Catholic Stewardship Consultants, Inc. Developing Stewardship as a Way of Life February 4, 2013 1105 LaMetta Wynn Drive Clinton, Iowa 52732 Dear Fr. Ken, It has been a pleasure to serve Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace over the past three years. In that time stewardship has become widely understood by parishioners, and you have succeeded in engaging people in parish life as evidenced by the response to this year s annual renewal. The planning and execution went smoothly, and we are pleased with the results. Prince of Peace continues to move forward as a stewardship parish, as the figures below attest: 2012 Stewardship Renewal Results Total Parish Households... 1,665 Active Parish Households*... 931 Adult Commitment Cards Received... 651 Youth Commitment Cards... 59 Return rate from active households... 65% Adult Prayer Commitments (Stewardship of Time)... 2,190 Youth Prayer Commitments... 223 Adult Ministry Commitments (Stewardship of Talent)... 2,693 o Re-commitments to ministries... 2,145 o New commitments to ministries... 548 Youth Ministry Commitments (Stewardship of Talent)... 75 o Re-commitments to ministries... 41 o New commitments to ministries... 34 Offertory Commitments (Stewardship of Treasure)... 549 o Total annual amount committed... $702,953 o Previous 12 months actual contributions... $645,863 o Pledged offertory increase... $57,090 o Average annual offertory pledge... $1,280
Page 2 of 12 Like last year, parishioners continue to make strong commitments of time, talent and treasure. The spiritual life of the parish continues to grow, as evidenced by the large number of prayer commitments. Similarly, parishioners are continuing to become involved, making 582 new commitments to ministries. Financially, families pledged 9% more than they actually gave last year. This shows evidence that parishioners still seek to increase their financial support of the parish. Notable Statistics from 2012 Stewardship Renewal As you review the items below, bear in mind that statistics are only one measure of success, and rarely tell the full story. This is because people are affected by the stewardship message whether or not they return a Commitment Card. For instance, often parishes see improvements in parish life not wholly accounted for by tallying ministry commitments. Your own observations of changing attitudes and a general rise in activity are sometimes good indicators of whether you are making gains toward becoming a better practicing Stewardship Parish. 1. 65% of active households (606 of 931) returned a commitment card during this year s renewal. *Active households are defined as those who gave at least $1 to the offertory using envelopes. 2. Another impressive statistic is that 6% of inactive households** (45 of 720) returned a commitment card. This shows that the Stewardship Renewal is offering inactive families a concrete way to take a first step. **Inactive households are defined as those who show no evidence of financial support for the parish in the last year. 3. About 78% of participating households made prayer commitments. Each household made an average of 4.29 prayer commitments. 4. Parishioners are continuing to take ownership in the parish by signing up for ministries in large numbers. Approximately 74% of the participating households made a commitment to a ministry. 582 (21%) of the 2,768 ministry commitments were new commitments, which is an indication that parishioners are continuing to step forward to get more involved in parish life. 5. Continuing a trend that was evident during last year s renewal, relatively inactive families are becoming involved at Prince of Peace. 51 families only checked Interested in Joining ministry. 6. 84% of participating households made a treasure commitment. Parishioners pledged to give over $700,000, which is 9% more than they had actually given the previous 12 months. This is calculated by comparing actual giving to pledged giving. Of the $57,000 pledged increase, over $15,000 came from 20 households who show no evidence of offertory giving during the previous 12 months.
Page 3 of 12 105 households participated in the Renewal but did not make a treasure commitment. This group gave over $58,000 to the offertory last year. Expect these households to at least maintain their current level of giving if not give more in the coming year. Be cautious about the offertory increase figure displayed in this report. The prior year giving amounts per household can be skewed to a degree, and may not accurately reflect parishioners full giving. Households sometimes give to the offertory in cash without their offertory envelopes, or they skipped weeks or months of financial support without realizing it. The efforts of the parish to live out Stewardship should help reduce haphazard giving, as families continue to make their relationship with Christ a priority including their financial support of the Church. 7. Based on year-end fiscal reports provided by the parish, since adopting Stewardship as a way of life, annual offertory giving (Envelopes, Loose and Christmas/Easter/Holy Days) has increased since 2009/10, going from $877,000 to 878,726 in 2010/11, then to $927,000 in 2011/12. Considering the offertory was trending downward from 2008/09 to 2009/10, going from $892,000 to $877,000, the parish s financial outlook could ve been much worse had it not started to instill Stewardship as a way of life.
