Print Issue: September 12, 2002

Rebate Program Launched As Capital Campaign Wraps Up

By Rebecca Rakoczy, Staff Writer

ATLANTA - Act now, and your parish will get a significant rebate.

That's the message the archdiocesan development office is sending parishes who haven't as yet fulfilled their archdiocesan capital campaign promises.

While the archdiocese has met its five-year, $40 million capital campaign goal, there are still some outstanding pledges made by parishioners throughout the archdiocese.

That has led archdiocesan Development Director Ansley Murphey and Chief Financial Officer Gary Meader to devise a plan to help boost pledge fulfillment while aiding parishes in their own capital needs campaigns.

From now until Dec. 31, 2002, the majority of parishes who fulfill the balance of their original pledges to the archdiocesan capital campaign could see a substantial amount of that pledge go to their own parish.

For example, if a parish or mission falls within the category of receiving a rebate of 75 percent, and they have a balance due of $50,000 in outstanding pledges, then the parish or mission would have the opportunity to receive as much as $37,500 by the end of the year, Murphey said.

Any amount the archdiocese retains from this point forward will be applied to the archdiocesan tuition assistance fund, she said. The percentage rebated back to each parish will vary based on that parish's original performance in the campaign, as well as their current status.

For many pastors, who merged their own building capital campaigns with the archdiocesan campaign, reminding folks to make good on their pledges can be a daunting task.

Msgr. Bill Hoffman of St. Joseph's Church, Dalton, is just one of the priests in the archdiocese who faced the challenge of fulfilling both the archdiocesan-wide and his own church's capital campaign pledges. While the parish has fulfilled its archdiocesan commitment, it still has outstanding pledges, despite the completion of the church's expansion more than a year ago, he said. Some were good intentioned but never fulfilled their obligation at all; others pledged over a longer time period than the five-year program. For Msgr. Hoffman, any money collected now would mean a 100 percent return to his parish, since St. Joseph's has already fulfilled its archdiocesan pledge, Murphey said.

When it started, the archdiocese's capital campaign was one of the most ambitious in the country, seeking to build schools, churches and renovate existing parishes to the tune of $50 million. Today as the campaign winds down, all of the original objectives have been fulfilled, Murphey said. Parishes so far have received $27 million. The campaign provided seed money for the five new Catholic schools, which included three new elementary schools, and two new high schools, as well as creating endowment funds for tuition assistance for Catholic schools and seminarian education, and creating a fund for priest retirements. It also helped expand campus ministry programs like the new Lyke Center at Atlanta University and a Catholic center at Kennesaw State University.