The CatholiCity Message

Volume V, Number 25 – October 29, 2001

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

We need your financial help today.

Nobody likes to pay taxes–except maybe to help CatholiCity. Our once-a-year "tax drive" helps our online cyber-city serve souls and serve you, our "citizens." We'll get right to the point: the eternal destiny of hundreds of thousands of souls will depend on your response to the CatholiCity Tax Drive today–right now. We'll give you more details on the "nuts and bolts" below, but if you want to get started, here's what to do:

1. TO MAKE ONLINE DONATION BY CREDIT CARD:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/donation.html

2. TO PRINT OUT A DONATION FORM TO MAIL IN:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/donationform.html

3. TO MAIL IN A DONATION WITHOUT A FORM:
Make your check payable to "CatholiCity" and send to:

CatholiCity
Tax Drive Gift
PO Box 26101
Fairview Park, OH 44126

4. TO BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR:
Use the "Monthly Donor" option on our online donation page:
http://www.catholicity.com/support/monthlydonor.html

5. FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO LIKE-MINDED FRIENDS

THANK YOU LETTER
Your gift is tax-deductible, of course, and we'll send you a thank you letter immediately. If you decide to send in a gift through the regular mail, please let us know the amount so we can "track" the tax drive accurately.

And now, why should you help?

SOULS HANG IN THE BALANCE
We just spent time before the Blessed Sacrament asking Jesus to inspire you to respond generously. We're concerned because after six years of concrete experience online, souls who otherwise may have chosen to go to hell will instead choose to go to heaven if you help us. It's as simple as that.

BUT CATHOLICITY DOESN'T HELP ME
It very well may be that you yourself have only benefited slightly from CatholiCity or that you are new to our unique online apostolate, but rest assured that countless souls will be changed forever when they come into contact with our website during 2002, especially "seekers and surfers" who otherwise will never be exposed to the bold Catholic truth that we present free-of-charge, no strings attached. You can help these "seekers."

YOU, NOT THE OTHER GUY
Please don't be fooled by the devilish notion that "the other people" reading this will respond. Yes, We always tell you that CatholiCity Citizens are the best, and you are the best precisely because you take the serious business of helping souls personally. Your own decision today will make the difference. Our financial support has always been strong because many thousands of regular folks like you send us what they can, even if the gift is "small" in the eyes of the world. We strongly believe we need thousands of CatholiCity Citizens to voluntarily respond to the tax drive this year.

YOU'VE FELT IT
All year long we offer you and countless others free Catholic CDs, audio tapes, free books, free commentaries, free news, group prayer and insights through the CatholiCity Message, free offers from other Catholic apostolates, fast personal responses to your Custome Service inquiries, Fr. McCloskey's common sense articles, the best database-driven Catholic links, and so much more. We give everyone a sense of community–the feeling that we're in this struggle for souls together. You've felt it, haven't you?

SETTING THE EXAMPLE
Our miraculous success in reaching souls is based on the following spiritual maxim: "If we give freely, people will give freely to us." It was Jesus who said, "Give freely what has been given to you." That's our mission as Catholics in a nutshell. In fact, the Tax Drive originally started four years ago when you lobbied us for a once-a-year opportunity to help financially.

ONE DAY PER YEAR
For 364 days a year we give you everything we have. Just 1 day a year, at your suggestion, CatholiCity asks for your voluntary support. Today is that day. Our parent organization, the Mary Foundation, and our publishing division, Saint Jude Media, conduct no traditional fund-raising campaigns, even though they risked everything to subsidize the first crucial years of CatholiCity by investing hundreds of thousands of dollars before most Catholics were even online.

IT FEELS GREAT
It really does feel great to make a donation to a Catholic apostolate that is so effective in reaching souls who otherwise would go without help. Yes, be as generous as you can be, but don't be shy about sending what "the world" considers "small gifts" of $3, $5, $10, or $25. Many of you can afford to send much more, from gifts of $50 or $100 to thousands of dollars. Please do so! You make up for those who are financially unable to send anything. If you tithe 10% or part of your family's income, please include us today in your generosity.

500 MONTHLY HEROES
Please prayerfully consider becoming a monthly donor. In addition to thousands of "one-time" donations, we need 500 Catholics to make monthly donations to reach our goals. It takes just a couple of minutes for you to authorize us to do this securely with your credit card, and you can "drop out" at any time with one email to us if your financial situation changes. We have 230 monthly donors right now, so we only need a few hundred more.

HOW MUCH DO WE NEED?
We estimate that we need $150,000 to $200,000 to keep CatholiCity healthy and to add crucial new services and workers. Our staff of full-time workers makes a combined salary of $91,000. Our high speed T1 line costs $12,000 per year. This past year we approved over $20,000–using your generous contributions from last year's tax drive–to upgrade our antiquated (by Internet standards) computers and software, so our need for "infrastructure" is at an absolute minimum.

DECENT SALARIES
Right now, our webmaster and managing director could make a lot more working somewhere else, given their experience and superb qualifications.

We have been spending most of our time in recent months completely rebuilding our entire website from soup to nuts–which we will unveil in a matter of weeks after delays caused by the 11 September attacks. The new site is built for speed and simplicity–it's going to be incredibly fast.

DOUBLE THE VISITORS
Our visitors in 2001 have roughly doubled since last year. After 11 September, our visitors increased seven-fold. Our CatholiCity Message has more than doubled and now reaches around 70,000 families worldwide–the most popular Catholic newsletter in the world. If you contributed during last year's tax drive, your investment was a wise one. The workload here, of course, is also increasing dramatically as a result. Here's why:

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 9-11, AND THE NEWS
Most of you were with us last November when CatholiCity played the premier role in leading Catholics around the world in prayer during the agonizing election controversy. You followed our dramatic 16-hour all-night drive to Florida during the apex of the struggle, when we brought a relic of the True Cross and your prayers directly into the state courthouse in Tallahassee. On 11 September, CatholiCity was there for you. We dropped everything to bring you hard-to-find news, commentaries, and original content. Most importantly, we led Catholics worldwide in prayer.

TWO OR THREE MILLION REASONS
Based on long-term trends, we project we can easily double or triple in size in 2002, measured by the number of visitors to our website, and not lose either our personal touch or the high-quality of our services. We're hopeful you don't want us to miss this golden opportunity to serve two or three million new souls next year.

LET US PRAY
Will you help us? We know you will. CatholiCity Citizens are the best. We'll have an update for you on how far along we are to reaching our goal as soon as possible. So please join our staff and your fellow CatholiCity Citizens in prayer:

"Dear Father Almighty, you are the One who has given us everything we have–our life, our children, our families, our friends, our homes, our food, our jobs, our country, our material blessings, our beloved Church. You have given us Your Son, Jesus, Who gave us everything on the Cross, and continues to give us everything we need for salvation. Please, heavenly Father, we ask you in the simplest and most basic way, send the Holy Spirit to guide me and my fellow CatholiCity Citizens in contributing to this year's tax drive, even if my only contribution is to pray for the generosity of others in this worthy cause. Please guide the workers at CatholiCity. Please help all of us reach ever more souls with the materials, truth, and services which will help them enjoy eternity with You. O Gracious Virgin Mary, we consecrate CatholiCity to your Immaculate Heart. Please intercede for CatholiCity Citizens! Saint Michael, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts, protect CatholiCity! Amen."

Our warmest thanks. On behalf of all of us here at CatholiCity, we promise that we will express our gratitude by working hard and working smart, with charity towards all, by the grace of God, with your help.

With Christ,

Your Friends at CatholiCity