For the second consecutive year the ShareLife parish campaign has hit a record high, garnering $12.64 million, about $300,000 more than it took in last year. Overall the ShareLife campaign, which includes the parish, corporate, employee, schools and miscellaneous campaigns, came in just shy of $15.5 million.

“We are very grateful for the generosity of the Catholic community,” said Arthur Peters, ShareLife’s executive director. “ShareLife is the Catholic Church’s response to helping the marginalized in our community. It is helping to put the hands of Christ into action everyday.”

Peters said two unique anonymous gifts where instrumental in achieving success.

For the third time in four years an anonymous donor put forward a significant amount of money — this year $800,000 — to match any new or increased gifts to the campaign.

“Obviously the generosity of our anonymous donor helped to make an impact,” said Peters. “Schools, companies and individuals responded to that as they’ve done in the past.”

In addition, a $55,000 donation was made to ShareLife from beyond the grave.

“One of the gifts that came into our campaign this year was through the generosity of a parishioner, now deceased, who in his will wanted to recognize the work of our Catholic agencies,” said Peters. “This just brings attention to our parishioners that when considering their estate plan they can consider organizations like ShareLife. In that way the generosity that they’ve shown in life to these agencies can continue even after they’ve passed on.”

But it isn’t just the big gifts that make a difference in the lives of those who benefit from the services provided by the agencies which ShareLife funds. Peters said every dollar donated has an impact and he’s thankful for every cent donated to ShareLife.

“We are really blessed to have the generosity of our parishioners in the archdiocese of Toronto,” said Peters. “In a difficult economy we have raised over $300,000 more than the previous parish campaign. For this we have reason to be grateful and as a Catholic community we are indeed working wonders.”

Now that the latest campaign has come to an end it is time to start distributing the funds to meet the allocations for 2013 which were determined last fall. In addition to this, ShareLife’s allocation committee will meet this fall to review the 2013 results and determine how much money can be allocated in 2014 by using the current figures as a guideline.

For 2013 Peters said increased funding was allocated to help young mothers, provide walk-in counselling clinics and support hospital chaplaincy programs.

He speculated that agencies which provide elderly care, assistance to young mothers and support for young adults transitioning out of foster care would receive extra attention during the 2014 allocations.

Ultimately though, the areas which receive increased funding will be based heavily on the requests and recommendations from the agencies themselves along with the discretion of the allocations committee.