Churches feeling financial pinch as donations drop amid coronavirus pandemic

With people out of work, a lot of spending has stopped. For some churches, that means donations are down.

Now, churches are asking you to not forget about them on Easter Sunday.

Grace Church runs on donations.

“We’re completely reliant on what our congregation can give,” says Jorge Acevedo, the lead pastor at the Cape Coral location. He says gifting is softer.

“Clearly giving has been affected by our people losing their jobs. We have a lot of small business owners in our church and they just completely shut down,” he said.

But gifting isn’t the only piece of the puzzle.

“The other piece, the other reality for churches like mine and many others in Lee County that have preschools and schools, they are not receiving tuition, those employees are furloughed or laid off and so there’s an impact beyond just the normal Sunday morning giving,” Acevedo said.

It’s all denominations feeling that pinch. This week, the Catholic Diocese of Venice announced some of its employees in parishes and schools will be furloughed.

“I would say to the average parishioner, your church is still at work. your church is still doing the work. We’re still visiting people caring for people, feeding people, sharing the good news of Jesus,” he said.

To give from a distance, Grace Church is accepting gifts via mail, online and via text. While their church is still afloat, Acevedo says it’s too soon to know the long-term effect.

“If this thing goes four more weeks or eight more weeks, we might be singing a very different song,” he said.

For more information on how to help Grace Church, click here.