Those Envelope Packets!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Reverent_Howler
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Reverent_Howler

Guest
Have you noticed that your monthly parish envelope packet has become thicker in recent years? One was expected to contribute each Sunday and Holy Day, now there seem to be extras. What’s in your packet?
 
We have some second collections, but not every week. A quarterly one for the CCD collection, and things like World Mission Sunday, Peter’s Pence, etc.
 
Nope.

I order the envelopes and there are the same number now as 10 years ago.
 
Two for each Sunday (weekly contribution and building; I alternate week by week); one for each holy day, and perhaps two dozen second collections thru the course of a year.

D
 
Just weekly and Holy Day envelopes.

If there is something special for which my parish is collecting, envelopes for that are placed in the narthex.
 
Food Pantry, Clothing Pantry, the school. For each envelope I use, I toss 4 or 5.
 
There’s always, “The church secretary’s sister’s nephew,” “Defray the cost of these envelopes”, “The Lady’s Sodality counts these days but father still needs a new golf ball”, . …

🤣:crazy_face::roll_eyes:

(OK, I’ve actually seen the second one . . .)

hawk, who has his checks on autopay, anyway, and wishes his parish would save the cost
 
At my parish, in addition to 1 for Sundays and HDOs: a couple second collections, monthly sharing parish, weekly building fund, and currently one for Thanksgiving.
 
We also have additional one each month for School Support .
 
I’d be interested to know how many people still use the envelopes versus donating online. My parish prints them for everyone but I just toss mine. That’s what auto pay is for.
 
LisaB said:
I’d be interested to know how many people still use the envelopes versus donating online. My parish prints them for everyone but I just toss mine. That’s what auto pay is for.
Click to expand...
Envelopes. I look forward to the time when I no longer have to track income tax deductions (i.e., just take the standard deduction), so I can truly fulfill Jesus’ words about doing good deeds in such a way that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is going; i.e., dropping unidentifiable cash contributions into the basket.

D
 
Weeklies
Church dues
Care & ed for priests
Parish debt reduction
Parish fuel & utilities
Diocesan offering
Christmas club ???
 
LisaB said:
I’d be interested to know how many people still use the envelopes versus donating online. My parish prints them for everyone but I just toss mine. That’s what auto pay is for.
Click to expand...
This was my thought, too. Several parishes around here have stopped sending envelopes unless you ask for them; they don’t want the added print and postage expense for something not getting used. We looked into it a few years ago and found only a small percentage of the envelopes ever got returned via the collection basket. After that, there was a push for online or automatic EFT (which worked), an education piece for why envelopes were beneficial (taxes, plus being a good reminder/planning tool), and then simply encouraging the person/household to make an honest selection based on their needs and views about giving. I haven’t used an envelope in over a decade, unless it was a rare, one-off occasion; then I filled out one of the blanks in the pew. All of our contributions go electronically once per month.
 
Yea, it would be easier if they just took the weekly collections and allocated them accordingly. “Special” collections may presumably be a way to secure extra funds, though.
 
I don’t have a steady income. So, I just divide change that I can find (I prefer to carry change than bills, anyway, yes, I’m weird). Actually, what frustrates me is when no one mentions that there’s gonna be a second collection the week before. And I think, sometimes, they forget when they do mention it!
 
These days many people want their money to go to their parish but not to the diocese. The money you put in the regular collection is subject to what we call here Diocesan tax, meaning during the diocesan appeal the parish pays the required amount out of that general fund. On the other hand, money donated toward special causes, such as the building fund, etc, must be used for that alone. Some people will give more generously to these causes knowing a portion of their money won’t go to the diocese this way.
 
Our packet here also includes the “diocesan tax” known as Catholic Services Appeal. This was originally sold as a way of consolidating all of the mission drives, religious retirement, priestly retirements, assisting the poor, etc. Yet there are still individual envelopes for those.
One could start a separate thread on CSA-style programs perhaps.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top