The Latest News on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Capital Campaign for Saint Elizabeth Church
With the inspiring generosity of our parishioners and benefactors, we are well on our way to securing the financial health of the parish community through 2025 and beyond. As of April 19, the anniversary campaign has now received one-time gifts and multi-year pledges totaling more than $4.8 million from 579 generous donors. And we have just surpassed $3.6 million in total funds collected to date! Thank you to all our donors!!!!
As announced in the original case statement shared with our parishioners in the fall of 2020, there are three critical funding priorities for the anniversary campaign:
Debt Reduction/Elimination: The parish has been diligently reducing our mortgage obligations so that regular income may be directed to sustain and grow our many active parish ministries. Since the outset of the campaign, we have completely paid off the church mortgage (in the amount of $617,126) and have made advance payments on the education center mortgage ($880,000) while still meeting the monthly principal and interest payments from our operating income. We are planning to make another significant advanced mortgage payment this summer.
Restricted Parish Education Fund: We remain committed to offering faith formation programs for all parishioners and to providing an elementary Catholic education for all who choose it. To date, we have allocated some $300,000 in campaign funds to cover shortfalls in operating expenses for the parish school in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. As available, the campaign will provide monies to enrich program offerings, to sustain technology upgrades, and to provide tuition assistance to qualifying parish families.
Technology Development and Long-Term Maintenance Projects: Because the parish buildings and campus are nearly 20 years old now, we recently completed a Master Plan Facilities Study under the coordination of GKA Architects to assess facility needs and identify maintenance & technology projects to be addressed over the next five plus years.
To date, more than $300,000 in campaign monies have been allocated for maintenance & facilities projects,. The parish Maintenance & Facilities Committee is currently working through the Facilities Study recommendations to draw up a multi-year budget for capital projects to be funded through anniversary campaign monies.
It's not too late to make a one-time gift or two-year pledge to the anniversary campaign and help the parish reach the original $5 million target goal set back in 2021. For information, call the parish office (610-321-1200).
May God continue to guide our efforts to move forward in faith with a renewed commitment to extend God's light to others, both within and beyond our parish community!