Archdiocese looks for input
The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas is conducting a feasibility study to determine the level of support for an all-parish capital campaign.
Lesle Knop, executive director of the office of stewardship and development, said the study is important because it engages a wide cross section of Catholics to address serious financial needs that cannot be met through regular parish offertory and the Archbishop’s Call to Share appeal, both essential to the church’s mission on an annual basis.
“The study examines extraordinary financial concerns that our church’s annual sources of revenue are not sufficient to remedy,” Knop said. “We don’t want to impede annual giving to either regular parish offertory or the annual Call to Share as these are essential, just like our budgets at our homes and businesses. These extraordinary challenges we have as church require study and a plan. The archbishop wants to give as many of us as possible an opportunity to participate and give input.”
The Steier Group, a national development firm from Omaha, Neb., has been hired to interview a cross section of Catholics on the merits of a capital campaign to support Catholic secondary education, Donnelly College, youth outreach, and assistance for parishes and schools in financially distressed areas of the archdiocese.
During the 12-week feasibility study, the Steier Group is interviewing priests, key lay leaders, and donors and conducting regional focus groups. A survey is being mailed to over 3,000 households, and all households in the archdiocese are encouraged to complete the survey by going online to the Web site at: www.archkck.org. All interviews and surveys are confidential and are used to recommend if the archdiocese should proceed with a campaign and what it can expect to accomplish. Additionally, the feasibility study identifies potential campaign leaders and donors.
Specifically, the Steier Group asks for input concerning a potential $50 million capital campaign. Secondary education will receive $17.5 million to provide an endowment for tuition assistance for all high schools, debt reduction for three high schools, and capital improvements to Bishop Ward High School in Kansas City, Kan. Some $4 million will be allocated to Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kan., for an endowment for tuition assistance and for capital improvements for the Catholic chapel and a library expansion. The plan would also seek $6 million for youth outreach, by endowing $5 million for rural and youth ministries and $1 million for an urban youth center. Another $6 million would be for an endowment for assisting financially distressed parishes and schools in urban areas. Finally, $14 million is earmarked for parish/regional sharing to help parishes address debt reduction or capital needs.
Once the feasibility study is completed in late September, the Steier Group will report and recommend whether to proceed; what the financial goals could be; and what the priests, lay leaders and members of the archdiocese think the campaign plan should address.
“Those who have responded to the archbishop’s invitation to participate so far have generously given of their time to help our church in northeast Kansas make important decisions. I am especially grateful to the parishes and schools who served as hosts for the focus groups in each of the regions and to all those who attended,” Knop said.
The hosts included Bishop Ward, Maur Hill-Mount Academy, Bishop Miege and St. Thomas Aquinas high schools; Immaculate Conception/St. Joseph Parish, Leavenworth; Sacred Heart, Ottawa; Sts. Peter and Paul, Seneca; and St. Matthew, Topeka.
A report of the findings of the Steier Group will be made public at the conclusion of the study.