OSV Institute Awards $480K to Capacity Grant Recipients
OSV Institute for Catholic Innovation announces a total of $480,000 in capacity grants awarded to six grant recipients. These funds are allocated for impactful programs that aim to build capacity within each respective organization.
Since 1915, OSV Institute has been granting profits from OSV products and services to reinvest into the Church as well as causes that make the most impact. Since the inception of this vision put into place by OSV’s founder, Archbishop John Francis Noll, over $80 million has been invested in support of thousands of initiatives and events.
“With our current strategic focus on Catholic Innovation, we invite select organizations to apply that need funding to build capacity to keep growing” said Jason Shanks, President of OSV Institute for Catholic Innovation.
Shanks continued, “We are so grateful for the work of our grantees in support of the Church. We believe that our focus on innovation has the potential to bring more people to the Church and have a positive impact on the world.”
At the March OSV Board Meeting, OSV Institute was approved to provide the following grants:
Catholic Relief Services – A contribution to Catholic Relief Services’ efforts to Emergency Response in Ukraine amidst the feud between Russia and Ukraine. CRS supports Caritas Ukraine and Caritas Spes to assist internally displaced and isolated people throughout the country, under highly volatile and unsafe conditions. With support from CRS and other Caritas members, Caritas Ukraine and Caritas Spes have assisted 646,039 people since the start of the conflict.
Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend – Since 1989 we have funded this OSV Scholars Program ($2,274,000) which allows religion teachers employed by the diocese to obtain their Masters in Theology degree at the University of Notre Dame. They take about 9 semesters hours/year during the summer. 121 individuals have participated including 12 presently enrolled. 96 (87%) have completed the program with 60 currently employed by the diocese. The others have retired, died or left diocesan employment.
Diocese of Little Rock – Grant will assist in construction of 7,000 sq. ft. Newman Center (including chapel) on campus of University of Central Arkansas. Three other public colleges/universities will be served with combined enrollment of 15,000 including about 750 who identify as Catholic. This center replaces one taken by UCA through eminent domain.
Eden Invitation – Eden Invitation was one of the $100,000 winners of the first OSV Challenge. Eden was founded in 2016 to serve young adult Catholics experiencing same-sex attractions or gender discordance. This grant will be used as “seed money” to fund salaries of three new full-time employees hired to grow the organization. Every employee is responsible for raising money to fund their own salary plus benefits.
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross – Grant supports the Church Up Close seminar which offers international journalist from both religious and secular media a familiarity with the structure of the Vatican and Roman Curia, an analysis of current issues and to arrange meetings with Vatican decision makers.
Witness to Love Marriage Prep Renewal Ministry – Witness to Love was started about 10 years ago as a sacramental marriage preparation program for civilly married couples. They work with tribunals, canon lawyers, priests, deacons and “mentor couples”. They are active in 360 parishes in over 75 dioceses. Last year they served 2,291 civilly married couples resulting in 470 receiving the Sacrament of Matrimony. This grant will be used to hire two full-time employees: one for administrative work, and the other to work with parish leaders, volunteers and donors.
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Contact OSV Institute for Catholic Innovation at: osvinstitute.com/contact
