Dioceses

Connecting People to Purpose

September 29, 2024

Over the years, a number of studies have shown that Protestants give more to their churches than Catholics do. For example, a national study in 2003 showed that Protestants give an average of 2.6% of their income to their church, while Catholics give an average of only 1.2%. A similar giving gap – both in the amount given and in the percentage of people who give – has been found in other studies as well.

A 2011 study by Notre Dame University examined factors that affect people’s level of giving to their churches. That report, “Unleashing Catholic Generosity: Explaining the Catholic Giving Gap in the United States,” identified four main factors related to giving.

People’s level of church attendance and religious involvement have a clear effect on people’s contributions to their churches. Within each of the religious traditions considered by the study (for example, Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, Mainline Protestant), more frequent church attendance is associated with increased giving. Comparing people with similar church attendance, though, does not eliminate the Catholic-Protestant giving gap. Among weekly church attenders, the gap between Catholic givers and Protestant givers is actually larger than the gap among occasional church attenders.

People’s level of spiritual engagement with money – the extent to which they see their use of money and possessions as being connected to their spiritual life – also has a clear effect on people’s contributions to their churches. This factor accounts for much of the Catholic-Protestant giving gap, because the Notre Dame study found that American Catholics are much more likely than Protestants to compartmentalize, to think that money and faith have little to do with one another. As a result, they tend to give less.

A congregation’s culture around money can have a significant impact on the giving levels of the members of that congregation. The Notre Dame study distinguished between two distinct types of congregational culture related to money: “paying the bills” and “living the vision.” The second culture leads to increased giving – but the first culture is more common in Catholic parishes. Among Catholics, those who report that their parish focuses on need and scarcity when discussing money (“paying the bills”) make up a slightly larger percentage than those who report that their parish focuses on mission and spiritual growth when discussing money (“living the vision”). Among both Evangelical Protestants and Mainline Protestants, however, it is reversed. In fact, the percentage reporting a “living the vision” approach is more than twice as large as the percentage reporting a “paying the bills” approach.

(Note that the Notre Dame study was conducted in 2011. It would be great to have someone conduct a new study, because it would be interesting to see if the many efforts to build a stewardship mindset in Catholic parishes are moving the needle at all, both in terms of the “living the vision” culture within parishes and the level of spiritual engagement with money among individual Catholics.)

Finally, a fourth factor with a notable effect on people’s giving is the congregation’s level of communication about vision and mission, along with the individual members’ sense of connection with, involvement in, and “ownership” of that vision and mission. For example, people who strongly agreed with the statement “My congregation does an excellent job at communicating its overall mission and priorities to its members” gave to their congregations at a much higher rate. However, only 18% of Catholics in the study strongly agreed with the statement, while 32% of Mainline Protestants and 49% of Evangelical Protestants strongly agreed. Similarly, people who strongly agreed with the statement “I personally feel part of the planning of the vision and mission of my congregation” gave at a much higher rate. Again, Protestants responded to this question more positively: 16% of Mainline Protestants and 25% of Evangelical Protestants strongly agreed, while only 6% of Catholics strongly agreed.

This last factor has clear implications for parish planning. A planning process that intentionally and meaningfully engages a large number of parishioners will lead to increased support of the parish’s goals and direction, both in terms of parishioner volunteering and parishioner financial contributions. A planning process that includes regular communication about mission and vision will also strengthen parish support.

Meitler’s approach to parish planning has always emphasized broad collaboration and mission-focused communication, because we believe that this approach results both in better planning and in more successful implementation. How can we help you to advance your mission?

A Living Faith – Part Two

July 9, 2024

This post is part of a series that reflects on how the idea of a living faith can help us look at the challenges of faith formation of faculty and staff in Catholic schools in new and productive ways. Part One explored the insight that a living adult faith is developed more than it is received. This post reflects on how a growth mindset can inform our approach to faculty and staff faith formation.

