Gratitude from the Office of Mission Advancement

In mid-March, when we learned that the county and state were going to mandate a shelter in place program, we knew we had to act. Right away we realized that this would severely impact our parishes who could not hold Masses. Parishes rely on the generosity of their member’s gifts to fund the operations. Without these first collection gifts, true financial hardship would be a reality.
The Offices for Mission Advancement and Finance realized that 33 of our parishes were not set up to receive online donations. We created a giving portal with a drop-down ability to target donations to all parishes in the Diocese. We also included the 4 Chinese Pastoral groups. This secure site allows donors to make gifts of any amount, have it directed to their parish (or parishes!) and pay with credit card or direct debit from a checking account.

The Parish Support online giving portal has been a success! Many of your parishes have seen wonderfully generous support from your flock. Through April, we received 850+ gifts totaling more than $84,000 in parish support.

Checks were mailed to the Parishes last week for the funds raised. The parishes will enter this data into their Parishioner database and gratefully send a thank you and acknowledgement.
Parishes receive 100% of the gifts made. The Office for Mission Advancement is absorbing the transaction fees. If there are any questions about this program, please reach out to me. Parish specific donations can still be made at: https://oakdiocese.org/parish-support .
 
Peace,
Giles Miller
[email protected]