FADICA News

Washington, DC — Catholic philanthropists in Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA) will have a discussion on ways to encourage closer cooperation among themselves and with church leadership, as the nation experiences an unprecedented and severe economic recession. The conference, entitled: Reinventing Catholic Philanthropy, will feature a dialogue between panels of Catholic charity leaders and foundation chairs. It will take place late next month in Florida. The meeting will include individual presentations from philanthropic experts and skilled fundraising leaders who have demonstrated the power of philanthropic partnerships through their institutions. “The Catholic foundation community is acutely sensitive to the economic downturn and its enormous repercussions for the church’s educational and charitable services,” said Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president, in announcing the gathering. “More than ever it is urgently important to work together to increase the impact of philanthropic programs,” he added. FADICA is an association of some fifty private foundations and charitable agencies that come together regularly to interact with Catholic leaders and charity experts and stay abreast of needs and trends relevant to religious philanthropy. On occasion FADICA’s members have worked together on projects of national and international significance to Catholic life. Among those taking part in the January 29-30 conference will be Father Larry Snyder, President of Catholic Charities USA; Sr. Carol Keehan, DC, President of the Catholic Health Association; Sr. Mary Scullion, Founder of Project HOME, a Philadelphia-based program addressing the needs of homeless families; Father Dennis Dease President of St. Thomas University; Sr. Andrea Lee, IHM, President of the College of St.

Washington, D.C. A ground breaking eight –volume series on women’s spirituality entitled: Called to Holiness will be unveiled October 7th in the nation’s capital at the Woodstock Center for Theology. The project is the result of an unprecedented partnership of FADICA, an association of Catholic donors and foundations, Fairfield University, and St. Anthony Messenger Press. The series grew out of a January, 2005 discussion sponsored by FADICA exploring ways to support and encourage the participation of women in leadership roles within Catholicism. At that gathering theologian and writer Dr. Elizabeth A. Dreyer, of Fairfield University, one of ten women who spoke to the assembly of philanthropists, underscored the need for more spiritual theology resources for today’s Catholic women. Following that FADICA conversation, ten members of the funding association banded together to encourage Professor Dreyer to move forward with a proposal and later assisted her university in underwriting the costs of the project. St. Anthony Messenger Press, a major publisher, joined Fairfield some months later to assist in preparing the series for a popular audience. “We are delighted with the outcome of this collaboration”, said Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president. “The superb skill of the writers and the fresh and poignant portrayal of how God works in and through the talent and hearts of women of faith is a gift for the whole church”, he said. “We are especially proud of the collaborative way in which this superb resource was undertaken.” Writers for the series include: Elizabeth A. Dreyer Making Sense of God; Dolores R. Leckey Grieving with Grace; Joan Mueller Living a Spirituality

Washington, DC — The Disaster Relief Committee of Catholic Charities USA is working with FADICA and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in channeling relief to eight communities of sisters in New Orleans. The new partnership follows a two-year effort by FADICA and the LCWR to work together to assist recovery efforts of New Orleans religious whose ministries and housing were severely impacted by Hurricane Katrina, one of the five deadliest storms in U.S. history. Historically, two national, parish-based appeals were made by the American bishops to render assistance to the poor and to Gulf dioceses impacted by the storms of 2005. The first appeal, taken up shortly after Katrina hit New Orleans, raised some $73 million in parish and diocesan donations. Proceeds were used primarily to assist the poor with food, shelter and counseling and administered through the Catholic charities network. An additional $90 million in relief reached Catholic charities directly from individuals, foundations, religious orders, and corporations. A second national appeal, made in August, 2006, raised $10.3 million and by-passed Catholic Charities USA, going directly to the New Orleans Archdiocese and the Diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi, to help with costs associated with the rebuilding of damaged churches. In October, 2006, members of FADICA and a delegation of Leadership Conference of Women Religious made parallel visits to New Orleans to assess the damage to the church’s ministry there. Both groups were surprised to learn that religious communities were receiving only a tiny amount of aid from national church-sponsored appeals and resolved to work together to address the

Washington, D.C. — The Joseph Family Foundation of Diamond Bar, California, the Gerald and Henrietta Rauenhorst Foundation of Naples, Florida, the Doty Family Foundation of Fairfield, Connecticut, and the Big Shoulders Fund of Chicago were among those grant makers welcomed this summer to the FADICA membership. “We are delighted and warmly applaud these new additions to the expanding FADICA network,” said Francis J. Butler, the organization’s President. “They bring a depth of experience, especially in Catholic education that will enrich FADICA’s programs and grant making collaboration”, he added. FADICA has a membership of some fifty private foundations and five individual donors whose U.S. based giving alone totals over a quarter billion dollars yearly. The organization was founded over three decades ago, and functions as a meeting place for conferences, research, and information exchange on Catholic philanthropy. Through FADICA foundations and donors are also able to develop grant making partnerships with other members around innovative projects of mutual interest. Currently FADICA is exploring ways in which the membership can work together to promote more innovative initiatives in the field of Catholic education (K-8). Earlier this year FADICA sponsored a national conference discussing the current plight of parochial schools and new measures underway to strengthen and improve them. Members of FADICA are also working together to help the church with urgent needs. In recent days, eleven members of the FADICA organization have joined their energies to help religious communities of women in New Orleans rebuild their ministries. The partnership has donated some $4.3 million to support projects in New

