For 24 hours, beginning at 8 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 30, a national online giving campaign, “Many Gifts, One Nation,” will assist people who want to donate to Catholic schools.
Organized by the National Catholic Educational Association, 100 percent of a contributor’s gift will go to the school or schools chosen.
More information can be found on the website ncea.org under “Catholic Schools Week.” The week celebrating Catholic education runs this year from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.
All schools in the Diocese of St. Cloud were given the option of personalizing a “Many Gifts, One Nation” page. Pat Pospisil, principal at St. Agnes School in Osakis, and Jason Smith, principal at St. Henry’s Area School in Perham, found the process easy, uploading logos, choosing school colors and checking contact information.
“At St. Agnes, our goal is $5,000,” Pospisil said. “We have been working to get smartboards in our classrooms — this would fund a third one. Having this page for online giving gives us good exposure and will help us to market ourselves.” St. Agnes serves 50 students Pre-K through grade six. Pospisil said her school will publicize the event in the bulletin as well as on its website and on Facebook.
“We set St. Henry’s goal for $10,000,” Smith said. “Part of what we receive will offset parish assessments — that way we can support the parishes who support us. The rest will go to a capital campaign for a new school.”
Besides using social media and the school’s website, he said, “we’ll announce it at Mass at the opening of Catholic Schools Week so people in the pews can pass on the information.
We’ve have been working on our list of alumni. This “Many Gifts, One Nation” [initiative] opens a door to reach out to them.”
St. Henry’s serves 119 students from kindergarten through grade six.
Linda Kaiser, director of Catholic Education Ministries for the St. Cloud Diocese, set up a diocesan page.
“Our goal is $1,000 for each local school, $31,000 in all,” Kaiser said.
“We will share what we receive with all of our schools. This program is great for graduates who may have lost touch with the schools they attended.”
Other schools in the diocese also set up “Many Gifts, One Nation” pages, Kaiser added. Donors can give to any diocesan school or to any school across the country.
Donors will be able to search for institutions and can give to as many schools and dioceses as they like — gifts will go only to the schools a donor has selected. MasterCard, Visa and Discover are the accepted forms of payment. Donors will receive an email confirming the gift. Donor information will not be shared with other organizations.
On Jan. 30, donors who know the specific URL web address for the school to which they want to donate may visit it directly. The diocesan donor page can be accessed at: https://stcdio.giving.factsmgt.com.
Otherwise, visit ncea.org. The site will feature a Day of Giving section; visitors who log in can search for schools by school name, diocese, state and zip code.
The “Many Gifts, One Nation” campaign will be active for donations until 8 a.m. Jan. 31.