June 7, 2008
New director to lead stewardship and development effort in diocese
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Michael Halloran, right, director of stewardship and development for the Diocese of Sacramento, talks with Jesuit Father Gerald Robinson, left, pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Sacramento, and Jeanne Anderson-West, pastoral associate of mission outreach, about the parish’s proposed capital campaign. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
Mike Halloran hit the ground running.
On his first Monday on the job, the diocese’s new director of stewardship and development started the day with early morning meetings at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, gave an interview to The Herald at 9 a.m., met with his staff at 10 a.m., and by 11 a.m. he was consulting at St. Ignatius Parish in Sacramento.
He takes the pace in stride. “I’m a high energy person,” he said.
Halloran is a distance runner, which will serve him well in keeping up with the responsibilities of his new position supporting diocesan parishes, schools and agencies in stewardship and development.
He is also the first executive director of the Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Sacramento, which he described as “an umbrella organization that holds various funds from development work across the diocese.”
Established in January 2004, the Catholic Foundation is a separate body from the diocese, created to support the diocese, according to Thomas McNamara, chief financial officer of the diocese.
“I’ve been through so many different capital campaigns, annual campaigns, and stewardship campaigns that I have a pretty good playbook.”
Mike Halloran, new director of stewardship and development at the diocese
Since its incorporation in January 2004, the Catholic Foundation has received endowment funds raised as part of the “Preserving Our Past, Building Our Future” campaign from 2001 to 2006, as well as endowment funds for Catholic education raised through the annual “Believe” dinners, and approximately $8.5 million in other education endowments that the diocese transferred to the Catholic Foundation to be held and administered in trust, according to McNamara.
Currently, the Catholic Foundation holds $14.5 million, according to the Dec. 31, 2007 independent audit.
The foundation invests endowment funds following the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ guidelines for socially responsible investing and then distributes the earnings according to the purpose of the endowments, McNamara said.
After conducting a nationwide search for an executive director to implement the many programs envisioned for the Catholic Foundation, the diocese hired Halloran, who has been running development efforts for various organizations for the past 20 years.
As executive director of development for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis for six years, Halloran set up parish stewardship programs and an endowment and capital campaign that raised $125 million. As development director of athletics at the University of Minnesota, he increased giving by 285 percent over five years.
At Texas-based Research Services Incorporated, an agency that helps parishes and schools raise money, he counseled parishes and dioceses in Texas, Indiana, Delaware, Illinois, and California — including the Diocese of Sacramento, where he provided counsel on this year’s Annual Catholic Appeal.
Halloran attributes his success to community building by fostering personal relationships. He calls it “the golden thread throughout all of my work.”
About the dramatic increase in donations at the University of Minnesota, Halloran said he organized the development effort “so that people could meet and talk with one another and see the program they were creating and growing.”
At the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, he recalled, he went into the parish communities and helped build up stewardship efforts. “Most of the money raised stayed at the parishes,” he noted.
A graduate of St. John’s University in his native Minnesota, Halloran studied early American history and thought he might pursue a career in law or education. He sees his work with the Catholic Foundation as going into teaching after all.
“What I do is coach, which is a kind of teaching,” he said. “I’ve been through so many different capital campaigns, annual campaigns, and stewardship campaigns that I have a pretty good playbook. I have a lot of resources, and I can help communities wherever they are move to on the next level.”
Halloran was already providing strategic coaching at St. Ignatius Parish that Monday morning.
The parish, which is undergoing a feasibility study to determine whether a proposed capital campaign should go forward, consulted Halloran for his observations and recommendations. He met with Jesuit Father Gerald Robinson, pastor, and Jeanne Anderson-West, pastoral associate of mission outreach.
The conversation ranged from the highly technical — the ratio of annual offertory income to a proposed capital campaign goal — to the philosophic: How is stewardship different from fund raising?
“Fund raising is giving money to a need,” Halloran explained. “That can happen anywhere. Stewardship is having a need to give. That usually happens in community.”
Carrying a file of notes he took during the meeting, Halloran scheduled the next meeting with the Father Robinson and Anderson-West and prepared to go to his next appointment.
“I’m involved in projects already,” he said, “but I am also listening and learning about the diocese so that I can provide the support that people need.”