Page 4 of 12 Cumulative Notes from 2010, 2011 & 2012 Renewals In an attempt to recognize the continuing contributions of all families who have participated in at least one of the Renewals, but neglected to return a card every year, we compared the final results from all three years. Interestingly, we discovered that the above results may fall short of representing the true success of the Stewardship efforts made by the parish over the last three years. Actually, there may be an even larger increase in participation in the stewardship way of life. We found that: 73 families participated in a renewal for the first time in 2012. 789 unique parish households have participated in one of the last three renewals. 468 families returned Commitment Cards in all three renewals. 159 families returned Commitment Cards in only two renewals. 162 families returned Commitment Cards in only one renewal. From these statistics, we can infer a few key points about the households who participated in at least one of the last three annual renewals: Based on parish families that have envelope numbers, approximately 48% of registered households have participated in at least one Stewardship Renewal. This shows that the parish has an active base of committed parishioners, but is steadily reaching more parishioners who have never participated in the past with the stewardship message. If those families were previously reluctant to practice stewardship, the Stewardship Renewal is helping to engage them in parish life. By returning a commitment card, these families are taking concrete actions to make many more commitments of time, talent and treasure in years to come. Just because families do not return a commitment card in a particular year does not mean they are discontinuing their level of participation in the parish, canceling their financial support, or have ceased to believe in the value of Stewardship. For most, it simply means they neglected to return a card that year. For example, of the 103 families who did not return a commitment card in 2012, but returned one in 2011, 70 have continued to financially support the parish over the past year. In our experience we have seen that they will continue that same level of support over the next year.
Page 5 of 12 Attachment A Stewardship of Time - Adult Prayer Commitments... 2,190 Commitment Cards with prayer commitments... 510 Average Number of Prayer commitments per hsld... 4.29 Attend Mass every Sunday and on Holy Days... 466 Attend weekday Mass at least once a week... 138 Spend one hour a week in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament... 62 Invite a friend or acquaintance to Mass... 117 Pray together with my family... 199 Discuss our Catholic Faith with my children... 142 Read the Bible for a half hour a week... 122 Spend 15 minutes a day in personal prayer... 344 Pray the Rosary at least once a week... 192 Go to confession at least every other month... 83 Attend a Holy Hour for Life or Vocations during the week... 25 Spend extra time with my spouse each day... 210 Listen to Catholic radio 92.5 FM... 90
Page 6 of 12 Stewardship of Time - Youth Prayer Commitments... 223 Commitment Cards with prayer commitments... 48 Average Number of Prayer commitments per hsld... 4.65 Join with our parish to celebrate Mass each Lord's Day... 37 Participate at Mass by praying and singing... 45 Pray before meals, even silently at school... 34 Pray for family, friends and all who are sick or lonely... 44 Pray every night before going to bed... 34 Learn about my faith through various Catholic media (print, broadcast, or online)... 19 Attend a JR/SR High youth retreat or rally... 10
Page 7 of 12 Stewardship of Talent - Adult Commitment Cards with talent commitments... 487 Average Number of Ministry Sign-ups per hsld... 5.53 Ministry commitments... 2,693 - Already Involved... 2,145 - Interested In Joining... 548 Already Involved Interested In Joining Total "Footprints of God" Study... 2 7 9 "POPEYES" High School Youth Group... 3 1 4 "POPEYES" Junior High School Youth Group... 6 2 8 "The Catholicism Project" Study... 5 8 13 Adult Choir... 16 7 23 Altar Servers... 32 2 34 Alumni Association... 12 5 17 Annual Dinner Volunteers... 48 24 72 Art and Environment... 6 2 8 Baking/Salads/Desserts... 207 44 251 Baptism Class Facilitator... 4 2 6 BeFriender Ministry... 10 2 12 Bible Study Groups... 32 8 40 Buildings and Grounds Committee... 15 3 18 Bulletin Ad Sales... 2 0 2 Bulletins/Newsletter Mailing Help... 39 7 46 Called and Gifted... 7 4 11 Cantors... 8 1 9 Catholic Historical Center (at St. Boniface)... 26 6 32 Cemeteries... 15 4 19 Centering Prayer... 6 4 10 Charity Committee... 9 2 11 Children's Choir... 6 9 15
