FADICA News

Washington, D.C. – “Striking is the impact of Catholic schools on low income students,” said Francis J. Butler, President of FADICA during a November 30, 2011 Conference on Education Tax Credits at the Catholic University of America. “Despite research that has consistently shown that the level of poverty in an American school is associated with lower achievement,” Dr. Butler told conferees, “research has also found that this correlation is not statistically significant in Catholic schools.” The CUA conference, sponsored by its Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, included an array of public policy experts, Catholic school and church leaders and legal scholars who were exploring Tuition Tax Credits from a Catholic schools perspective. Dr. Butler attributed the success of Catholic schools with poverty populations to the school’s distinctive educational approach. He urged the Catholic community to argue its case before public policy makers more on the contribution that Catholic schools make in producing good citizens rather than focusing on the schools themselves.  “Yearly, we are educating some two million students at the estimated cost of about $10 billion in the seven thousand Catholic schools,” Dr. Butler said. “Yet, we are saving the American tax payer at least $20 billion annually,” he continued. Dr. Butler reviewed new tuition tax credits programs implemented in state legislatures over the past ten years and remarked: “new sources of funds are not only putting an excellent education within the reach of more low income families, but are enabling the church to expand its capacity to serve the poor.” Currently Arizona, Florida,

Washington, DC – – The third in a series of seminars designed to introduce younger philanthropists to the world of Catholic giving will take place here July 13-15 on the campus of Georgetown University. The program called the Future Foundation Leadership Venture, is sponsored by FADICA and is designed to welcome and acquaint young adults with the Catholic Church’s charitable ministries.The convening features panel discussions, site visits, and interspersed prayer and reflection segments aimed to ground the experience in an expression of shared faith. “We have been working with the younger members in our network for some number of years”, said Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president, “and it is gratifying to see our alums now playing important leadership roles within Catholic philanthropy as board members and as foundation trustees.” Among the speakers and panelists in this year’s FADICA Summer Institute are Ken Hackett, President of Catholic Relief Services, Adrian Kerrigan Vice President of the Catholic Medical Mission Board, Julie Turley, Vice President of the Catholic Church Extension Society and Josh Hale, Executive Director of the Big Shoulders Fund of Chicago. Catholic Charities and representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will also be present for the program. Foundation officers from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation and the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities will also address the group. The conferees will visit Catholic Charities USA, the Washington Middle School for Girls, an inner city Catholic school and the L’Arch House, a faith based community where people with and without intellectual

Dioceses Take More Dynamic Role in School Management/ Entrepreneurial Partnerships Showing Results Washington, DC – – Catholic dioceses are showing remarkably positive results in saving their Catholic schools in a climate of tough economic times and increased competition for students. This, a key finding of a just – published conference of grant makers convened earlier this year by FADICA to explore how new management configurations for Catholic schools are helping to beat the national trends of continuing closures. The conference proceedings entitled Built to Last: Sustainable Partnerships for Catholic Schools of the Future, features nearly a dozen speakers; from Boston College’s President, to Catholic school superintendants of Bridgeport, Chicago, New York. An archdiocesan financial expert from Atlanta shares with Catholic donor conferees how uniform and centralized financing of schools combined with a new Georgia state-wide tax credit program has meant robust economic health for Catholic schools there. Bishop William E. Lori of the Bridgeport Diocese, explains how pastors have been key in school planning and new management partnerships with the Bridgeport diocese, thereby transforming the overall leadership and quality of Catholic education there. Currently Bridgeport Catholic schools have won more U.S. Blue Ribbon honors than any diocese in the nation. U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation, James Shelton, another conference speaker acknowledges the growing creativity within Catholic school systems and challenges philanthropists to see the present opportunity to work with networks of Catholic schools “to create the world’s preeminent innovation platform.” “Significantly, archdioceses and dioceses are taking a more dynamic role in planning, school funding and bringing quality

