Diocese of Springfield in Illinois

Your parish is being asked to participate in the Centennial Campaign in three ways:

1. Conduct a Parish Vitality Study to discern how your parish mission impacts your community and to ensure funding well into the future for the campus, mission priorities and ministry growth.
2. Create your parish case statement for the campaign and determine your project goals, timeline (all parish campaigns should be in an "active" phase by January 1, 2025), and if you will need fundraising council. The Office for Parish Vitality and Mission Advancement will assist with your goals and recommendation for Catholic campaign consultants, as needed.
3. Conduct your Parish Centennial Campaign. An "active" campaign is one that has a start-end date, campaign fundraising goal, pledges accepted, and clear goals for renewal. A benchmark of an average fundraising campaign at a parish is 1.5 times annual offertory, however your goal should encompass your mission priroties, campus needs, ministry and staffing needs, debt reduction, savings growth and long-term sustainability through participation in endowments.

As an individual and/or household, you have the opportunity to participate as a contributor (time, talent, or treasure) in your parish campaign, which a tithe of the amount raised will be contributed to the larger diocesan campaign for renovation and renewal of diocesan campuses and endowments. If you desire to make a contribution to the diocesan-wide campaign effort, you may do so and designate your gift to any one of the projects.

Prior to the launch of the Centennial Campaign, any parish campaign which was Bishop approved was excluded from the Parish Community Tithe. However, the Centennial Campaign is not solely in support of one parish, instead it is a collaborative effort of all parishes. As the universal church, our mission priorities include the work needed for dioccesan campus renovation and the diocesan endowment renewals. Your parish tithe toward this effort is only based on the money raised in the individual parish capital campaign effort.

Each parish should begin by discerning their mission priorities, campus needs, and the capacity and resources needed to effectively "Go and make disciples" (Matthew 28). To this end, each parish should begin with a Parish Vitality Study. This report will be completed by parish staff and leaders, then reviewed by the Pastoral Planning 2025 team and the Parish Vitality Officce. We will review and present a report that evaluates the parish input, diocesan statistical reporting, census data, and other metrics. This report will serve as a guidepost to evaluating parish participation and engage parish staff and leaders in discerning their mission priorities and effectiveness.

Of course, each parish has some type of building assessment needed which may require renovations, demolitions, or new construction. However, this campaign is not just about buildings, rather the people inside those buildings effectively going about the mission of the church.

It is a blessing to have a fully functioning parish campus with no need for building renovations or new construction! Now, it is time to review our discipleship, stewardship, and evangelization plan. Consider these questions:

• Do you have a stewardship council which promotes time, talent, and treasure throughout the year?
• Are there parish staff members that are fully supported and resourced for ministry?
• Are there parish staff needs that you have discussed but not financially invested in at this time?
• Are you able to fully subsidize the cost of parish ministries, including your parish-school?
• Are there parishes nearby yours that could be better equipped for mission if you collaborated in ministry life?
• Has your parish been able to save 3-6 months of savings in the Diocesan Savings & Loan program?
• Does your parish, parish school, or cemetery have long-term sustainable funding in an endowment in the Foundation for the People of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois?