Catholic Charities Needs Help To Make Goal

Catholic Charities of Spokane has lost an early lead in its annual money drive, but still hopes to meets its goal of raising $550,000.

“The next two weeks are just critical for us,” said Mary Ann Heskett, fund drive coordinator for the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

“We need to hear from another 500 to 600 individuals, if we are going make it.”

As of Monday, the charity had raised $461,000. While the diocese is slightly ahead of where it was last year at this time, the drive has lost ground compared to the week before Christmas when it was more than $100,000 ahead.

Heskett said the diocese sent out letters to loyal donors a week earlier this year and that may have skewed the accounting process early in the drive.

Many regular donors simply mailed their checks in early, Heskett said.

All the money donated during Christmas Masses at the 81 Catholic churches in the diocese is given to Catholic Charities.

So far only half the parishes have forwarded their collections, Heskett said.

A lot of Catholics confuse the Christmas Appeal with the annual Catholic Appeal, which raises about $1.5 million to run the diocese and support seminarians and retired priests, Heskett said.

The money from the Christmas Appeal pays for dozens of social services run by Catholic Charities. The largest private charity in the Inland Northwest, the agency helps about 100,000 people each year through programs for the elderly, single parents, homeless men and women, and refugees.

“This is it for us,” Heskett said. “Catholic charities doesn’t run any other drives all year.”

The Christmas Appeal represents roughly 20 percent of Catholic Charities’ $2.9 million budget.

Another 40 percent comes from government contracts and grants. The rest comes from a variety of private grants and donations to individual programs.

Last year the Christmas Appeal missed reaching the same goal by 4 percent, raising only $527,700.

Individual donations averaged $111 last year. Thus far this year, almost 4,000 people have donated an average of $118 each.

More than 70 percent of the people who receive services through Catholic Charities are not Catholic.

Donations can be mailed to Catholic Charities, P.O. Box 1453, Spokane, WA 99210.

, DataTimes