In terms of academic learning, our perspectives on achievement, growth, and abilities have grown significantly in recent decades. We have come to realize that sometimes students with high test scores may be coasting and not actually growing much over the course of a year, while students with lower test scores may still be learning a great deal and making good progress. This has shifted not only our perspective but also our practices of assessment, with greater use of standardized tests that can measure growth throughout the school year.

In addition, Carol Dweck’s concept of mindset has influenced how we think about student learning. What are the consequences of thinking that intelligence and ability are things that can grow and develop, rather than things that are fixed? A fixed mindset can view challenges as threatening and failure as shameful, while a growth mindset can view challenges as natural and failure as productive. A growth mindset can help us as educators to accept that our students have different starting points and to see all students as capable of meaningful growth – not just the “smart” kids.

How can a focus on growth and the concept of mindset add to the idea of a living faith, especially when it comes to formation of faculty and staff? Do the statements in the previous two paragraphs have some parallels when it comes to faith? Perhaps.

Considering the distinction between achievement and growth: it may be that a teacher who knows and affirms all the teachings of the church may not currently be growing in their faith, while another teacher who doesn’t know as much and who disagrees with some teachings may actually be growing in their faith a great deal. Perhaps we should celebrate the growth of the second teacher as much as we do the knowledge of the first teacher.

Considering mindset: it may be that a fixed mindset in terms of faith leads us to believe that some people just have it and some people just don’t, or to see questions as threatening and doubt as shameful – whereas a growth mindset can help us accept that all faculty and staff have different starting points when it comes to faith, and can help us see questions as productive and doubt as natural.

Accepting that our faculty and staff have different starting points when it comes to faith doesn’t mean that it isn’t a challenge, though. A principal who responded to a Meitler survey wrote that “most often teachers are at varying levels of faith development, and need different supports, so even if you find a high-quality book, speaker series, or retreat, it’s not the right fit for everyone.”

It’s a challenge that we can embrace, though. Just as we strive to differentiate our academic instruction to help learners of varying abilities succeed, we can also differentiate our approach to faith formation of faculty and staff. And we can create a climate that sets an expectation for everyone to grow in their faith without criticizing those with less knowledge or more questions. So applying a growth mindset to a living adult faith suggests this insight.

Insight Two: Growth in faith is to be supported and affirmed, regardless of the starting point.

Michael Taylor

A Living Faith – Part One

June 3, 2024

Faith is at the heart of the mission of Catholic schools. We know that. We also know that the key to making faith the anchor of school culture and the lifeblood of school relationships is to have faculty and staff who themselves are well-formed and filled with faith. Forming faculty and staff in faith, though, entails many challenges. In a recent survey of Catholic school leaders conducted by Meitler, 51% of respondents – and 73% of superintendents who responded – indicated that faith formation of faculty and staff would be a bigger challenge in the coming year than the academic professional development of faculty.

One superintendent who was surveyed expressed that “you might be paddling upstream with formation.” Through their teacher preparation programs, teachers are often more prepared in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment than they are in the areas of faith, mission, and Catholic identity.

Twenty-five years ago the Catholic bishops of the United States published an excellent document on adult faith formation called Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us.

In that document, the bishops looked at important aspects of adult faith, beginning with the statement that a mature adult faith is a living faith. Using that idea of a living faith as a lens will help us with the challenges of faith formation of faculty and staff in Catholic schools. It won’t erase those challenges, but it will help us look at them in new and productive ways.

Insight One: A living adult faith is developed more than received.

One of my previous jobs was at a lay ministry formation center where we were working on developing a faith formation program for faculty and staff. We had a group of people working diligently on outlining the curriculum for the program. We were focused on content – what did we need to teach them about Scripture, what did we need to teach them about doctrine, what did we need to teach them about morality and sacrament and church history?

We were treating faith as a set of building blocks (which we had, and most of the faculty and staff didn’t). If we just gave each of them the building blocks of our course offerings, then the pieces would add up to faith.

