In January I wrote in this column about a fundraiser I want to hold to raise the money for a pre-Easter evangelization drive. Unfortunately, it was the weekend of the snowstorm and Mass attendance was low. People suggested to me that I write about it again. So here is an update.
In my article I wrote about the rise of the “go fund me” phenomena. GoFundMe is a website founded in 2008 by Brad Damphousse and Andrew Ballester. The website allows people to solicit funds on the internet for events ranging from celebrations to helping people facing challenging circumstances like recovery from accidents, illnesses or difficult financial circumstances. It’s a very interesting business model and has seen success in encouraging people in their generosity.
I would like to do a similar thing to help raise funds for a special evangelization project I have in mind for Easter. We won’t be setting up a website for this but want to raise the funds from our parishioners. The task I have in mind is to send a card with an invitation to celebrate Easter Mass here at St. Patrick’s to every postal patron covered by the Wareham, W. Wareham and E. Wareham Post Offices. Did you know that 70% of the household in Wareham have at least a Catholic cultural background or have a member of a household with a Catholic heritage? You wouldn’t know that from our Sunday Mass attendance. The U.S. Post Office supplies a service to help accomplish our project. The cost of sending such an invitation to about 15,000 households would be about $3,000.
The problem is that we don’t have funds in our budget to pay for such an initiative. I suppose the easy solution would be to have a Second Collection. We could pass the basket once a month from now until Easter and raise the money we need. If we did that, most of you would grudgingly contribute a few dollars.
That isn’t what I want to do. I want to get people to donate to this project with enthusiasm. I’m looking for people to donate to this effort who really feel invested in evangelization. People who are willing to make a really generous contribution are who we want to enlist. I want people who aren’t only willing to make a financial contribution but also make contributions of prayer and fasting to our evangelization effort. Maybe if we raise enough money we could do this mailing not only at Easter but after Labor Day (the start of a new year in many respects) and at Christmas. To send three mailings we would have to raise $10,000. Well let’s raise enough to do it this once.
In the pews this weekend you’ll find green envelopes that ask for you to make a commitment to this campaign. Please make a generous monetary donation if you can. Even if you can’t make a donation of treasure to the campaign, I ask you to join us by committing to fast and pray for the collection’s success. Our dedication to praying and fasting along with our financial support will be the key to the success of the campaign. Let’s make this evangelization effort a project supported by all St. Patrick’s parishioners.