Milwaukee Catholic Herald – March 15, 2007

Churches seek creative ways
to fund building projects

When it comes to financing projects,
matching funds makes sense

By Karen Mahony
Special to your Catholic Herald

GENESSE DEPOT RAISES CROSS — Fr. Robert Gosma, pastor of St. Paul Parish in Genesee Depot, sprinkles holy water on an 8-foot cross before construction workers raised and attached it to the steeple of the new St. Paul Church Feb. 28. Below, workers prepare to mount the cross. Construction of the new church, which will seat 1,078 people, is expected to be completed in August. (Catholic Herald photos by Sam Lucero)

MILWAUKEE — Even with a strong dose of faith, parishes need a helping hand. That’s exactly what St. Rita, Racine, recently received in the form of a substantial monetary pledge from a donor who wished to remain anonymous.

The donation boosted a recently completed building project by allowing the parish to complete the final additions to its new church home years before anyone expected.

An unexpected blessing, the anonymous donor matched parish contributions dollar for dollar to pay for moving and installing the former church’s stained glass windows into the recently completed building.

Augustinian Fr. Joseph Stobba, pastor of St. Rita, expected it would take 10 years to raise the $50,000 to move the windows, but, thanks to the donor, the parish spontaneously accepted the opportunity to raise the entire amount in less than a year.

“We didn’t have that many pledges to help with building the new church,” said Fr. Stobba. “But because of the outright donations that happened, we were able to do this without taking anything from the parish funds.”

For years, St. Rita had two communities of believers under its roof, but Fr. Stobba’s dreams of a handicapped accessible church to hold all the faithful became a reality last year. The combined community, he said, included an increase in parish membership.

“We had two groups of people — those that worshipped in the church and those that worshipped in the gymnasium,” he said explaining that the church was not handicap accessible prior to recent renovation. “Now, we all come together in the same place of worship and we’ve been able to reduce the number of Masses so that the congregation is mixed.”

Matching contribution gifts such as the one experienced at St. Rita Parish can work a couple of ways, according to Joan Feiereisen, principal with Fund Development Corporation, a planning and fund-raising consultant for non-profit organizations throughout southeastern Wisconsin.

Corporations can match funds

“First of all, a major donor may come forward and offer a challenge gift to begin the campaign, and offer to match dollar for dollar to a certain number. This can give the parish some good momentum when the campaign begins,” she said.

“The other type of gift is corporate. Companies will match their employees’ contributions dollar for dollar up to a certain amount each year,” she added. “Some employers even match two to one. However, some companies will not match dollars to religious organizations, so parishes should check with their work program to find out what the restrictions are.”

Nationwide, the church faces a shortage of priests and religious, and rising costs have outpaced the ability of some parishes to survive. However, the need for a place to worship and receive the sacraments has not waned.

For some parishes, renovating their sacred space will suffice. For other communities, building a larger place to worship is necessary. In either situation, the decision to build or restore a church is expensive and requires not only approval from the archdiocesan building commission, but creative financing as well, according to Katie Hoeller, director of parish and school financial services in the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

“The commission reviews both the construction and the financial plans for any new construction or major renovation at four points in the process, and makes a recommendation to the archbishop after each review,” she said. “The review points are: feasibility study, hiring of an architect, review of preliminary plans and final implementation.”

According to Hoeller, parishes must have 50 percent of the project’s cost in cash prior to approval for implementation. However, parishes may still struggle to generate the remaining cash from capital campaign funding, fund-raising, or by designating surplus earnings from their operating revenues.

“A capital campaign is a direct appeal to the parishioners for funds to be used for the building project,” she said. “Other fund-raising involves the sale of a product, such as pizzas or entertainment such as a dinner, auction or lottery, where part of the proceeds are used to pay the expenses of the event and the profit is designated toward the project.”

While campaign financing appeals directly to members of the parish, fund-raising is aimed at both the parish community as well as to others outside the parish, explained Hoeller.

“The type of appeal or fund-raising depends on the size of the project and the location, but large projects always have a capital campaign,” she said.

If parishes are still unable to raise the full amount of the building or renovation project, they can opt to borrow funds from a bank or organization, such as Catholic Knights. Loans such as these result in monthly mortgage payments, which most parishes will quickly try to pay off with debt reduction campaigns and additional pledges beyond their weekly stewardship gifts, according Feiereisen, who recently assisted Shepherd of the Hills, Eden, and St. Matthew, Oak Creek, with their construction projects.

Build in affordable phases

At times, parishes are advised to scale back their plans, or to build in affordable phases, rather than taking on too much debt, Feiereisen explained.

“Too many parishes are taking on too much debt and finding themselves in two, three or more debt reduction campaigns which are very difficult to do,” she said. “They can then launch phase-two campaigns to finish the rest of the building project, which is much more palatable to parishioners than pure debt reduction.”

When Holy Family Parish, Fond du Lac began merging the area’s six Catholic churches into one 16,000-member parish, the community used a combination of capital campaign financing, fund-raising and a bit of “seed” money to finance the project.

According to Fr. Pat Heppe, priest team moderator at Holy Family, the seed money for the new building, scheduled for dedication Dec. 2, 2007, began when he was pastor at St. Joseph, Fond du Lac, 20 years ago.

“We had this ‘New Construction Fund’ and every time the church had a festival, part of the money went into this fund,” he said, “That was part of the seed money we used when we merged the parishes together and all the funds became the Holy Family Building Fund.”

In year three of its five-year capital campaign, Fr. Heppe is optimistic about achieving the necessary funds for the $12.6 million building.

“With the $9.6 million in pledges and the cash collected from the sale of the properties, we need to borrow about another million or so,” he said. “It has been kind of interesting though that many people out of the six parishes have contributed to the project who have not contributed anywhere else. We are seeing more young folks and the area in general seems to be attracting more young folks. We are experiencing an incredible building phenomenon among all types of churches here.”

A touching reminder included in the new parish is the inclusion of several rooms in honor of the recently closed Fond du Lac parishes — St. Joseph, St. Louis, and St. Patrick.

“There will be artifacts from those churches in the rooms to preserve their communities and the feelings associated with them, allowing the parishes to still live on,” said. Fr. Heppe. “They are us and we are us. Holy Family could not be Holy Family without them.”