Archdiocese shifts Project Advance into crisis response mode for struggling charities

Editor’s note: story was changed June 2 with correct $ amounts for this year’s goal and last year’s appeal.

The Archdiocese of Vancouver’s annual fundraising appeal is refocusing this year on local charities that have seen a financial hit or increased burden on their services due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The annual appeal, Project Advance, will shift its focus for 2020 from capital projects to a crisis response fund, hoping to raise $825,000 for suffering charities.

“A social crisis has unfolded,” said director of development Chris Ufford.

His office called for a pause on the Project Advance launch in April to rethink how the annual appeal would roll out. His team then phoned many of the 19 Catholic charities in the archdiocese and heard the same story from many: they are facing serious challenges:

• Social distancing requirements have forced the Domestic Abuse Services (Our Lady of Good Counsel Society), to cut down services to people fleeing abusive situations at the same time calls to domestic abuse hotlines have increased as 300 per cent during the pandemic and the federal government recognized the need for increased services for people facing abuse. The organization also had to close its Langley thrift store that provided modest revenue.
• The Catholic-run drop-in centre The Door Is Open has seen a dramatic increase in need for its services in the Downtown Eastside. Volunteers have gone from serving about 250 lunches to the poor and homeless every day to as many as 400 in recent months.

Ufford said serious needs like those made the crisis response fund this year a necessary decision.

“The fund gives Archbishop Miller, with the view he has of the archdiocese and the requests he gets – and he gets a lot of requests – the ability to respond,” he said.

This year’s Project Advance goal is $1.625 million, a massive drop from last year’s $3.25 million, $2.3 million of which went to capital projects such as new high schools and churches. Instead, more than half of this year’s target will be used to support local charities involved in domestic abuse services, mental health and addictions, homelessness, food security, and serving the elderly and disabled.

The remaining $800,000 is slated to contribute to ministries and evangelization, from prison and hospital ministry refugee sponsorship, family life programs, and First Nations and refugee sponsorship programs.

This is the first time in Project Advance’s 40-year history that no appeal funds are earmarked for capital projects. Targets for individual parishes have also been cut in half from past years to lower the burden on them.

“We didn’t feel running the appeal as usual would be the right move,” said annual giving coordinator Miro Bezjak.

This year’s slogan is “Our Catholic Response to the Crisis.”

“We’re not just any other response. We’re not a government response, not a social service response,” said Bezjak. “We’re a Catholic response and we’re trying to be unique and transformative.”

Ufford said Project Advance is launching June 8 with a $120,000 head start thanks to a handful of donors who contacted the archdiocese before the crisis fund was even established, hoping to support people in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter to donors, Archbishop Miller wrote, “Our brothers and sisters who are suffering during the coronavirus pandemic need our help.” He asked families who find themselves in a position to contribute to “please respond generously to this appeal.”