Ingenuity produces great results at Ascension

On its face, the fund-raising campaign for Ascension of Our Lord Church in LaPlace seemed to target a need that was more utilitarian than spiritual.
 

But when the parish decided to participate for the first time in the #iGiveCatholic online giving day on Nov. 29 – which brought in more than $1.8 million for 323 Catholic churches, schools and organizations in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and five other dioceses – it was trying to raise $30,000 to construct a new restroom connected to the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel.
 
So what does a restroom have to do with perpetual adoration or a person’s spiritual growth? A lot, said Father Walter Austin, pastor, especially when the closest public restroom facilities during the middle of the night are two miles away.

“A bathroom sounds like something so mundane,” Father Austin said. “I explained to the people why we need it. Most of our volunteers come from the people who sit down and spend time with the Lord, and they begin to ask themselves, ‘How am I using my gifts and talents?’ It’s a natural outgrowth of their prayer in the chapel.”

Father Austin was amazed by his parish’s inaugural participation in the campaign. In the 24-hour period, 138 online gifts rolled in to Ascension of Our Lord totaling $15,000, and parishioners dropped off another $5,000 in checks and cash at the parish offices, where the parish staff and volunteers prepared a spread of donuts, coffee, hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream and wine and cheese for people who stopped by at different times of the day.

Matching gift
Since the parish had a matching gift of $1,000 and received another $1,000 from The Catholic Foundation for having the most “pre-scheduled” donations, its total was $22,000, with funds still coming in.

“We were going for $30,000, but we did well,” Father Austin said. “We went all-out.”

A computer was set up in the parish offices where people could keep tabs on the “leaderboard” as pledged amounts changed, said pastoral council member Susie Lanza.

Josephine Everly, COO and director of planned giving for The Catholic Foundation, said Ascension of Our Lord was a textbook example of a medium-sized parish that used its own ingenuity and resources, particularly the volunteer help coordinated by Lanza and business manager Linda Biven, to create a successful campaign.

Father Austin spoke about the project at all Masses during the three weekends leading up the giving day. The parish sent letters to parishioners explaining the day and the proposed project and placed information in the bulletin and on its website. For $240, it purchased 800 rubber wristbands with logos of #iGiveCatholic and Ascension of Our Lord, which parishioners put on their wrists as they left Mass.

“It was very cheap,” Lanza said. “Everyone went home with something tangible. Many people put the wristbands on even before leaving church. We wanted it to be fun, engaging and educational.

“This was another way to express our faith and to grow Catholicism. We wanted people to spread the word for us. People would ask them, ‘Where did you get that wristband?’ Nothing we did broke the bank. We tried a little creativity. We had parishioners give short talks at every Mass, and we had the talk translated into Spanish for the Spanish Mass.”

Ascension of Our Lord School also participated for the first time and raised $4,360 for technology upgrades. The fund-raising was even more impressive given some of the challenges the LaPlace area has faced in recent years, coming back from Hurricane Isaac in 2012 and a tornado earlier this year.

“We knew that the pastor was talking about it from the pulpit because we could see the uptick in giving on Sunday afternoons and Monday morning,” Everly said. “Ascension of Our Lord had the top number of donors of any parish in any of the dioceses, and this was their first year participating.”

Total raised: $1.8 million
The six dioceses combined to raise $1,807,311 through 6,826 gifts, an average gift of $264. Donors came from 45 states and five countries.

Here are the Catholic organizations that raised the most in the Archdiocese of New Orleans: Woman’s New Life Center ($286,781); Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans ($276,805); Project Lazarus ($104,100); Hotel Hope ($100,851); Christopher Homes ($100,630); Lantern Light Ministry ($53,600); Covenant House New Orleans ($28,980); St. Benilde School ($25,718) and Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana ($21,365).

Here are the organizations that had the most donors: St. Benilde School (220); St. Paul’s School (157); Second Harvest (142); Ascension of Our Lord Church (138); St. Christopher School (128); Dumb Ox Ministries (122); St. Angela Merici Parish (117); Woman’s New Life Center (110) and Catholic Charities (101).

The organizations in the other six dioceses that raised the most money were the Woman’s New Life Center, Baton Rouge ($41,500); Woman’s New Life Center, Houma-Thibodaux ($30,125); the Seminarian Education Trust Fund, Biloxi, Mississippi ($5,565); St. Jude Church, Pearl, Mississippi ($8,000); and St. Thomas More Church, Austin, Texas ($21,965).

Next year’s #iGiveCatholic campaign will be held Nov. 28, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected].