The parochial expansion of the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries placed substantial financial demands on the Catholic community. Focusing on developments within the city of Philadelphia and its burgeoning urban neighborhoods, this article explores the strategies church officials and local parishes developed to fund their extensive building projects. By the early twentieth century, parochial fundraising had reached a new level of coordination and maturity, a trend highlighted by the rise of professional campaign managers to acquire the sums needed to sustian brick-and-mortar ambitions.