The purpose of the Diocesan Support Appeal (DSA) is to help provide the annual funding necessary to carry out the mission of our diocese – namely to fulfill our call to “grow ever more perfectly into a community of praise, worship and witness, and to become a leaven of service and sign of peace through love in the Piedmont and Western North Carolina.”

Thousands of people across the diocese benefit because of the DSA-funded ministries. For example, among those served are:

• 7,200 grade and high school students in Catholic Schools
• 46,000 through programs assisted by the Faith Formation Office
• 6,700 teenagers through Youth Ministry
• 3,500 Catholic college students through Campus Ministry programs
• 20,000+ clients of Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, served through the following ministries:
  • Pregnancy Support and Adoptions Counseling
  • Marriage Preparation Immigration Assistance
  • Natural Family Planning Food Pantries
  • Social Concerns & Advocacy Clothing Closets
  • Elder Ministry Direct Financial Assistance
  • Respect Life Refugee Resettlement
  • Teen Parenting Stay the Course teen program
• 100,000+ minority parishioners through multicultural ministries
  • 121 permanent deacons through the Permanent Diaconate program
  • 24 seminarians currently discerning or in formation for the diocese

The goal for the 2018 DSA is $5,870,000, which is a 3.5% increase over the appeal in 2017. Each parish is assessed a portion of this goal. One of the primary ways to reach your goal is through education and increased donor participation. In this manual, and throughout the year, we provide parishes with Bulletin Announcements, Pulpit Announcements, and Bulletin Inserts that focus on making parishioners more aware of the work done by the personnel in the ministries funded by the DSA. The article in the February 4th issue of the Catholic News Herald will also provide a good overview.