We crushed it. You crushed it.

Thank you to the 250 donors who participated in the Crush the COVID Budget Deficit campaign on Giving Tuesday (Dec. 1, 2020). In the midst of all the trials and challenges of the pandemic, it was nice to have a day of excitement and gratitude as goals were met and surpassed time and again. The original goal ($25K) was rapidly surpassed and was raised twice throughout the day ($75K; $115K). And, parishioners continued to step up. In just over 24 hours, parishioners donated over $133,000.What a wonderful demonstration of support and generosity for the parish.  

We are grateful to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati for the incentive they provided to parishes by exempting online donations on Giving Tuesday from the usual assessment. In real dollars, it means that over $10,000 remains in the parish. We would like to acknowledge Craig and Teresa Babcock, longtime parishioners, for organizing the efforts around Giving Tuesday. We would also like to thank Shannon Burwinkel for helping us with the branding behind the effort. 

All these gifts are tremendous blessings for which we are deeply grateful. The success of this effort needs to be sustained throughout the year in order to avoid such deficits in the future. If you have been watching the bulletin over the last 6 months, you saw that there was a weekly deficit to budget in the regular offertory collection. On average, the weekly deficit was over $4,000. Regular offertory giving maintains a consistent cash flow so that the parish can meet its obligations for payroll, utilities, maintenance, and, most importantly, the programming that fulfills the mission of the parish to bring people to encounter Jesus and grow in their relationship with him.

Thanks, again, for Crushin' the COVID Deficit. Now, let's keep it crushed!