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Donors’ gifts touch all areas of the archdiocese
The entrance of Saint Mary's Cathedral Basilica in Halifax, NS. Saint Mary's is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth and the largest Catholic church in the Archdiocese.
May 23, 2026
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The Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth has released its 2025 Impact Report, highlighting the success of its new, streamlined Bold in Faith collection.
With every parish participating, this year’s donor gifts have fuelled initiatives touching every corner of the archdiocese, from refugee resettlement and student scholarships to temporal care and emergency shelters.
The impact report is the creation of Jennifer Derwey-Deane, Halifax-Yarmouth’s development coordinator. She began the recap initiative in 2024 during her first full year in the role, inspired by the archdiocese’s own Eucharistic Congress, which provided both strong photos and personal stories from parishioners.
“This was really a way to share those stories with everyone, because we want to celebrate our success together. Every day, we get bad news from the world around us, and we can sometimes forget that we're an Easter people — I'm really privileged to be able to share that news with others,” Derwey-Deane said.
New to this year’s fundraising approach is the move from three separate direct-mail appeals to one unified collection under the title Bold in Faith. The decision allowed for significant cost savings, reduced donor confusion and opportunities for contributors to learn about all ministries, not just the one they gave to.
While the report lays out extensive good news from each branch of the archdiocese, including news of Steubenville Atlantic 2025 welcoming its largest crowd since 2017 with over 550 youth and chaperones over the conference weekend or the number of catechumens seeing a near two‑and‑a‑half-fold‑increase in just two years, it is the personal stories that stick with the development coordinator when reflecting on the report.
“ In the 2024 report, I learned about and shared the fact that our Catholic cemeteries provide no-cost burial services for children. This initiative was a great way to share that very special ministry. In 2025, I included a beautiful story as told by our refugee sponsorship program of one individual who was sponsored through that program. Those types of stories, sometimes hidden, can really cut through the numbers that we see every day,” she said.
Other notable areas that drew support this year include youth and adult faith formation, ongoing vocations and seminarian support and various chaplaincy services.
The 2025 Impact Report also presents the results of its parishioners' generosity, with this year’s total remaining strong and comparable to 2024 at $325,000, including the Emergency Shelter Project bringing in $83,900 in donations alone.
Derwey-Deane, though, is focusing on figures beyond the dollar sign.
“While these numbers do not offset the cost of ministry in the diocese, we do expect to continue growing these numbers. The one I am most proud of is that 20 out of 20 of our parishes have participated, even after some years of real struggle and amalgamation. That shows that we are here as a community, collected, united and presently supporting one another,” she said.
Looking ahead, the archdiocese will continue producing annual impact reports, with the ongoing 2026 campaign theme “Finding Rest” as the template for next year’s testimonies and findings.
“We want next year to share with people not only what the world looks like right now, but what it could look like. Finding Rest will be about sharing the Church as our safe space, our place for refuge, and that is in direct response to what we've been hearing from our parishioners,” she said.
“If we can recognize that the Church is a place for prayer, comfort and refuge where we can all find a bit of rest, while remaining rooted in building a stronger, more compassionate community, that is what we hope to do.”
For the full 2025 Impact Report, see halifaxyarmouth.org.
A version of this story appeared in the May 24, 2026, issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Bold faith fuels Halifax successes".
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