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On March 21, 2005, the six
Cooperative parishes
made a proposal to Bishop McGrath and Bob Serventi, the Diocesan Chief
Financial Officer that the diocese fund one-half of the monthly expense to
retain the services of Catholic Stewardship Consultants (CSC), a firm
that eight of us met in Wichita at the Msgr. McGreave Stewardship Conference.
The consultants would work with each parish to implement "Stewardship As a
Way of Life."
Click these
to view more details:
Why Catholic Stewardship Consultants
FAQ's
More Documents for Download:
Original Proposal Document
Agreements and Plan Summarized
Letter of Explanation
from CSC
Why Catholic Stewardship Consultants (CSC)
- The Cooperative parishes view Catholic Stewardship Consultants as
“enablers”, not the typical “consultant” that Pete refers to, in instilling
Stewardship As A Way of Life in our parishes. We did not want the
typical consultant.
- The use of Catholic Stewardship Consultants (CSC) for the Cooperative
parishes has the blessing of Bishop McGrath
- The use of CSC has the support of Marie Bernard, Diocesan Director of
Stewardship
- Br. Jim Sanders and I met with Bob and Marie two weeks ago and reviewed in
detail the entire program. They are in full support and also realize that all
parishes should implement this same ministry.
- Marie Bernard had her own list of consultants, many of which are
fundraisers, and many of which are not catholic, and most have not worked
successfully in parishes for a long period of time. She agreed to CSC.
- The use of CSC has the funding support of Bob Serventi, Diocesan CFO,
providing $100,000 to the Cooperative for the implementation of the CSC model
in participating parishes. I’m sure you recognize this as a coup for the
Cooperative and an endorsement of the program.
- The CSC stewardship as a way of life model is a pilot
program in the Cooperative parishes for the diocese
- If successful in the Cooperative, CSC will be invited to do the same
throughout the diocese. We all want this to be successful.
- Nine members of three parishes who attended the Wichita Conference
selected CSC, including Fr. Steve Brown, the pastor of the largest parish in
the diocese at St. Maria Goretti
- All had experience with other firms, such as Guidance in Giving, Olwell
Associates, The Reid Group, Bradley & Associates and others.
- CSC is Catholic
- CSC follows the USCCB model of “A Disciple’s Response”
- CSC is not a ‘fundraiser” organization. This is a long term commitment
- CSC developed their program to closely follow that of the Wichita model of
Msgr. McGreve at St. Francis of Assisi, which has been extremely successful
for 30 years in that diocese
- Eight of us from three parishes listened to the 90 minute testimony of
nine pastors from many different states as to how the program transformed
their parishes. We honor their honesty and we saw their results.
- Each of these nine pastors have been involved with the CSC model for over
three years and as Eric stated, he now has 40 clients who have been with CSC
for over three years
- CSC bases their ministry on prayer, communications, education and
hospitality, the pillars of Stewardship
- CSC has unique capabilities geared to parish support
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FAQ's
- What kind of financial improvement in % from a baseline,
have you achieved on average, with the parishes you have consulted? And how
long does it take to see an improvement?
The question the leaders and finance teams are
asking about financial increases is very typical. I want to encourage you to
impress on them that stewardship is a not a short-term financial program but a
long-term spiritual process that builds on itself year after year. As I’m sure
you remember, Msgr. McGread and the other speakers hit on this over and over at
the conference. You’re probably already communicating this to the leadership but
I thought that it was important to mention it.
With that said, the parishes we work with do see significant increases in
Time, Talent and Treasure in the first year and then each subsequent year. These
increases vary from parish to parish for many reasons (past history, current
situation, recent financial picture, commitment from the pastor, lay leadership,
staff, if the parish takes our advice or not, etc.) so we do not tell parishes
they are going to see “x” increases in each of the three areas. In dollar
terms, we have seen first year financial giving increases range from $65,000 for
a very small, rural, poor parish to $500,000 for a large, wealthy parish. When
we look at a baseline we see an annual average increase of around 15% per year.
This ranges from parishes who do not follow our advice and don’t do their part
(typically 10%-12% annual increases), to those parishes who are very proactive
and truly embrace stewardship as a way of life (anywhere from 15% - 35% annual
increases). We have seen the largest financial increases in parishes where,
prior to our involvement, there is a strong spiritual foundation and commitment
to prayer.
- How many client parishes over your history, has CSC
organization had?
We have worked with well over 100 parishes.
- How many parishes do you now have as active
consulting clients?
We are currently working with around 40 parishes.
The majority of parishes we have worked with have been clients for 3+ years.
- How many client parishes would you estimate to have
had no success for any reason?
Every parish we have worked with has had success in increasing commitments of
time, talent and treasure. Obviously, each to varying degrees but each parish we
have worked with has strengthened their education, foundation and spirituality
in stewardship. This may seem surprising but it’s true. The most success
typically comes in parishes that are proactive and where there is already a deep
spirituality and strong leadership, which I’m sure, doesn’t surprise you.
- How many full time, part time and volunteers does CSC
have at the present time?
Currently we have 10 full time staff members,
around 15 part time staff members and no volunteers unless you count the
hundreds that work in the individual parishes. We are also in the process of
adding additional staff (full time and part time) due to additional short and
long term increases in clients.
- How do you propose to handle the six parishes here in
San Jose with your current staff?
If the six or seven parishes all sign on then we
will place a full time person in the San Jose area that will work very closely
with me to carry everything out. We will have no problem providing the same
personal and customized services we provide to each one of our parish clients to
all 6 or 7 parishes in San Jose.
- Who has CSC normally reported to during the contract,
i.e., pastor, stewardship team or parish leadership?
It works best if we have one primary contact person at each parish. From that
position, we report to the pastor and other committees. The other committees
vary given each parishes structure. Typically it is the stewardship committee
and then we keep the pastoral council and finance committee appraised as
everything progresses but again this depends on how each parish is set up.
- References:
Msgr. Chester Borski
St. Martha Catholic Church
2302 Oak Shores Drive
Kingwood, TX 77339
281-358-6637
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