Stewardship Reporting Update

Stewardship Update for Bulletins

For as long as anyone can remember, weekly envelope giving was the norm here at Lumen Christi and in Catholic parishes around the country. 

Parishioners would receive a packet of envelopes in the mail, and then each week they’d put cash or a check in their envelope and drop it in the basket at Sunday Mass. Recently, however, —and especially since COVID—more and more parishioners have moved away from weekly giving and shifted to different methods and cadences of giving. 

Did you know that over 200 of Lumen Christi’s parishioners give on a monthly (not weekly) basis via an ACH withdrawal from their checking account? And this is on top of dozens of other parishioners who contribute monthly via credit card! Still more parishioners choose to give one or two larger gifts each year using a variety of gift methods: check, credit card, a qualified charitable distribution from a retirement account, or a grant from a donor advised fund. 

And then there are those who, for tax deduction purposes, choose to “bunch” multiple years of giving into a single year, then wait a set number of years before making their next “bunched” gift. There are many ways to support the parish, and we are grateful to all of you for your generosity…no matter how or when you choose to give.

Considering this evolution in parishioner giving habits and to better reflect the status of our community’s generosity, we are updating how and when we report on stewardship in the bulletin. Beginning in February of 2025, we will share stewardship giving totals on a monthly basis. We will continue to include the year-to-date giving totals and budgeted stewardship totals for reference. We believe this change will provide a more accurate and consistent picture of generosity within our parish. 

Parish leadership will begin the budgeting process this spring for Fiscal Year 2026, which will run from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. Please contact Max Huber or Joe Kolar with any questions.