Can I share an email that we received yesterday?
I wanted to thank you both and your company for your generosity.
Our parish just completed our First Communion Retreat. During this time we distributed the prayer cards that you donated {received when we downloaded the NOVENA}. We took time to accompany the students to learn more about Bl.Carlo Acutis. We shared his story and his kit to becoming a saint. We challenged the students to share how hearing Bl. Carlo’s story made them feel as they prepared for their first communion this week.
The response was beyond what I imagined. One student shared that he was amazed that someone so young, like him, was able to move others to deepen their faith.
Your generosity made a positive difference in our parish/students. Had it not been for you, our parish would not have been able to afford to provide these prayer cards for our students. Our budget is limited and we don’t have the funds to provide special takeaways like these. Most of our catechist buy their supplies and usually create activities with low personal budgets. I am beyond grateful and feel blessed.
Our latest offering of FREE prayer cards for every 1st Communicant when parishes downloaded our 1st Communion Novena was made possible through generous donations.
While we love offering free resources (like our weekly Mass Prep program), the cost of these often outpaces the income from the Holy Heroes store.
To help, generous families regularly offer donations as a “thank you” for using our free online programs (along with free prayer cards or last summer’s free book promotion).
Recently, we realized that there are many people in our community who had no idea that they COULD make a donation as a “thank you” for creating our free resources (which allows us to continue offering freebies to families and parishes)!
I wanted to sit down and share a bit more about how we use your donations (or tips–there is an option to leave a tip when you order) in a short video:
Here are a few ways your donations are used:
First: we produce all Holy Heroes products in the United States.
This is a core value of our family and our company. However, there is a real financial loss that we suffer to make this commitment. I elaborate a bit more in the video but, as you can imagine, the publishing industry relies on overseas printing to keep prices at the industry norm (you’ll probably notice hardcover picture books are all similarly priced–that price is set based on the cost of printing overseas). We swallow the loss when we choose to pay more to keep all our production domestic.
Second: we offer steep bulk discounts to help stock parishes, adoration chapels, homeschool groups, etc.
As you’ll notice on many of our product pages, we offer up to 35% off for bulk purchases. We do this (and accept the financial loss) to help make it more affordable to stock parishes, adoration chapels, and such with prayer aids. Our rosary book, police devotional, and pamphlets are available up to 35% off to anyone who would like to get multiple copies for their community.
Third: we offer free shipping to all active & retired U.S. military
We are a military family–Trey is currently a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force stationed abroad, Anna and Therese (and 1 future son-in-law!) are currently at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Lilly is currently studying nursing while preparing to serve in the U.S. Army.
We know the sacrifices that military families make and we want to make it a little easier. If you are a current (or retired) member of the U.S. military, please leave a comment with your order and we will refund 100% of your shipping costs. And, if you are ordering from an APO address, we will ship your order priority mail (I know how long mail can take to get to a base)!
Fourth (and this is NEW): we are receiving more and more requests from crisis pregnancy centers for our resources.
Our Expectant Parent Prayer Card is wildly popular for crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life groups. Schools and parishes like to get our Spiritual Adoption Prayer Card for the month of October as a fundraising incentive in diaper drives (and other pro-life fundraising)!
Fifth: we offer our online Adventures totally FREE
We have always offered our (now SEVEN) online programs at zero cost to participants and are committed to continuing to do this. However, we are responsible for paying the cost of the online platforms, artists, videographers, creators, and every single person who helps create these programs. Tens of THOUSANDS of families participate in these programs every year.
If each family gave just $5 or $10, we would be able to cover all program costs for the next year!
Ken Davison created Glory Stories, which became a weekly radio series heard globally on the Ave Maria Satellite Radio Network and EWTN’s radio network, WEWN. In 2007, he and his wife, Kerri, founded Holy Heroes–and their children stepped in to help shortly thereafter to create the online “Adventures” for Advent, Lent, Spiritual Adoption, and Marian Consecration.