After we had completed our curriculum and had begun implementing the faith formation program, though, I had an epiphany. This epiphany came through the words of a young adult woman on a panel at a workshop that our Archdiocese sponsored. This young adult woman said that she was still an active Catholic primarily because of the youth ministry program she had experienced in her parish – more so than the religious education program at that same parish. She said, “In the religious ed program they focused on the knowledge that we didn’t have, but in the youth ministry program they focused on the faith that we did have and worked to help us grow that faith.”

Around that same time, I was reading Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us, and reflecting on passages like this: “Faith is living and active, sharing many of the qualities of living things: it grows and develops over time; it learns from experience. … Adults need to question, probe, and critically reflect on the meaning of God's revelation in their unique lives in order to grow closer to God.”

The statement from the young woman and the statement from the bishops’ document helped me realize that I had been forgetting that an adult is an active participant in their own faith formation, not a passive recipient. I had been focused on the content rather than on the person and the process.

That process needs to be one that prompts the faculty member or staff member to “question, probe, and critically reflect.” They do need content, so that they have something to reflect on, but the content is the starting point, not the ending point. Once some content is presented, there needs to be an opportunity for them to reflect on how they can connect that bit of content to their own faith, to their life, and to their work. Over time, your faculty and staff will be more deeply formed because they will have developed an extensive web of connections between faith and life. In the words of one of my colleagues here at Meitler, forming faculty and staff for mission is not only about what you pour into them but even more about what you draw out of them.

Faith formation will still be a challenge, but if we remember that a living adult faith is developed more than received and that our processes need to honor the fact that adults are active participants in their own faith development, our faith formation programs for faculty and staff are likely to have greater buy-in and greater impact.

(Read next: part two of this blog post, which looks at a living faith and a growth mindset.)

Michael Taylor

New Schools: A Story of Growth and New Life

April 23, 2024

As far as many people know, the story of Catholic education in the United States over the last two decades is a story of declining enrollment and closing schools. That story does fit the reality in some places. According to the NCEA Statistical Report on Schools 2023-24, enrollment in Catholic schools dropped by over 96,000 students over the last five years (5.4% of the total enrollment). In addition, over the last five years, a total of 477 Catholic schools have closed in the United States.

At the same time, the story of declining enrollment and closing schools is not the only story of Catholic education right now. There is also a story of growth and new life. Most of that enrollment decline for the last five years took place in a single, pandemic influenced year, dropping 6.4% from 2019-20 to 2020-21. Since then, however, overall Catholic school enrollment grew 3.7% from 2020-21 to 2021-22, and then grew another 0.3% from 2021-22 to 2022-23. In addition that enrollment recovery, you can see new life in the existing Catholic schools that are expanding and in the new Catholic schools that are opening across the country each year.

The contrast between these two stories of Catholic education can be seen in this table of data from the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA). While the number of schools dropped in all six regions of the country from 2018-19 to 2023-24, there were also new Catholic schools that opened in 2023-24 in five of those six regions, with a total of 20 new schools overall for the year.

Where are these new schools opening – and why?

At Meitler, our perspective on these questions is informed by our work with Catholic schools around the country. In addition to strategic planning, Meitler works with many dioceses and parishes around the country to assess the enrollment potential and financial viability of possible new schools. We have analyzed demographic trends, conducted market research surveys, and led focus group discussions in many parts of the country.

In 2023 and 2024 alone, we have engaged in 19 new school studies. Those studies have taken place in each of NCEA’s six regions from the table above. They have also involved a variety of levels of schooling. Two studies have focused on opening early childhood centers. Meitler has done five studies for potential elementary schools, nine for high schools, two for schools with grades 6-12, and one for a K-12 school. That wide range of work illuminates some patterns in terms of new Catholic schools.

