The Appeal 2025, the diocese’s largest fundraising effort to evangelize, educate, nurture and support the people within its 23-county radius, has returned this year with a new theme: Together in Mission.
The theme is a call for the faithful to come together to meet the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Contributions to The Appeal, which is a 10-month campaign, are put into action in four primary ways: evangelization, vocations, social concerns, and education and faith formation.
“It’s things that an individual parish has a calling to help but may not be able to do it all within their parish, and that’s where we’re together,” said Jim Jackson, senior director for the Office of Advancement. “As a diocese, we do some of these and all of our parishes join into the shared value of that need, be it social needs or bringing more priests and deacons and religious life to our diocese. Those are shared investments that we realize are some of our greatest opportunities but need all of us together to make those happen.”
The Appeal will be announced in parishes throughout the diocese the weekend of April 26-27. Parishioners will be asked to make a monetary commitment the following weekend, May 3-4.
This year’s goal is $8 million. Should the diocese meet its goal, donations will be split among the four categories: $2.7 million for evangelization, $2.6 million for vocations, $1.4 million for social concerns and $1.3 million for education and faith formation.
“Those are the primary thrusts of The Appeal, and then there’s always additional needs and concerns that crop up that The Appeal will also take on,” Jackson said. “It could be in helping assist with the cathedral. It could be helping with the (Columbus) Catholic Museum (of Art and History). It could be endless areas that could use additional support.”
Each parish is assigned an individual goal. Parishes that exceed their goal will receive 100 percent of excess funds.
Jackson said nearly $2.5 million was returned to parishes through the rebate, or refund, process from The Appeal 2024. “So it’s also helping individual parishes in addition to all the identified needs,” he explained.
Results from last year’s Appeal, which concluded in March, showed parishioners’ contributions helped meet various growing needs. “There’s quite a bit of things that took place as a result of the monies that they invested in The Appeal to make happen,” Jackson noted.
“One of the greatest things about our Appeal is I don’t know of any other way that you’d have as much outreach opportunities … to impact so many parts, so many different causes, so many different needs and so many opportunities as The Appeal covers for our diocese. When you make an investment there, it’s maybe the best investment you could make because it touches so many lives within the diocese that we live.”
Last year’s donations particularly helped with evangelization efforts as the diocese continues to reach a growing population. An additional million people are expected to settle in Columbus in the next 10 years.
The Catholic Church in the diocese is also growing. More than 700 adults entered the Church in the diocese in 2024, more than tripling in the past three years. Donations to last year’s Appeal also assisted in evangelization efforts at the Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center, near the Ohio State University campus, where 1,110 students now attend Mass weekly – a more than 38 percent increase from the previous year.
Vocations to the priesthood and religious life have also been supported by The Appeal. It costs roughly $60,000 a year to educate a seminarian, and 40 men are currently in formation for the priesthood.
“That’s one of those initiatives that’s so core to the long-term benefits of each parish,” Jackson noted.
The number of men who discerned a vocation to the priesthood also increased. Twenty-six new men discerned a vocation to the priesthood in the past few years, doubling from the previous two years.
The needs of the poor, marginalized and suffering individuals in the diocese continue to be met significantly through The Appeal’s efforts to address social concerns.
“There can be many different branches of it, and we certainly have our presence in that, but the demands are strong, and so their monies can go to answer those kind of concerns,” Jackson said of parishioners’ donations to The Appeal, “to help those who are most marginalized, and for them to see hope and to see the presence of Christ in their life.”
Last year, more than 22,000 summer meals were served to families by the St. Francis Evangelization Center in McArthur, located southeast of Columbus in Vinton County. The center also provided more than 10,000 individuals with a six-day supply of food and 4,500 individuals with clothing.
The diocese’s Joint Organization for Inner-City Needs supplied thousands of individuals with hygiene supplies, bus passes, and rent, utility and medical assistance.
Twelve prison facilities in the diocese were served by diocesan staff who met the spiritual needs of hundreds of prisoners.
The Appeal also helps provide a strong foundation in faith to more than 30,000 elementary and 1,800 high school students in parish youth catechesis and faith formation programs. Approximately 18,000 students in 50 diocesan Catholic schools also receive support and services.
Individuals can donate to The Appeal at their parish, by mail or online.
To donate at church, parishioners should place their pledge envelope in the parish offertory, which will be sent to the diocese. Checks should be made payable to “Parish name – Appeal.”
Pledge envelopes can also be addressed and mailed to “The Appeal,” 197 E. Gay St., Columbus, Ohio 43215. Mailed checks should be made payable to “The Appeal – parish name.”
Individuals can also give at www.columbuscatholicgiving.org/appeal.
Questions regarding The Appeal should be directed to Sue Roberts, administrative support for the Office of Advancement, at 614-241-2550 or sroberts2@columbuscatholic.org.