Since its inception twenty-six years ago the donors of the National Catholic Community Foundation have requested thousands of grants be made with an aggregate value exceeding $30 million. To appreciate the geographic dispersion of these grants and the wide variety of recipients Readers might visit the NCCF website (www.nccfcommunity.org) and click on ‘Grants and Benefits’ and then ‘Geographic Dispersion’. In addition to distributions made to organizations in the majority of states in the U.S.A., distributions have been made to recipient organizations affiliated with the Church in dozens of foreign countries. A review of the identity of the grantees will demonstrate the variety of programs and causes our donors support. They range from the evangelical to the eleemosynary, from those addressing religious purposes to ones focusing on social welfare and cultural causes.
Over the years the disparity in the nature and identities of our grantees has prompted observers to ask two questions: why do we call ourselves ‘Catholic’, and by channeling it through us, why do our donors wish to associate their philanthropy with Catholicism? Given that a significant number of our grantees in the United States are 501-c-3 organizations not formally associated with the Church, this curiosity – especially the latter question – is understandable.
We consider ourselves Catholic because our trustees, all of whom are lay Catholics, consider any concern on the part of a donor that relates to the human dignity addressed by a prospective receiving organization is a concern that reflects the Gospel. Therefore, our trustees, as Catholics, support it. Our support, however, is guided by the teaching of the Catholic Church, so that a donor’s request to donate to a cause that contravenes the Chruch’s teaching would be declined. We find that this more inclusive approach to ‘Catholic philanthropy’ attracts more participants into our Catholic community.
Why do our donors consider it important that their philanthropic endeavors be part of the National Catholic Community Foundation? There are several reasons. One which is not obvious is as follows. It refers to the interaction between the two Great Commandments.
The two Great Commandments are, of course, to love God and to love our neighbor. Religious people, especially Christians, believe that observance of the first necessarily leads to observance of the second. One cannot love God and ignore one’s neighbor. But, is the reverse true? More to the point, in an increasingly secular and godless world, can active concern for one’s neighbor prompted by compassion or morality but not by religious sentiment lead to awareness of God? Where God is unknown, can the practice of the second commandment lead to the practice of the first?
Our donors realize that where the faith might be weak or absent, regardless of the purpose and nature of a recipient organization, their support that is demonstrably linked to the faith – as it would be when authorized by NCCF – is a modest form of propagation of the faith. In other words, when linked to faith philanthropy – even when focused on ‘secular’ objectives – is a form of evangelizing. Mysteriously, this awakening or strengthening of the faith occurs for both the recipient and the donor. The implementation of the second commandment can lead to the realization of the first.
Catholic philanthropy is not by bread alone.