A challenging economic climate may be to blame for the 2024-25 Catholic Courier/Catholic Charities Christmas Appeal’s inability to meet its $51,500 goal, according to the appeal’s organizers.
The 2024-25 appeal, which ran from late November through Feb. 28, raised a total of $39,699.00, according to Courier Circulation Coordinator Linda Koneski-Foster, who oversees the appeal. Since its inception in the late 1960s, the annual appeal has raised money for the emergency funds of the various Catholic Charities offices and affiliated agencies throughout the Diocese of Rochester.
Organizers had hoped the results of the 2024-25 appeal would build on those of the 2023-24 appeal, which had raised $49,215 for the various emergency funds.
“We’re certainly disappointed by falling 23 percent short of our 2024 goal and 20 percent short of the 2023 results, which had exceeded that year’s goal by nearly 6 percent,” remarked Karen Franz, the Courier’s general manager/editor. “However, it’s easy to understand the decline in light of inflation, especially in food prices, and overall economic uncertainty.”
A total of 369 donors contributed to the 2024-25 appeal, and 44 of those were first-time donors, Koneski-Foster said. Individual donations ranged in size from $10 to $1,500, but the average donation was $107.59.
The 2023-24 campaign attracted both a larger number of total donors and a larger average donation. That year, 396 donors contributed to the campaign, with an average donation of approximately $124, she said. Forty-two of the donors to that year’s campaign had been first-time contributors.
“A telling point is that the average gift declined 13 percent between years in a campaign that, throughout its history, has been supported primarily by small donations,” Franz said. “Moreover, while we were pleased that the campaign attracted 44 new donors, we note that 27 donors who gave in 2023 did not do so in 2024.”
The economic pressures that have affected Christmas Appeal donors also are hurting recipient agencies’ clients, Franz noted. Donors who contribute to the appeal are “true examples of people living out Jesus’ commandment to love one another,” added Karen Dehais, president of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester.
“Again this year, generous donors to the Christmas Appeal have made it possible for people experiencing homelessness to have a safe and warm place to sleep, for families who were not sure where their next meal was coming from to have enough to eat, and so much more,” Dehais said.
Any Christmas Appeal donations received after Feb. 28 will be credited toward the 56th-annual campaign, which will begin in November 2025.
Tags: Catholic Charities
