One of the things that often separates financially self-sustaining parishes from those that are not is the ability to raise funds digitally.
That is why since 2018, Catholic Extension Society has partnered with #iGiveCatholic, which makes it easy for Catholic parishes and schools to take part in “Giving Tuesday,” a National Day of Philanthropy on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
Among the $3 billion in donations made that day by Americans, the Catholic Church has thankfully been able to become more visible due to the #iGiveCatholic program, especially the poorest parishes.
With Catholic Extension Society’s support, parishes and schools who have little to no opportunities for online giving receive training, materials, samples and templates to be able to implement their own Giving Tuesday campaign.
#iGiveCatholic creates an online giving site for each participating parish and school. Since we began offering this opportunity in 2018, parishes from 50 dioceses in Catholic Extension’s network have participated. They have raised more than $30 million. The amount increases each year, with $6.5 million raised last year alone from 800 parishes, schools and ministries.
#iGiveCatholic is a nonprofit organization started 10 years ago by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Its aim is to help parishes and schools that want to raise money on Giving Tuesday. They have worked with Catholic Extension Society to ensure that these opportunities are extended to the poorest communities, such as this growing Catholic campus ministry at the University of Mississippi.
For example, in the Diocese of Lubbock, in 2020, Katie Crosby, the new development coordinator, worked with five parishes in her diocese and raised $7,000. Encouraged by these initial results, Katie kept encouraging parishes to participate and she added more each year. By 2024, Katie had 29 parishes and ministries, and together they raised $153,000. Some of the participants were rural Texas missions who raised a substantial portion of their annual operating expenses just by being able to solicit funds digitally on this national day of giving. This includes St. Michael Church in Levelland, Texas.
There are many other success stories like this.
One year, a parish school in Kentucky raised enough money to cover the cost of a new playground for their pre-k schoolchildren.
One participant said,
Despite skepticism about venturing into online fundraising, many of our parishes saw great success in their campaigns and commented on how easy the day was to plan and manage compared to the traditional parish festival.”
Further success in 2025
Catholic Extension Society and #iGiveCatholic’s collaboration has grown even more ambitious in recent years. For 2025, the partnership provided the opportunity to 27 dioceses and over 800 parishes, schools and ministries.
Likewise, Catholic Extension Society is including some of the poorest communities in America, including parishes in Puerto Rico, where nearly half the population lives below the federal poverty line. These poor parishes and missions will use the online giving platform for the first time to help generate funds to sustain their critical ministries among the poor in the coming year, especially in a year in which parishes have had to respond to the humanitarian needs of their neighbors impacted by cost-of-living pressures. One such parish is St. Cecilia in La Planta, located in a densely forested region of the Diocese of Arecibo.
Seeing the success of past campaigns, these parishes and missions serving the poor are motivated to “dip a toe” into the world of digital fundraising in the hopes that it might support their mission.
