offered blessings as parishioners drove through the parking lot, Grace said. Foundation staff reminded them to have boxes available to accept offertory collections.
Father Anthony Suso, pastor of St. Columbkille Parish in Parma, credits the SECURE program with helping him tackle several issues at his parish.
“I knew immediately after the church closures that we would have a drop in offertory collections,” he said, so he decided to reach out for assistance. He estimated there was an 80% decline in collections, which meant St. Columbkille had to dip into its savings. “We were fortunate enough to have savings, but that’s not sustainable. We’re seeing an uptick now,” he said, since participating in SECURE.
Also, SECURE helped him draft a letter to parishioners. The communication served several purposes including a parish census, which Father Suso – who was appointed pastor in December 2017 -- said was long overdue. In addition to collecting updated names, phone numbers, addresses and email addresses, he shared information on the Mass and confession schedule.
“We got a tremendous response,” he said. St. Columbkille also decided to join Flocknote, an online communication platform to help keep parishioners updated. Father Suso said previously, the parish database had only a few hundred emails. “Now we have about 1,300,” he said, noting it is a major shift for his parish, which has many older members.
“We also rebuilt our website and added our weekly bulletin.”
But one of the biggest surprises was the number of people who viewed livestreamed Masses on the parish website during the suspension of public Masses. Father Suso said at times 4,000-6,000 people watched on the website, with several hundred more tuning in on Facebook.
Father Mark Riley, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish on Cleveland’s West Side, also was pleased with the results he got from the SECURE program.
“It’s been great. They offer very practical ideas and helped us focus our attention in certain areas,” he said. St. Michael’s, an inner-city parish, has a small staff and very different demographics than St. Columbkille, but Father Riley said the foundation staff worked with him to meet his needs.
“Their suggestions were a great help in getting our website up to date,” he said. And Father Riley said the Universal Offertory Program has been helpful.
St. Michael’s took advantage of the SECURE program’s assistance in drafting a letter to parishioners to update its census and data base. As with St. Columbkille, the letter included a number of other pieces of important information about the parish.
“I attended some of the online webinars and got some helpful suggestions, as did our bookkeeper, Father Riley said. “They (foundation staff) were super supportive and very pastoral,” he added.
“The diocese is service-minded,” Grace said. We are trying to reach out and help the parishes.”