Page 8 of 12 Already Involved Interested In Joining Total Children's Liturgy of the Word Leader / Volunteer... 7 3 10 Christian Experience Weekend (CEW)... 59 6 65 Church Cleaning... 25 10 35 Crop Walk... 12 12 24 Devotional Life... 3 2 5 Ecumenical Block Party... 9 4 13 Evangelization Commission... 5 1 6 Fair Trade Coffee Sales... 12 9 21 Faith Formation Commission... 3 0 3 Family Life Commission... 4 0 4 Feed the Grieving Ministry... 1 3 4 Feed the Homeless Ministry... 48 18 66 Finance Council... 7 1 8 Financial Peace University... 3 2 5 Flower Care... 12 1 13 Font Maintenance... 2 2 4 Food Resource Bank... 6 9 15 Funeral Cantors/Musicians... 11 1 12 Funeral Luncheon Worker... 82 14 96 Funeral Ministers... 18 5 23 Gift Bearers... 114 26 140 Greeters/Minister of Hospitality... 116 26 142 Handy Skills/Painters... 6 6 12 Hospitality Committee... 14 0 14 Investment Committee... 5 1 6 Irish Boosters... 62 3 65 Justice & Peace Commission... 5 2 7 Kids for Jesus (K4J) Club... 8 2 10 Knights of Columbus... 75 8 83 Knights of Columbus Ladies' Auxiliary... 14 1 15 Landscaping... 32 5 37 Latino Ministry... 3 1 4
Page 9 of 12 Already Involved Interested In Joining Total Market Day... 27 10 37 Marriage Preparation/Sponsor Couple... 16 1 17 Ministers of Communion to the Homebound... 23 5 28 Ministers of Holy Communion... 109 14 123 Ministry Fair Volunteer... 33 1 34 Mobile Meals... 51 8 59 Mom's Group... 13 3 16 Mom's Group Child Care... 8 1 9 Musicians... 9 0 9 Parish Life Commission... 4 0 4 Parking Attendants... 7 1 8 Pax Christi Peace Group... 11 3 14 Perpetual Adoration... 20 7 27 Peru Sister-Parish Volunteer... 17 0 17 Photographer... 5 1 6 Prayer Line... 95 24 119 Prayer Shawl Ministry... 19 5 24 Prince of Peace Catholic School Board... 11 5 16 Pro-Life Group... 19 6 25 RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) Sponsor... 8 3 11 RCIC (Rite of Christian Initiation of Children) Team... 1 0 1 Readers (Proclaimers of the Word)... 44 11 55 Religious Education Catechist/Substitute... 21 6 27 SCRIP Sales... 37 4 41 Sacristans... 10 1 11 Sharing Tree Volunteers... 21 28 49 Small Communities of Faith... 8 2 10 Spanish Mass Liturgical Minister... 1 1 2 Stewardship Commission... 15 0 15 Stewardship Institute... 1 0 1 Substitute Money Counter... 9 3 12 Table & Chair Help... 3 16 19
Page 10 of 12 Already Involved Interested In Joining Total Telephoning... 19 10 29 Transportation Ministry... 10 0 10 Ushers... 52 10 62 Vacation Bible School Volunteer... 13 2 15 Vocations Committee... 1 1 2 Website Ministry... 3 1 4 Wedding Cantors & Musicians... 3 4 7 Welcoming Ministry... 14 1 15 Women's Auxiliary Luncheon Volunteers... 43 9 52 Worship & Prayer Commission... 10 0 10 Youth Choir... 2 2 4
Page 11 of 12 Stewardship of Talent - Youth Commitment Cards with talent commitments... 26 Average Number of Ministry Sign-ups per hsld... 2.88 Ministry commitments... 75 - Already Involved... 41 - Interested In Joining... 34 Already Involved Interested In Joining Total "POPEYES" High School Youth Group... 4 7 11 Altar Servers... 9 2 11 Children's Bulletin Distributor... 2 10 12 Children's Choir... 7 2 9 Greeters/Minister of Hospitality... 3 3 6 Kids for Jesus (K4J) Club... 6 3 9 Ministers of Holy Communion... 1 1 2 Readers (Proclaimers of the Word)... 0 0 0 Vacation Bible School Volunteer... 2 4 6 Vacation Bible School participant... 4 1 5 Youth Choir... 3 1 4
Page 12 of 12 Stewardship of Treasure - Adult Households with Treasure Commitments... 549 - Total Annual Amount Committed... $702,953 - Previous 12 months actual contributions... $645,863 - Pledged offertory increase... $57,090 - Average Annual Pledge... $1,280 Weekly Pledges... 343 Between $1 and 9... 57 Between $10 and 19... 103 Between $20 and 29... 80 Between $30 and 39... 46 Between $40 and 49... 19 Between $50 and 59... 18 Between $60 and 99... 15 Between $100 and 9999999... 5 Monthly Pledges... 186 Between $1 and 49... 49 Between $50 and 99... 47 Between $100 and 199... 58 Between $200 and 299... 20 Between $300 and 399... 7 Between $400 and 9999999... 5 There were 20 households who made an annual pledge with an interval amount other than Weekly or Monthly.