The Grants Committee’s primary purpose is to review grant requests from the Vatican and make recommendations to the Board of Trustees.
The Grants Committee received grant requests from the Vatican in the Fall of 2022. The Committee conducted a grant-by-grant evaluation of each of the 141 submissions totaling $12,135,974 with the help of the online grants management system. This relatively new system has provided a digital efficiency for document submission and storage, as well as for improved committee communication. The Committee believes the guidelines implemented last year improving our communication with the Papal Nuncios has been successful.
At its meeting in Washington, DC, in early December, the Board of Trustees approved an allocation of $9,514,000 to be distributed to grant recipients in 2023. With this allocation in mind, the Grants Committee, after evaluation and deliberation, recommended that 114 grants totaling $9,514,000 be funded and that 27 be denied. Three of those 27 were subsequently reviewed by the Mission Fund Committee and approved for funding.
Grants Committee Chair Dr. Tammy Tenaglia presented the slate of 114 grants to the Executive Committee on Monday, February 6, and after discussion, the Executive Committee, acting on the Board’s behalf, approved the slate of recommended grants.
The committee is currently comprised of Trustees and Steward Advisory members. The Trustee members are chair Dr. Tammy Tenaglia, Bishop Edward Burns, David Fischer, Mark Rauenhorst, Cosmo DeNicola and Michael Sullivan. Steward Advisory members include Ed & Kathy Bernau, Sara Brown and Laura Ristoff. Cardinal Sean O’Malley also serves ex-officio. We are excited that Cosmo DeNicola, the Bernaus, Sara Brown and Laura Ristoff joined the committee in 2022 and participated in their very first grant review cycle!
The total of $9,514,000, along with the support provided to the Saint John Paul II Scholarship Fund, and the $4,000,000 that is added to the Mission Fund balance at the Vatican comes to a grand total gift of $14,314,000 to the Holy Father for the year 2023.
We owe a great many thanks to Tammy and the very dedicated members of our Grants Committee, as well as to Jane Schnatz, who has spent countless hours with Sister Mary Monica at the Vatican ensuring that each grant request has been documented and received a proper review. I can’t tell you how much detail goes into the communication and review of each grant request. This work is really why the Foundation exists and the impact it is having on the poor and most vulnerable around the world is immeasurable.
