The Internet has changed the way the world—and Glenmary Home Missioners—communicates. In 1999 Glenmary’s Web site, glenmary.org, arrived in cyberspace. Jean Bach, director of Glenmary’s communications office, says that in the nine years that the Web site has been up, “it has just exploded in size” and has become a critical tool for communicating Glenmary’s mission and ministry.

Glenmary’s use of the Internet began with simple e-mail in the mid-to-late-1990s. Jeff Sheeler, data center manager, says that when he was hired by Glenmary in 1998, people in the office were still using dial-up—connecting to the Internet with their phones through a modem. In 1999 Jeff set up the network for the Internet through a DSL (digital subscriber line) and began developing Glenmary’s Web site.

Glenmary’s use of its Web site has continued to grow since then. Today, Web surfers can find everything they want to know about Glenmary through press releases, stories from various newsletters, the contents of Glenmary Challenge magazine, news from Glenmary’s departments as well as the ability to sign up to receive e-newsletters and make online donations.

Print communications “will never be fully eliminated,” says Father Dominic Duggins, Glenmary first vice president and director of development. But, he says, Glenmary is collecting e-mail addresses from donors in the hopes of eventually delivering more messages electronically, a delivery method that is relatively cost-free.

Joe Grosek, Glenmary volunteer director, says since he works primarily with high school and college-age people, most of his contacts are through e-mail and the Internet.

“I’m finding it more and more evident that information I send in an e-mail is going to be read before information I send through print,” he says. “It’s a cheaper way to transfer information because we’re not paying money for postal services.”

Joe also uses the Internet to publicize the Farm volunteer program and to stay in touch with former volunteers. He recently created a Glenmary Farm page on Facebook, a social networking Web site, so former volunteers can share photographs and their experiences with other volunteers all over the country.

Glenmary vocation director Father Steve Pawelk, who also typically communicates with a younger population, says the Internet is the “primary source of vocation information” for those interested in finding out about Glenmary’s work.

The majority of young men in the United States interested in a missionary vocation with Glenmary—and all international contacts—first contact Father Steve via e-mail. On a typical day, he receives 10 to 20 such e-mails. “Since I am on the road,” he says, the Internet also “allows me to stay in touch regularly with my office and with those discerning a vocation.”

The Glenmary Web site doesn’t just communicate its mission and ministry but makes it easier for donors to support that mission and ministry.

Glenmary’s development office has been receiving online donations, and watching them steadily increase, for over three years.

“Online donations have been on the rise as more people are becoming comfortable with it because they know that there are secure sites, like Glenmary’s, through which their donations can be transferred,” Father Dominic says. Donors simply type in their contact information, the amount they want to donate and their credit card number “and bingo they’re done.”

Father Dominic estimates that he gets one to five donations via Glenmary’s Web site every day. “We’re communicating,” he says, “and donors are responding.”

The use of the Internet not only benefits Glenmary, it also benefits Glenmary donors, Jean says. “It’s an immediate way of communicating the latest news to donors. That’s the beauty of the internet—the immediacy.”

Perhaps the largest benefit of the Internet to the whole Glenmary family, which includes donors, is the ability to reach more people with information about Glenmary. Over the past two years, Glenmary has placed ads on several Catholic Web sites to drive people to the Glenmary Web site.

“We know from our Web stats,” Jean explains, “that people are linking to our site through these ads. As a result, new people are reading about Glenmary’s work. And our hope is that those new people will connect with our message and want to support Glenmary’s work.”

The Web site continues to be a “work in progress,” Father Dominic says. “We understand and appreciate that there are different age groups that use the Internet as their primary source of communication and we’re trying to meet their needs.”

“We’re reaching people that we would never have been able to reach in the past, and that’s the success,” Jean says. “The opportunities are unlimited.”

This article originally appeared in the June 2008 Boost-A-Month Club Newsletter