Challenge: Many Catholic parishes were experiencing declining giving trends among their parishioners on the heels of a declining economy, increasing unemployment and less time to commit to parish life. Also, shortages in priests and staff were forcing Pastors to take on more administrative functions leaving less time for Parishioners, resulting in less connection to the Parish for some, and further exacerbating the giving decline.

Objective: To understand the mindset of Pastors and their most critical support needs in communicating with parishioners to build a strong parish community and, ultimately, interest in a Stewardship Communications Program to support them.

Solution: A series of in-depth in-person interviews were conducted with Pastors from across Massachusetts at their parish rectories, representing a range of parish sizes.

Result: Plan-it made recommendations for a positioning direction for Parish Communications related to the Stewardship program. In addition, a number of recommendations were made for building parish communities via various communications strategies and tools.