Page 29 - Spring 2019 Extension Magazine

Extension | Spring 2019 29

Susan Clifton, an Oklahoma native,
helped guide the Diocese of Fairbanks
through a reorganization that
revitalized the office.

only seven of these parishes are
self-supporting. The rest rely on
funding from outside donors—
including Catholic Extension.
Since 1909, Catholic Extension
has provided the diocese with over
$16.8 million (in today’s dollars)
to support 93 grants for the con-
struction, renovation and repair of
churches and church facilities. In
the last five years alone, Catholic
Extension has granted $1.57 million.
“We’re truly dependent on
donations from outside our dio-
cese to survive,” Clifton said.
In April 2016 Clifton helped
facilitate a reorganization and staff
reduction to revitalize the diocese.
Clifton described the experience as
“traumatic,” but with time she noted
that the remaining staff began to
collaborate better. In the last 18
she saw an opportunity to help the months the diocese has started
Diocese of Fairbanks, which was to realize the fruits of its efforts.
struggling to lift itself out of bank- Recently, Clifton and the bishop
ruptcy. Clifton’s first budget meeting discussed what parish programs to
as the diocese’s financial controller fund — rather than which programs
left her feeling “very distraught” at to eliminate.
the immense challenge. Clifton’s accounting skills, steady
management style and commitment
SERVING AN EXPANSIVE DIOCESE to the Church have put the Diocese
The Diocese of Fairbanks over- of Fairbanks on firm footing, poised
sees 46 parishes across 409,800 for growth.
square miles—one and a half
times the size of Texas. Currently,