Buffalo, NY (WBEN) The Catholic Charities appeal for 2025 fell about $1 million short. Deacon Steven Schumer says he's still grateful for the donations, acknowledging the amount raised is still huge.
Schumer says the appeal raised $7.4 million, about a half a million dollars below last year's total. "In today's environment (it) is a lot of money, and that's really significant, so we're grateful," says Schumer. He says while it's a tough time for the diocese, "this is God's project, and He's going to make sure that we have the resources that we need to do the work that He intends us to do. We've survived World Wars. We've survived global pandemic, natural disasters, social upheaval. So we will survive this as well."
Schumer says much of Catholic Charities is funded by contracts with various government entities, with appeal donations filling in the gaps and to subsidize certain programs that are not entirely covered by those contracts. "We've made some staffing adjustments. We have not eliminated any programs completely, except for those government funded programs which were defunded. That's out of our control," says Schumer.
Schumer says the need continues to grow as Catholic Charities served 140,000 people last year in a tough economy. "People are uncertain about what's going on now for a variety of reasons. So the need continues to increase," says Schumer.
Schumer says his biggest concern is the donor base. "Traditionally, the vast majority of our donations come from people in the parishes, in the Catholic parishes, and as the parishes are consolidated, and the number of parishes shrinks, and so the number of parishioners and people actually attending parishes shrinks," says Schumer. "We lost another 3,000 donors this year at the trend we've been seeing for a few years. He says he's been trying to reach out to the greater community beyond the Catholic faithful, to make the case Catholic Charities serves everybody, not just Catholics. "We're inviting the community to step up and help us, help our neighbors," urges Schumer.