One reason for the new schools is shifting demographics. Sometimes that can mean demographics at the local level. We have done a new school study in a growing suburb while at the same time conducting a planning process to address low enrollment at another Catholic school just a few miles away, in a part of the city where the population is declining. At the national level, there is greater population growth in the Southeast and West/Far West regions than in other parts of the country. Many cities in those regions did not build a large number of parishes and Catholic schools 75 to 100 years ago the way that cities in the Great Lakes and Mideast regions did, so the Catholic communities in those southern and western cities are often underserved in terms of Catholic schools.

A second factor in many of these new school studies is state funding. Wherever school choice or tax credit scholarships are available to cover a significant amount of the cost to educate a student, a wider range of families can afford Catholic schools, which makes it more feasible to open a new school to serve those families.

A third factor is an increased willingness on the part of many stakeholders to explore other options. Our focus groups and survey results over the last three years consistently show that more parents in public schools are looking for something different – sometimes because of their experience with at-home learning during the pandemic, sometimes because of concerns about controversial issues and cultural trends in the broader society. More stakeholders are also interested in pursuing a particular focus in a Catholic school. We are seeing more interest across the country in classical Catholic schools, Catholic Montessori schools, in Catholic high schools that incorporate vocational and technical programs.

Several things characterize a Meitler new school study. One is a focus on long-term sustainability. The parishes or dioceses that we work with usually hear from a group of parents who are highly interested in opening a new school, but we want to be sure that the interest is broad enough and deep enough to sustain the school into the future. We don’t want to encourage the opening of a new Catholic school just to have it close a few years later due to weak support.

We also focus on a new school’s potential impact on enrollment at other Catholic schools in the region. Our goal is to grow Catholic schools in general, so we don’t want to encourage a new school to open if it will cause another Catholic school down the road to close.

Another focus is vision. Meitler’s new school studies engage a lot of stakeholders in a visioning process to reflect on what kind of school is called for at this time and in this place. We give them space to consider doing something bold or innovative. We also work with a local study team to develop a communications plan, so that the community is informed about the potential new school and is aware that exciting new things are happening. This awareness of new opportunities and the conversations about the school’s vision often generate new life even before any shovel breaks ground for the new school.

If you are interested in working with Meitler to clarify your vision and support it with data, please reach out to us. We would be happy to partner with you.

¹ NCEA divides the country into six regions.
New England includes six states (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT).
The Mideast region includes five states (DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA) and the District of Columbia.
The Great Lakes region includes five states (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI).
The Plains region includes seven states (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD).
The Southeast region includes twelve states (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, and WV).
The West/Far West region is the biggest, with fifteen states (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY).

Strategic Growth Planning Update: Diocese of Green Bay

August 4, 2022

In 2017, the Diocese of Green Bay, in partnership with Meitler, completed its diocesan strategic growth plan, “Disciples on the Way.” This comprehensive plan, based on the National Standards and Benchmarks of Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools, provides the pathway used to enhance and grow the reach of the Catholic schools throughout the diocese. In addition to the overall diocesan plan, several local-focused planning initiatives were conducted that had an impact on their future.

Looking back over the five years of implementation, Todd Blahnik, Superintendent of Catholic Schools, highlights several key initiatives that are the result of their planning efforts:

Overall enrollment in the diocese has increased every year since 2017,
The Catholic Schools Office was able to expand its staffing by adding personnel in school finance and advancement who have been integral in bringing the diocesan plan success,
More intentional focus on and with the principals in effective planning within their geographic regions,
Two new Chesterton Academies were planned and successfully opened,
One of the PK-8 schools is now planning to expand into a PK-12 program as interest and enrollment grows,
The creation of a new PK-12 school from an existing elementary and high school,
Expansion of a high school campus,
New elementary school facility bringing some elementary schools together into one site,
Creating a “family of schools” within the diocese focused on centralized business services to enhance efficiencies,
Developing a Catholic formation pilot program for teachers and administrators with the GRACE system and St. Norbert College.

We applaud the Diocese of Green Bay and the Office of Catholic Schools for their commitment to developing and following the pathway their strategic growth plan laid out ensuring the future of Catholic school education and creating missionary disciples for the future of the Church.

Dioceses

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