Even as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago dips into savings at the rate of $1 million a month to keep churches and schools open, the groundwork has quietly been laid for a double-barreled fundraising effort officials expect to bring in more than $300 million.
Two major campaigns–a $100 million effort targeted at a select group of deep-pocketed donors, and a $200-plus million push through the parishes–will be officially announced later this fall, to take place in 2001 and 2002.
But the archdiocese has already tested the waters in both campaigns, and the early results have outstripped even those unprecedented expectations.
The parish-based campaign will ask each of the archdiocese’s 378 churches in Cook and Lake Counties to raise an amount equal to a year’s operating revenue. Eighty percent of that money would remain in the parish; the other 20 percent would go to the archdiocese, to be shared with needier parishes and schools.
Officials acknowledge that asking parishioners to pledge an extra year’s worth of donations, on top of their usual giving, is a tall order.
But in 23 parishes that ran a version of the “Sharing Christ’s Gifts” capital campaign this spring, 22 surpassed that goal. Many doubled or tripled the mark. The churches were asked to raise a total of $14 million; instead, they raised $25 million.
That gives archdiocesan officials reason to believe they can avoid a parish- and school-closing nightmare like the one that rocked Chicago in 1990.
“There is a huge, huge, bright light at the end of the tunnel, and we can see it,” said Raymond Coughlin, director of development for the archdiocese.
In preparing for the two major campaigns, the archdiocese has worked hard to make its case that need is great and urgent. On Wednesday, Cardinal Francis George laid out the facts for hundreds of priests who will bear much of the burden for making the parish-based campaign work.
But when a television report triggered by that meeting suggested that the archdiocese was heading for bankruptcy, archdiocesan officials called a news conference Thursday to calm the waters.
“This is nothing new,” said Thomas Brennan, director of finance. “This archdiocese has been around for 150 years and it will be here 150 years from now.”
While deficit spending did leap from $3 million in fiscal 1998 to $12 million in 1999, it would take five more years of unchecked spending to drain down the archdiocese’s $65 million endowment. The archdiocese also owns hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate and other assets, which are not on the table.
Brennan said no decisions have been made on any further cutbacks or closings. The archdiocese currently provides more than $20 million a year in grants and subsidies to keep needier schools and churches operating.
But Brennan did offer a clue that the archdiocese is focusing less on cutting spending than on boosting revenue: “I believe increased giving, the generosity of people, is unbounded.”
The $100 million major-donors campaign will pump money directly into the city parochial schools that have proved to be one of the biggest drains on church coffers. Officials have tried to keep that effort under wraps, hoping to secure a large portion of the gifts before going public with the news.
The parish campaign, meanwhile, seeks to shore up the archdiocese at its roots, the neighborhood churches.
If a parish raised $500,000 in its collection plate in fiscal 2000, it would be asked to raise an additional $500,000 in capital pledges during the campaign, to be collected over three years. The parish would keep $400,000 to be used at its discretion. The other $100,000 would go to the archdiocese, to be redistributed to poorer parishes.
If the hypothetical parish raised more than $500,000, it would keep 100 percent of the extra money.
In that way, the archdiocese hopes to establish good fiscal health among the local churches, at a time when huge bills are coming due on physical plants nearing a century or more in age. The archdiocese’s bottom line would benefit indirectly, because much of its revenue comes from the parishes. The archdiocese is spending $8 million on the parish fundraising campaign.
But Coughlin said the key to the campaign’s success is basic: Ask for the money, and people will respond.
Rev. William Hegarty, pastor of St. Anselm Church, found that to be the case for his tiny parish at 61st Street and South Michigan Avenue after it volunteered to take part in the pilot campaign.
“It floored me. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Based on the previous year’s donations, the archdiocese set a goal of $84,000 for St. Anselm’s 250 parishioners, many of whom are retirees. Hegarty upped the ante to $125,000. In three months, he had pledges for $184,140.
“It’s not just the money,” Hegarty said of the campaign. “This has built the conviction that we are going to stay here. It was an opportunity for us to let the city and the archdiocese know that we are determined to hang on to our church.”
