A Decade of Forever: Catholic Foundation Impacts Catholic Causes During Initial 10 Years

In 2013, the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania was just a dream.

It was during that year that a group of local Catholic leaders under the leadership of Paul Huck gathered to discuss the future of our Catholic faith. Each recognized the serious challenges facing the Church: protecting our youth, keeping young adults involved in the faith in light of aging parishioners, stabilizing tuition at Catholic schools and increasing vocations, to name a few.  

All agreed that the mission of our Catholic faith was important to preserve. They believed it was imperative to continue providing top-notch academic programs in our schools, to feed and care for the sick, poor and under-served, and to ensure the gospel message was offered through daily Mass and parish activities.  However, there was genuine concern for the future of many Catholic causes. A key outcome of the discussion was the realization that long-term, ongoing financial income was needed to sustain these vital programs and services.

Thus, the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania was born.

Celebrating 10 Years of Catholic Foundation Success

Fast forward to 2023. What a difference 10 years make. We are 97 partners and 125 endowment funds strong with more than $30.4M in assets under management. We just completed our fiscal year. 173 donors “invested in forever” by making 217 gifts totaling $6.3M to 98 different funds (18 new ones). Earlier in the year, we declared more than $903,000 in distributions and a total of $3.1M in the past eight years.  This shows the funds are working to provide our Catholic parishes, schools, cemeteries and ministries with much needed income to support their programs.

Many Ways to Give to Your Favorite Causes With the Catholic Foundation

In addition to now gifts (cash, stock gifts and IRA transfers) donors are realizing that endowment funds are the perfect repository for planned gifts (gifts in a will, and IRA, insurance and annuity beneficiaries). Essentially their gift lives on forever. It’s as if their weekly envelope to their parish or annual fund gift to their favorite Catholic school or ministry will keep coming even after they have gone to heaven.

The Catholic Foundation’s promise is straightforward: to ensure Catholic organizations have future income so they may fulfill their missions – in perpetuum – forever.   We are grateful to our partners and donors who have embraced our efforts to help us fulfill this promise.

Throughout our celebration year, we will be highlighting the people and Catholic causes that have shaped the past 10 years. We also will be introducing new initiatives and campaigns that will help our partner organizations become more viable in the future.

Thank you for investing in and believing in the Catholic Foundation. Because of you, we are no longer a dream.