![]() Tracy Morrison, Director of Catholic Charities |
One of Catholic Charities' four objectives as part of their 2023-2026 strategic plan is to "adapt services to address the unique needs of the expanding population of immigrants and refugees." One of the strategies to fulfill this mission is to continue enhancing the services of their Immigration Legal Services program, and a recent action taken by the Catholic Charities Foundation supports this initiative.
By vote of their Board of Directors, the Catholic Charities Foundation has voted to earmark $100,000 per year out of their annual distribution to Catholic Charities for the next five years for the Immigration Legal Services program.
The foundation is governed by the voting members sitting on the Catholic Charities Board, who have approved setting aside these funds to support the work of Immigration Legal Services that will help to compensate for the difference between the amount raised thus far through ArchdioceseOne, and the financial goal for the program.
This goal of $7 million for Immigration Legal Services was set to ensure provision of services for 10 years. Currently through ArchdioceseOne, approximately $1.23 million has been restricted to support Immigration Legal Services through the special appeal, which is well below the goal listed above.
The Catholic Charities Foundation was originally named St. Mary's Home, and was first incorporated on July 1, 1912 as St. Mary’s Orphan Home. Catholic Charities Foundation is a separately incorporated part of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, and today its sole purpose is to receive, manage and distribute funds to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
Tracy Morrison, Director of Catholic Charities, commented on the importance of the Foundation. "It's important that donors who desire to support our work have a vehicle to ensure their gift is being managed wisely, and the Catholic Charities Foundation allows donors to support our work in perpetuity."
"The Catholic Charities Foundation provides 5% of the 3-year rolling average of assets in the foundation to Catholic Charities to be used to support our annual operating budget," Morrison said. "This 5% is used to subsidize ministries that do not have revenue sources that cover all expenses (which is all of our ministries!)." The Catholic Charities Foundation supports all ministries of Catholic Charities, unless a donor restricts his/her gift to a specific program.
Morrison was very supportive of the idea of the Catholic Charities Foundation earmarking these funds to work in conjunction with the funds donated to ArchdioceseOne to continue supporting the Immigration Legal Services ministry. "We know that to ensure Immigration Legal Services will be available for the next 10 years, we need to raise approximately $7 million. The $500,000 the Catholic Charities Foundation has earmarked will be restricted to support Immigration Legal Services, thus ensuring these critical services are available for many years in the future."
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Thanks to your sacrificial gift, over $16.5 million has been raised for the ArchdioceseOne special appeal. Over $7.8 million of this amount has been left unrestricted, and over $1.23 million has been restricted to Immigration Legal Services.