The following story appeared in the August 12 Idaho Catholic Register.
The Idaho Catholic Foundation Board recently made distributions from established endowments within the Foundation.
The ICF is a Catholic community foundation that inspires giving and assists donors to provide for the long-term needs of the Diocese of Boise by raising funds and holding and investing assets from the Diocese and its Catholic schools, parishes and ministries. With the support of many donors, endowments for parishes, schools and minis-tries continue to grow each year.
As of December 2021, the ICF holds more than $34 million in funds and trusts invested to support the work of the Church long-term. The Foundation has more than 70 endowed and man-aged funds. During the last calendar year, $2.6 million was taken out of the ICF to further the Church’s mission.
The pooling of funds into a single entity like the ICF enables schools and parishes, who share the same values, to achieve economies of scale they could not hope to otherwise achieve investing on their own, as well as savings in overall brokerage and transfer fees.
The ICF has been serving the people of the Diocese since 1990. The Foundation became a separate 501(c) 3 non-profit organization in 2007. It has served as the exclusive statewide Catholic entity responsible for the establishment and administration of endowments and specialized legacy gifts, working with dedicated parishioners and community leaders to ensure the future and prosperity of the Catholic Church in Idaho.
By June 2021, ICF endowments were earning an average of 31.1 percent return on investments, net of fees, well above projected benchmarks.
The Foundation manages five permanent endowments that were established as a result of the 2013 diocesan capital campaign, with the intent of making an annual distribution to each beneficiary. Since 2017, grants awarded total about $1.23 million.
Members of the ICF board said they were encouraged to be able to make substantial distributions of nearly $250,000 for fiscal year 2022-23, especially amidst this very difficult time.
Those distributions include:
$58,400 from the Ongoing Education and Formation of Clergy Endowment to the Diocese for Seminarian Vocations.
$57,120 from the Catholic Education and Faith Formation Education Endowment to our 15 Catholic schools for tuition assistance.
$14,280 from the Catholic Education and Faith Formation Education Endowment to four programs all of which received $3,570. Grant recipients were: St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Coeur d’Alene for a revitalized Youth and Young Adult Ministry; St. Charles Borromeo in Hailey and Our Lady of the Snows in Sun Valley for Advent and Lenten retreats; Salt & Light Radio for programming and outreach; and the Cabrini Co-op in Post Falls for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
$35,400 from the Charitable Works of the Church for Local Parish Communities Endowments were given to 10 St. Vincent de Paul conferences programs, all of which received $3,500. These included: St. Francis of Assisi Conference in Moscow for crisis rental assistance; Holy Spirit Conference in Pocatello for its financial assistance program; Risen Christ Conference in Boise for rental and housing assistance; St. John’s Conference in Boise for housing and utilities assistance; Our Lady of the Valley Conference in Caldwell for rent, utilities, vouchers, and transportation; St. Mark’s Conference in Boise for help for the poor; Guadalupe Conference in Nampa for utility, gas, and rental assistance; Sa-cred Heart Conference, Boise, to help low-income people avert immediate crisis; Southwest Idaho District Council of SVdP in Boise for a pallet system for its food pantry; and St. Theresa of the Little Flower Food Bank in Orofino for food assistance.
$35,650 from the Charitable Works of the Church for Catholic Charities of Idaho Endowment for counseling.
$41,600 from Care of Priests Endowment for priests’ special needs.
For more information about the ICF and how your gifts can support the Church, visit the website at idahoca-tholicfoundation.org or contact Margaret Hampton at 208-350-7539 or at mhampton@rcdb.org.
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