Washington, DC – – Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities and Catholic Charities USA will join forces May 20th next, to discuss the rapidly expanding problem of human trafficking. The Washington DC meeting of private grant makers and CCUSA was prompted by growing caseloads within the Catholic Charities nation-wide network treating the victims of human trafficking. Catholic Charities USA reports that about one quarter of its 163 agencies now provide care and services to these victims. According to the U.S. government, the trafficking of humans is the second largest criminal industry in the world. It reports that almost a million victims are trafficked across international borders worldwide. The U.S. government estimates that about 17,000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States annually. Victims are often forced to work in prostitution and the sex entertainment industry. But they are also victims of domestic servitude and sweatshop factory and migrant agricultural work. Often children are the victims of trafficking, estimated to constitute a third of all victims. Catholic Charities USA has been working on ways to build local capacity to build outcomes based treatment for them and to raise community based awareness. This year CCUSA will launch a national assessment of the services provided by local Catholic Charities agencies to victims of human trafficking. The May conference, which will include FADICA members from around the country will hear from Catholic Charities agency representatives, Catholic health care, law enforcement specialists, and public officials. FADICA is comprised of over fifty foundations and grant making agencies sharing an interest in programs

Washington, DC – – A former board chairman of FADICA, and lay leader, well regarded for his philanthropy and service to the Catholic church, died February 26th in North Andover, Massachusetts, following a long illness. “Tom Donnelly lived the faith he professed” said Frank Butler, FADICA’s President. “He was dearly loved by the members of the foundation community who feel greatly privileged to have benefited from Tom’s servant leadership,” he said. Mr. Donnelly, and his wife, Marilyn, received FADICA’s highest honor in 2005, the Charles Carroll Award in Catholic Philanthropy. In a dinner given in the Donnellys’ honor, and attended by philanthropists and church leaders from across the country, the couple was celebrated for “extensive involvements in Catholic higher education, Catholic campus ministry, the right to life movement, international missions, work to combat world hunger, and efforts to promote a common ground of understanding within the church.” In addition to his work on the board of FADICA, Mr. Donnelly also served on the boards of the Catholic University of America, Carlow College, the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Harvard Divinity School, the University of Michigan, Maryknoll, and the Catholic Common Ground Project, among other Catholic involvements. In 1995, Mr. Donnelly and his family were the driving force behind the construction of the Donnelly chapel at the Catholic Newman Center in Pittsburgh. The chapel is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Donnelly’s late brother, and is staffed by chaplains to students at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute of Technology and Chatham College. “Tom Donnelly’s service and love for

Washington, DC – – Private foundations sharing an interest in new approaches to Catholic school financing and governance will meet next month to hear how several dioceses have fostered a more cooperative approach to the future of their Catholic schools. The conference, part of FADICA’s 35th annual meeting, will feature a keynote presentation by Bishop William E. Lori of the Diocese of Bridgeport. The Bridgeport Diocese is one of several dioceses which is taking a more proactive role in centralizing the management and support for its Catholic schools, monitoring their quality, and insuring that all parishes are involved in the school apostolate. This gathering of grant makers will also hear from Boston College President William P. Leahy, S.J., on the success of a Catholic school partnership between B.C. and the Archdiocese of Boston. Father Leahy will share what he has learned through a joint effort to reinvigorate Saint Columbkille School located in the Brighton section of Boston, Massachusetts. In 2006, an historic Catholic School partnership established a new governance model for Saint Columbkille School—the first of its kind for Catholic education in the United States. Saint Columbkille Parish, the Archdiocese of Boston, and have combined their resources in educational leadership, finance and enrollment management, student development, academic practice and research, facilities management, and religious formation to create a flagship Catholic school in Boston and a new national model of excellence in Catholic elementary education. The partnership resources have made possible ongoing physical plant improvements, increased financial aid, and graduate training for all eligible faculty fully sponsored by the

Chicago, IL – – Catholic funders joined together with the Catholic Church Extension Society October 15th for a conference celebrating the ministry of sisters in the 88 home mission dioceses of the United States. The conference which included forty foundation trustees, Extension personnel, Catholic sisters from rural Mississippi, as well as Navaho and Apache communities in the Southwest, showcased their work running Catholic schools, parishes, and social service programs among the poor. The conference also included personal testimony from a panel of lay women who were trained and formed by the sisters for service in the home missions or helped in their personal lives. Sister Donna Gunn CSJ, Director of Advocacy at Sacred Heart Family Center in Camden, Mississippi, spoke movingly about the lay witness and leadership that she has found in her decade of service in a rural, low income, Catholic community. “As laity move into roles that once were served by religious, I ask them to be attentive to how the Holy Spirit is present and continues to call the laity to be the face of the church,” she said. “I am very proud of what we religious have been able to do,” Sr. Donna added, referring to a once burgeoning population of sisters and clergy serving in the missions, “but our church needs new leadership now, not just because the religious are not there, but because the Holy Spirit is pushing us forward,” she added. “There’s a lot of training that has to be done,” said Lourdes Garza, a lay panelist, and native of Mexico

