By Barb Arland-Fye
Pledges totaling $16.6 million have been raised to date in the Diocese of Davenport’s Moving Forward in Faith and Hope capital campaign. The goal is $22 million; supporters are praying for a successful conclusion to the campaign this summer.
“Achieving the goal gives people renewed faith and hope in their Church and in the diocese,” observed Sister Laura Goedken, OP, the diocese’s development director.
Funds from the capital campaign will cover the purchase and renovation of diocesan headquarters in Davenport as well as support clergy, seminarians, schools, parishes and diocesan ministries. Each parish also will receive 20 percent of the funds it raises toward its target goal and 50 percent of any overage.
Community Counseling Services, a professional development firm, is overseeing the diocese’s fundraising effort, conducted in three phases. The campaign began last year with a five-parish pilot project and is the first in more than 20 years for the diocese. Following the pilot project, which generated $2.82 million in pledges toward its $2.88 million goal; Bloc I parishes launched their campaigns earlier this year. Sixty-two percent of those parishes are over goal and raised 95 percent of their cumulative goal of $8.1 million, Sr. Goedken said. Most of the 42 parishes in Bloc II are in the midst of their campaigns to raise $9.1 million. Four parishes are over goal and three more are near goal, she said. The priests of the diocese pledged $1 million; lead gifts totaled $2.5 million.
Equally valuable to the campaign is the input from those being asked to give. “The fruitful conversations we’ve had with parishioners have given us many insights to do further planning and work in our diocese,” Sr. Goedken said. The people in the diocese have been through a lot — particularly the repercussions of clergy sexual abuse that occurred decades ago in the diocese. “Some of these people are able to give and some are not,” she said. “People give from their heart and when they are asked to give, they really do some thinking.”
