UPDATE on Partners:
Pennsylvania Office
It is no surprise that Philadelphia, the birthplace of Partners
for Sacred Places and its New Dollars/New Partners training
program, is home to a number of sacred places deploying
innovative fundraising strategies. Each of the following
stories from Philadelphia congregations spotlights an
important component that should be part of any outreach
effort for community fundraising: targeting individual nonmembers of a congregation or parish.
Many faith and lay leaders, upon embarking on New Dollars
training, immediately begin thinking about institutional
funding: grants from foundations and corporations, or
support from local businesses, nonprofits, judicatory
offices, or the government. These can all be important
sources of funding. However, according to Giving USA: The
Annual Report on Philanthropy, produced by the Giving USA
Foundation, charitable giving by individuals totaled an
estimated $240.60 billion and accounted for an astonishing
72% of total philanthropic giving in 2013. The largest
subsector of giving continues to be to religion, even though
giving to religion continues to slow as a result of declining
religious affiliations and attendance.
Individuals are an important source of revenue for most
congregations, which often rely heavily on the gifts or
tithes of their members or parishioners. However, when
sacred places rely solely on their membership, they are
missing a potentially significant untapped pool
of stakeholders that includes neighbors, former
members, faith leaders and their descendants,
and individuals, couples, and families with
nostalgic ties to the congregation. Partners
refers to these individuals, collectively, as a
congregation’s “diaspora.” No two congregations’
diasporas will look the same, but with coordinated
research and outreach efforts, every sacred place
can identify and cultivate a new pool of donors
invested in the future of their house of worship.
Efren Esmilla, who is from the Philippines. The Filipino
community at large, including neighbors of the parish who
do not attend Our Lady of Hope, as well as extended family
members of parishioners and neighbors – Filipinos across
the region – are committed to Father Efren’s leadership and
vision. They expressed not only willingness, but also a strong
desire to support the church. Because of their personal
and cultural ties to Father Efren, these individuals worked
together to “bundle” what amounted to the lead gift of the
parish’s capital campaign.
Relationships like these are key to understanding the
New Dollars approach. Ten miles south of Logan, near
Philadelphia’s Clark Park, another Roman Catholic parish,
St. Francis de Sales, is learning to leverage its diaspora in a
unique way. During a feasibility study, Partners encouraged
the parish to reconnect with former parishioners and
their descendants, many of whom had moved away from
Philadelphia. Although they had left the parish and the
neighborhood, they still carried fond memories of St.
Francis de Sales with them. Partners encouraged them
to share news of new ministries with those in this larger
diaspora in an attempt to re-engage them in the life of the
parish and, ultimately, to persuade them to invest in St.
Francis’ future. The parish was urged to undertake a similar
effort within its school alumni community.
Partners has been working with three churches
in Philadelphia that are successfully tapping into
their diasporas. Our Lady of Hope, built in 1928
and formerly known as Holy Child, a French
Romanesque-style Roman Catholic parish, sits
on Broad Street in the Logan neighborhood of
North Philadelphia. While leading a feasibility
study with the parish, Partners identified a strong, St. Francis de Sales is learning to leverage its diaspora – neighbors, former
passionate, and committed pool of donors who
members, faith leaders and their descendants, and individuals, couples, and
were connected to the parish’s priest, Father
families with nostalgic ties to the congregation – to help with fundraising.
5 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Summer 2014