Ahead of February’s annual appeal for Catholic ministries in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, members of the St. Paul-based Catholic Services Appeal Foundation spent time prayerfully discerning how CSAF’s legacy might inform its next steps.
“Overall, what we’re doing here is honoring the past, celebrating the present, and giving hope for the future,” said CSAF President Tizoc Rosales, a member of St. Peter in Mendota.
CSAF started in 1959 in the archdiocese as Opus Santi Petri, with volunteers going door to door soliciting funds for the local seminaries’ building and operation costs. The mission of the organization expanded in 1969 to support education, urban affairs, priest, youth and senior ministries through the Archbishop’s Annual Catholic Appeal. In 2009, the name changed again to the Catholic Services Appeal, to emphasize the fact that funds raised through the appeal were used for the collective archdiocese’s designated ministries. In 2013, an independent foundation was created out of the appeal to act as an entity serving the archdiocese. The foundation’s efforts grew and ultimately 20 ministries received funds, Rosales said.
Over the past few years, Rosales said, CSAF board members took note of some “fluctuations in support, both in the number of donors and the amount being raised on an annual basis, and kind of trending downward. So, they realized there needed to be a renewal.”
A renewal born from respecting the past work CSAF had done. The board hired a consultant to assess the foundation’s efforts.
To help guide the renewal process, Rosales was hired as president in mid-2021 after he had served as senior advancement officer at the St. John Vianney College Seminary and The St. Paul Seminary, both in St. Paul, since 2014.
The assessment also led to a multi-day strategic planning process at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul, which “was very thoughtful, it was very purposeful and ultimately led by the Holy Spirit,” Rosales said.
The planning process included praying with the Scriptures through lectio divina, the sacrament of confession, and questions to guide the process.
“We knew we wanted to ask ourselves these questions: Who is the Catholic Services Appeal Foundation, who are we? What is our God-given call? How can we best serve? How do we interact with others in the community?” Rosales said.
“Our community is always changing, and we want to be there to support that … we can’t remain stagnant,” said Lisa Gott, a member of St. Michael in Stillwater who has been involved with CSAF for the past 15 years, including as the “chair couple” of CSAF campaigns with her husband in 2009 and 2010. She is now on the board’s executive committee and is the chair of the ministry committee.
Karen Rauenhorst, a member of Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, has been a member of the board for a year and a half and currently serves as its governance committee chair. In reflecting on the strategic planning process, she said, “We knew we wanted to clarify our mission and our role in raising money for the appeal, and where the money went, and we always wanted to be in alignment with the work of the archbishop and the archdiocese.”
Gott agreed that the “meaningful process … really got at the core of deciding who CSAF is, what we stand for, and what can best ensure that the foundation is growing in a manner that meets the needs of the archdiocese and best meets the needs for the Catholic families in our archdiocese.”
What emerged, Rosales said, was the framework of an updated mission statement: “We want to make Jesus known and loved within our archdiocese and through financial gifts and service of the Church.” How to carry out that mission? Rosales said the planning process helped the CSAF board define three core values: to be Christ-centered, to be collaborative through other Catholic community partnerships, and to practice gratitude knowing “all is gift and we give thanks.”
The board also defined a goal for CSAF — for it to be a leader in raising and distributing funds in service of the local Church — and ways to achieve that goal: to build connections with and among donors, parishes and ministries; to make it easy for those interested in CSAF’s efforts to donate and for them to clearly understand why CSAF assists the ministries it does; to double the number of donors and increase annual giving; and to be able to tell the story of the impact of financial gifts received.
The board wanted to avoid overlap with other organizations raising funds for ministries in the archdiocese. Members evaluated the ministries CSAF helps fund, their annual budgets, and the amounts CSAF has been distributing to them on an annual basis to determine exactly how much of an impact CSAF was making. That “insightful” evaluation, Rosales said, was then shared with leaders both within and outside the archdiocese, with donors and with “Catholics in the pew.”
The feedback assisted the CSAF board as it developed four pillars that describe the foundation’s renewed focus areas of support, Rosales said.
One pillar is pro-life, meaning to support ministries that “nurture, sustain and protect life and affirm the dignity of every person.” Another pillar is archdiocesan efforts today, meaning supporting “future leaders of the Church” through outreach ministry offices and the seminaries in the archdiocese. A third pillar is the Church’s priorities going forward, particularly supporting “the Synod priorities of the Church, thereby expressing the good news of Jesus.” A fourth pillar is Catholic education, “to educate children and young adults in safe and healthy environments that provide both academic and spiritual growth.”
Rauenhorst said she sees the four pillars as “really helping address the work that we want to support, and that’s how we stay in alignment with the archdiocese.” Gott said, “By being focused on those four areas, we can make a bigger impact.”
This year, Rosales said, parishes will introduce the appeal the weekend of Feb. 18-19 and Feb. 25-26, with the latter weekend marking what Rosales calls “commitment weekend.” A brief video will feature Archbishop Bernard Hebda and information on ways for parishioners to donate. CSAF has also begun sending direct mail to donors. Rosales said he hopes parish staff will remind parishioners throughout the year about CSAF’s efforts because “we make distributions through the year to these various ministries.”
Gott agreed, adding she hopes pastors include information in bulletins throughout the year to help every parishioner “understand that they receive the benefit of at least one of the ministries that is supported by CSAF.” Those reminders, Gott said, allow people to remember that “it’s by working together that we can truly have an impact on our communities.”
Rauenhorst said she thinks this year’s appeal “is really highlighting to our parishes, to Catholics that live in this archdiocese that the work that we’re supporting is critical, it needs substantial funding. And that by really focusing on some more specific areas, we are meeting the needs of our local Church.”