Chicago, IL – – The Board of Directors of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA), will confer the organization’s highest recognition, the Distinguished Catholic Leadership Award, on Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, C.S.B, of the Diocese of Las Cruces, on October 14, 2010. Bishop Ramirez was chosen to receive the award from the Catholic philanthropic community, “for his vision in shepherding with great wisdom and superb stewardship a home mission diocese of the United States,” said Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president. He is also being selected “for his courageous advocacy for human dignity and empowerment of the poor,” Dr. Butler noted. The bishop will receive the award from FADICA at a special dinner in his honor given by the organization here on the eve of a conference it is co-sponsoring with the Catholic Church Extension Society. The conference will explore the ministry of women religious in the home mission dioceses of the United States. Catholic Extension funds 33 mission dioceses enabling them to employ women religious in a variety of capacities from diocesan management to social services. This is the tenth year in which the FADICA organization has conferred the DCLA. Past honorees include Cardinal John P. Foley, the late Chilean Jesuit; Father Renate Poblete, vocations and seminary researcher; Sister Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., Education for Parish Service founder; the late Sr. Joan Bland, S.N.D.; and founder of the Cristo Rey high schools network, Father John P. Foley, among others. Bishop Ramirez became the first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1982.

Chicago, IL – – Members of the Catholic foundation world in cooperation with the Catholic Church Extension Society, a leading funding agency for the 88 home mission dioceses of the United States, will gather here October 15th to celebrate the leadership and ministerial service of Catholic sisters. The conference, entitled: The Leadership and Philanthropy of Women Religious: A Life of Passionate Service to the Home Missions, is the third conference of donors this current year sponsored by FADICA which explores the vast array of ministries of women religious in the United States. For over three hundred years Catholic sisters in America have worked hands on with people and communities in need. While most Catholics are familiar with the sisters’ presence in the urban centers of the country, much of their heroic leadership and service has been in territories of the country where the population of Catholics is sparse. In those areas, frequently it is a Catholic sister who is providing significant leadership so that the church’s work can go forward. Today religious women are training laity to be leaders of their parishes and managing the business aspects of running a small diocese. They are empowering the disenfranchised and working for justice, welcoming newly arrived immigrants, providing medical care as doctors and nurses and coordinating social services. They are directing religious education programs, offering spiritual counseling and visiting often isolated, elderly and disabled populations. Among those addressing the Catholic philanthropists attending the invitational conference are: Sr. Donna Gunn, CSJ, Diocese of Jackson, Director of Advocacy, Sacred Heart Family Center; Sr.

Washington, D.C. – – The leading membership association of major grantmakers to Catholic sponsored programs and institutions, FADICA has opened a month long search for candidates for a senior level position which will enhance public awareness of FADICA’s work and mission in faith based philanthropy. In making the announcement, FADICA’s President, Dr. Francis J. Butler, pointed out that the organization was looking for a talented and experienced person who is able to develop a communications and marketing strategy that will guide the organization over the next several years. Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities is a thirty four year old organization with a distinguished history of catalytic and constructive influence on religious giving and Catholic life. The organization is comprised of some fifty private foundations and grantmakers whose yearly charitable giving is in the range of a half billion dollars. FADICA sponsors regular conferences exploring faith based philanthropy and the future of the church. Its members have also joined together occasionally around funding partnerships in areas of common interest. Among FADICA’s accomplishments have been the founding of the National Religious Retirement Office; a start up role in the inauguration of a U.S. program of aid to restore the pastoral capacity of the Catholic church in twenty nine countries of eastern and central Europe and Russia; the creation of  Support Our Aging Religious (SOAR); the sponsorship of the first independent management studies of the Holy See; and funding collaboration in the founding of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, among other measures. FADICA is also the