Catholic Women’s Giving Circle
Interested in joining with Catholic women to make a difference in our community?
YOU ARE INVITED : The Catholic Women’s Giving Circle
We cordially invite you to join the new Catholic Women’s Giving Circle to support ministries of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Our mission is to empower Catholic women to support Catholic ministries.
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SIGNIFICANT DATES​
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Applications available for Agencies to Apply for Grants – June 3
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Member commitments due – June 17
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Grant application deadline – August 30
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Grant selection event – October 30
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Grant recipients notified – October 31
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HOW IT WORKS
Catholic women will be invited to become members of this giving circle. The cost for a full voting membership is $1,000. We will also offer a $250 membership level for ¼ of a vote. This is an annual commitment. Membership commitments are due June 17, 2024.
One-time, one-year grants of $25,000 will be available to all archdiocesan-supported agencies and ministries.. The membership response will determine the number of $25,000 grants to be awarded. Interested agencies and ministries will complete a grant application by August 30.
A selection committee of member volunteers will select 3-5 finalists. The Office of Stewardship and Development will work with Archdiocesan agencies and ministries selected as finalists to prepare a short video to be presented at a grant selection event on October 30, 2024. Grant awardees have until October 1, 2025 to target completion of their project and will be asked to complete an impact report. Awardees may be asked to present their report at a future gathering of the Giving Circle. Awardees will be eligible to apply for future funding.
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JOIN THE GIVING CIRCLE
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The deadline to make a commitment to join this exciting new initiative is June 17, 2024.
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The cost to join this annual giving circle and have a full vote in the grant process is $1,000. Alternately, women can join for $250 and receive a ¼ vote in the grant process.
If you choose to join at the $1,000 membership level, you can pay in one installment or four quarterly installments online of $250 each. If you choose to pay in quarterly installments, you must enter an end date one year from today. Your first payment will be charged today.
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Payments can be made by check, securities (IRA, DAF or stock gifts) or securely online by credit card.
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If paying by check, please make check payable to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and mail to:
Archdiocese of Indianapolis
Attn: Catholic Women’s Giving Circle
1400 N. Meridian Street, Suite 105
Indianapolis, IN 46202
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To pay with securities, please initiate the payment with your broker or custodian, and complete the correct Archdiocesan form below:
IRA: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=dHbUn6
Donor-advised Fund: www.archindy.org/DAFDonation
CCF DAF: www.archindy.org/CCFDAFGrantRequest
Stock: www.archindy.org/DonateStock
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Or securely pay online by credit card. If you choose to commit to the $1,000 level, you may choose to pay in a single transaction, or pay on a quarterly basis ($250 each quarter)
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GRANT APPLICATION PROCESS
Grant applications are now open. One-time, one-year grants of $25,000 will be available to Archdiocese of Indianapolis agencies and ministries. One application per agency/ministry please.
Grant applications will be accepted from June 1 to August 30, 2024. CWGC participants will evaluate grant applications and vote to determine grant recipients. Agencies/Ministries will be notified of awards on October 31, 2024. Projects should have a completion date of October 1, 2025.
The Office of Stewardship and Development will work with Archdiocesan agencies and ministries selected as finalists to prepare a short video to be presented at a grant selection event on October 30, 2024. Grant awardees will be asked to complete an impact report at the completion of their project and may be asked to present their report at a future gathering of the Giving Circle. Awardees will be eligible to apply for other grants in the future.
For questions, please contact Ellen Sanders at esanders@archindy.org or call 317-236-1501.
Significant Dates:
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Grant applications open - June 3
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Grant application deadline – August 30
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Agencies/Ministries notified of finalist status – September 24
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Videos created for finalists – October 1-10
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Grant selection voting event – October 30
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Awardees notified – October 31
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STEERING COMMITTEE
Kathy Laudick
Andrea Morelli
Marianne Price
April Sasso
Elisabeth Williams
Anne Wilmes
Staff Members: Kimberly Pohovey, Ellen Sanders, Val Bendel, Cheri Bush
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OUR PATRON SAINT, ST. KATHARINE DREXEL
Katharine Drexel, SBS was an American Catholic heiress, philanthropist, religious sister, and educator. In 1891, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious order serving Black and Indigenous Americans. She is widely known as the patron saint of philanthropists and racial justice.
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Drexel was the daughter of the American financier and philanthropist Francis Anthony Drexel. Her mother, Hannah Langstroth, died five weeks after Katharine was born, and Katharine and her sister were cared for by their aunt and uncle until their father remarried in 1860. The family was active in charitable works and distributed food, clothing, and money from their home twice a week. In 1884 she traveled with her father and sisters to the western states, where they witnessed the poverty and destitution of Native Americans on reservation lands.
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When her father died in 1885, she inherited a $14 million fortune. Believing that all people should have access to education, she continued the work earlier undertaken by the family of founding and endowing schools and churches for African Americans and Native Americans in the South and West. She later visited these establishments, touring by burro and stagecoach. While in Rome (January 1887), she had a private audience with Pope Leo XIII to indicate a need for nuns to staff her mission schools. The pope challenged her to devote her life as well as her fortune to the missions.
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In 1889 she became a novice with the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In February 1891 she took her final vows and, with a few companions, founded the Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People, of which she was superior general.
At the time of her death, she had used more than $12 million of her inheritance for her charitable and apostolic missions, working in conjunction with the U.S. Indian Office, through which she helped found the Society for the Preservation of the Faith Among Indian Children (or Preservation Society). By that time as well, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament had grown to some 500 members in 51 convents, and they had established 49 elementary schools, 12 high schools, and Xavier University in New Orleans.
Drexel was beatified in 1988 after the Vatican confirmed her first miracle, restoring a boy’s hearing. A second miracle was attributed to her in January 2000 after a young girl was cured of her deafness following prayers to Drexel and having her ears touched by some of Drexel’s possessions. In March Pope John Paul II approved Drexel for sainthood, and she was canonized in October 2000, becoming the second U.S-born saint; the first was St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, canonized in 1975.
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