Catholic Ministries Appeal 2018

No Appeal money has ever been used for victim settlements or legal costs related to clergy sex abuse cases. Gifts to the 2018 Appeal will be used only for the benefit of designated ministries and programs identified and for no other purposes. An independent board of directors stewards all funds and ensures they are only distributed according to the donor’s intent.

As noted on the Catholic Ministries Appeal pledge card, “All gifts will be used solely for the restricted purposes of the 2019 Catholic Ministries Appeal. The Appeal supports specific ministries and programs of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester and other Catholic organizations.”

The Catholic Ministries Appeal (formerly known as the Annual Diocesan Appeal) is one of the major efforts of the Catholic Foundation of Southern Minnesota in fulfilling its mission to financially support spiritual, educational and social needs of the Catholic community in southern Minnesota. The Foundation is an independent Minnesota nonprofit corporation that is tax exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). An independent board of directors stewards all funds and ensures they are only distributed according to the donor’s intent.

It doesn’t. Only 5% of the dollars collected, or five cents of every $1.00 raised from the Appeal are used for its administration. 5% is at or below the standard cost (state-wide and nationally) of administering a like-size Appeal.

The formula to calculate parish goals is based on two factors: church support and registered families.

The formula takes into consideration the ability of the parish to raise money based on the number of registered families and the actual amount of money the parish generates from church support. Gifts, bequests and special fundraising are not included in church support. However, 50% of gambling revenues are included as church support.

Church support from the most recently completed fiscal year is calculated for each parish. If a parish financially subsidizes a Catholic school, then the amount of church support is reduced by 50% of the amount of subsidy paid to the school in the most recently completed fiscal year. The net amount of church support for a parish is then divided by the total church support for all parishes in the Diocese. The result of this calculation is the church-support percentage.

The second factor is the number of Registered Families in the parish. This number is taken from the most recent calendar year-end census report. The number of registered families in a given parish is divided by the total registered families in the Diocese. The result of this calculation is the registered families percentage.

The two percentages are then averaged (added together and divided by two). The average of the two factors is the percentage of the Appeal goal that the parish is targeted to achieve.

This year, 100% of every dollar exceeding the goal will be returned to the parish if your parish is participating in a capital project (refer to pgs. 40-41 in this guidebook for more details). Note that you must return a Parish Project Registration form (included in this guidebook) designating how the funds will be used before the Foundation will distribute the rebate. Return your completed Parish Project Registration form to the Foundation by May 31, 2018.

For the 2019 Catholic Ministries Appeal, any parish scheduled to go into oratory status will have a $0 goal. However, we encourage financial support from the entire Catholic community to fund ministries and programs across southern Minnesota, and parishioners of churches scheduled for oratory status will still receive direct mail soliciting their help.