New York, “Hope in Action” is the theme of the annual report to the membership of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities as it gathers June 6th for a review of the organization’s progress. “Hope in Action” is an appropriate theme to describe the work of FADICA’s philanthropic community over the past year, says FADICA’s president, Francis J. Butler, in his introductory comments to the report. The twenty-page report touches on five principal areas of current organizational focus, strengthening Catholic schools; building leadership and capacity within Catholic campus ministry; assisting storm-related recovery efforts helping the poor led by women religious in New Orleans; promoting best management practices among religious organizations; and building bridges between the churches of Africa and the United States. Currently, the membership of FADICA, which is comprised of nearly fifty private foundations, has been training its attention on Catholic schools, and in particular, areas of the country in which innovation has played a role in new school growth, improved quality, and better financing. Members of FADICA are involved in supporting a wide range of new Catholic school initiatives including supporting the highly acclaimed, Jubilee Schools of the Diocese of Memphis, and in assisting in the development of Cristo Rey, Nativity and San Miguel schools throughout the country. One member of FADICA has recently endowed a $2 million chair in Catholic K through 12 at the University of Notre Dame. At the forthcoming New York-based FADICA meeting where the report will be discussed, the group will also bring together education experts, to explore ways

Washington, DC — The Catholic Big Shoulders Fund, a network of major Chicago donors banned together twenty two years ago at the invitation of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to rescue Catholic schools in the Chicago Archdiocese, will be joining the FADICA organization. “We are thrilled at the prospect of the Big Shoulders Fund joining our growing membership,” said Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president.“ This comes at a time when the future of Catholic schools is front and center in our program as a philanthropic network”, he added. The mission of the Big Shoulders Fund is to provide support to the Catholic schools in the neediest areas of inner-city Chicago. Grants from the Big Shoulders Fund are used to support children through scholarships, special education programs, instructional equipment, much needed school facility improvements, faculty support, and operating grants. Its board is comprised of prominent Catholic donors from the Chicago area. Big Shoulders board member, Jim O’Connor, former chairman and CEO of UNICOM Corporation and its subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison Company, spoke before the members of FADICA last January in Naples, Florida when FADICA sponsored a major conference on the future of the Catholic schools across the country. He told FADICA that Big Shoulders serves 93 schools, with 25,000 students in inner-city schools. The Catholic school system itself, across the archdiocese, is 100,000 children. He said, 36 percent of the children served by Big Shoulders are not Catholic; 80 percent are minority. The vast majority come from families operating beneath the poverty line, he reported. An astonishing 97 percent

New York — The leaders of several private foundations will be meeting here June 6th to discuss what’s needed to promote more innovation in Catholic schools. The meeting, sponsored by FADICA, draws its impetus from a grant makers’ conference held last January 24-25 in Naples, Florida, entitled: Catholic Schools A New Chapter in An Old Story. The conference attended by some one hundred philanthropists, featured the President of the National Catholic Education Association and some fifteen additional school experts who discussed financing, innovation, and ways to measure the quality of instruction in Catholic schools. “Our Naples conference made a compelling case that unless there are more efforts nationally to help Catholic schools work more vigorously and innovatively to lead in education, we will continue to lose many of these precious institutions”, said Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president. The New York FADICA meeting in June will bring together funders to discuss among other things the merits of creating a publically supported national fund for Catholic school innovation. In the mid 1990’s the American hierarchy called for a national effort to assist Catholic schools financially, but at the national level little follow up activity went forward. Over the last twenty years many larger and mid-size Catholic dioceses have made special efforts to organize auxiliary fund raising for their schools. Most of these projects have provided scholarship support but have not been capable of undertaking more substantial help to address strategic needs. Today there is no national funding source for Catholic schools outside of the efforts of private foundations. Currently,

Wilmington, DE – – Mr. Gerard S. Garey, a well known leader in Catholic philanthropy died February 29, at his home in Fairfax, Delaware, following a long illness. Mr. Garey directed the Wilmington-based Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities for many decades retiring eight years ago. “He was a quiet, gentle, leader, a man of deep faith and charity,” said Francis J. Butler, FADICA’s president. “He will be remembered for the role he played in strengthening the sense of fellowship and shared purpose among foundation leaders across the country”, he said. Mr. Garey was responsible for the research and early exploratory discussions that led to the founding of FADICA, a network of Catholic foundations established in 1976. Also known for his role in strengthening parish-based bereavement ministry, Mr. Garey helped to found the National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved, a federation of ministries of consolation. John J. and Helena S. Raskob established the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, Inc. in 1945. John J. Raskob, a financier, corporate executive, and director with the DuPont Company, General Motors Corporation, and the Bankers Trust Company, among others, conceived of and commissioned the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. As the principal contact and director for the Raskob Foundation throughout the major period of its existence, Gerard Garey oversaw the distribution of over $100 million in grants to Roman Catholic organizations and programs throughout the world. In 1983 the Raskob Foundation received the Charles Carroll Award in Catholic Philanthropy, a prestigious recognition from other private foundations in FADICA

Kathleen McCarthy, Chair of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation and an influential leader in a number of charitable activities nationally, and in Southern California, has been elected to the FADICA board of directors. Mrs. McCarthy has been an active member of FADICA for many years and recently helped form a four-member steering committee for FADICA’s capital campaign, Faith Shaping the Future. The FADICA members meeting for their 32nd annual meeting in Naples on January 24-25 also elected three others to board terms of service including, Sister Sally Duffy, SC, President of the SC Ministry Foundation of Cincinnati, Ohio, Andrea Hattler Bramson, a trustee of the Loyola Foundation of Washington, DC, and John Vatterott of the Vatterott Family Foundation of Naples, Florida. In addition to welcoming new board members, elections at the annual meeting resulted in three new principal officers to help guide the association. This included Timothy J. O’Shaughnessy, Chairman, William F. Raskob, III, Board Vice President, and Thomas J. Healey, Treasurer.