By Angie Claas
Have you ever thought about what happens with your donation after you’ve placed it in the offertory basket? We have a team of wonderful, dedicated volunteers who help to ensure each week that every penny you donate goes exactly where you intend it to go.
Throughout the course of the year, you receive envelopes for many different collections in your packet. All donations brought in through weekend offertory are first separated into like groups (offertory, building fund, Christmas/Easter flowers, Diocesan Special Collections, etc.) and this is why it is important and extremely helpful to have separate checks written when you’re donating to more than one fund. A good rule of thumb to follow is – if it has a separate envelope, it needs a separate check.
After breaking the donations out by category, each category is totaled. Each total is then verified by another volunteer and finally by myself before it is deposited and coded to the appropriate account so that we can be certain your donation for Christmas Flowers is used toward the cost of Christmas Flowers and that every other offering is likewise designated and used toward the purpose specified by you, the donor.
The last step in the process is entering all the donations into the database associated with the donor’s electronic record, ultimately compiling your year-end giving statement. In order for our system, and therefore the information you receive, to be accurate, it is important that you keep your electronic record up to date. Be sure to let us know if you’ve had an address change or gotten a new primary email address. If you would like to create an account to view your giving online through our church management system, visit comonewman.breezechms.com/login/create. Here you will be able to view your giving history as well as make sure your contact information is up to date.
Below are some tips that help make the work of our volunteers and myself an easy task:
Please write separate checks for each donation category to which you’re giving
Please do not tape your giving envelope shut or staple your check inside the envelope
Please avoid folding up loose bills as it takes time to undo those before counting
Make sure that the hand-written and numerical amounts on your check match and that your check is signed
If you are out of town and the next weekend want to contribute two or more weeks of tithing, it’s okay to write just one check in this instance (as long as the total donation is going toward one giving category only, i.e. offertory — one check is fine.)
If a loose check is placed in the offertory basket (not in a giving envelope), it will be put toward general offertory unless a different fund is specified on the memo line of the check
Just a reminder, loose cash in the offertory basket cannot be tracked to a specific donor and therefore is not included on your year-end giving statement.
I want to thank each and every one of the offertory counters who volunteer their time to help in this effort. Their hard work streamlines the process and helps to ensure accuracy. They are greatly appreciated!
Lastly, I’d like to say that the generosity of this parish staggers me. You give unselfishly to support the day-to-day needs of our parish and then when a disaster collection is taken, the people of St. Thomas More Newman Center never fail to contribute abundantly to assist those in need. You are truly inspiring.