New grant application process to make more funds available to parishes

Alex Ogbuh, a maintenance worker at St. Rita Parish in Indianapolis, looks at a book on Sept. 17 in the parish’s library. In 2011, St. Rita Pasrish received a Growth and Expansion grant from the archdiocese to expand the holdings of the library. Recent changes to the application process for archdiocesan grants will make more funds available more often to parishes across central and southern Indiana. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

Starting next month, a new grant application process for parishes across central and southern Indiana will be launched.

It will make funds available twice a year through the St. Francis Xavier Home Mission Endowment Fund and the Growth and Expansion Endowment Fund. Additionally, new grants will also be made from the James P. Scott Endowment Fund.

In the past, the Home Mission grants were awarded only in the spring and the Growth and Expansions grants were awarded only in the fall. Now, funds from both will be distributed in the spring and fall.

A committee made up of parish leaders, archdiocesan staff members and lay volunteers will review the grant applications.

Grant applications for the fall review process are due on Oct. 31.

The James P. Scott grants will also be awarded twice a year at the same time as the other grants.

The Scott grants have been made possible by a generous gift from the late James P. Scott and will be used to support the capital needs in the archdiocese.

Stacy Harris, director of financial analysis in the archdiocese’s Office of Finance and Administrative Services, said that the new combined grant application process will give the grants a “bigger impact” on parishes in central and southern Indiana.

“It combines the dollars, and we can give more significant grants,” Harris said. “And, depending on the applications, that can be really important for some parishes.”

Each of the grant funds were established through endowments. Each year, a percentage of that endowment is distributed as grants.

In the case of the Home Mission grant, the funds from the endowment are increased by contributions made to parishes that exceed their goal for the “United Catholic Appeal: Christ our Hope” archdiocesan appeal and choose to make those funds available as grants.

Approximately $200,000 is available annually through the Home Mission grants, which are awarded to parishes that cannot meet their ordinary needs or are experiencing an emergency need.

The Growth and Expansion grants support archdiocesan parishes, schools and agencies that are growing or expanding. Their needs that can be met through the grants can include capital requests, staffing or programming.

Approximately $140,000 is available annually through the Growth and Expansion grants.

The new James P. Scott grants will provide matching grants or awards to support capital projects at archdiocesan parishes, schools or agencies that have the potential to have a significant influence within a local area or on the archdiocese as a whole. These grants can also fill a fundraising gap or provide an incentive to donors in a capital project.

Approximately $250,000 per year will be available through the James P. Scott grants.

Ellen Brunner, director of planned giving for the archdiocese, helped shepherd the bequest from the James P. Scott estate to the point where now grants will be awarded from it.

“We’re growing the funds available significantly by adding this additional new endowment fund,” Brunner said. “This gift will support many different ministries around the archdiocese in capital projects.”

She is glad to be able to see the positive influence that a planned gift can have for the Church in central and southern Indiana.

“You’re just reminded of how someone can have an impact after they’re gone from this Earth,” Brunner said, “and how we have the opportunity to be good stewards of that gift.”

Being a good steward in part means making the funds more easily available to parishes across the archdiocese, which Harris said the new combined application process does.

“It allows us to make larger, more impactful grants to people,” she said. “Combining them makes it easier for the parishes. There have been several times over the past few years that applicants were turned away or their grant request wasn’t awarded because it didn’t quite fit the criteria of one versus the other grant.

“This kind of takes that guessing part out of the parishes. The committee will kind of do that. We’ll steer them to the right grant.”
 

(For more information on the new combined grant process, log on to www.archindy.org/finance, send an e-mail to Stacy Harris at sharris@archindy.org or call her at 800-382-9836, ext. 1535, or at 317-236-1535.) †