The Council of Michigan Foundation's, a regional grant-making association, today released a new resource, Changing Fund Agreements & Variance Powers, that summarizes and provides responses to community foundations and other philanthropic grant-makers who frequently submit questions to "Ask CMF," related to making changes to fund agreements for the funds that they hold. Over time, these funds can evolve beyond the scope of their original fund agreements and documentation, leaving foundation staff wondering how they can make adjustments, with or without the original donor’s consent and involvement.

This resource is intended to provide further clarification on this topic, building on the material included in the CMF resource, “Frequently Asked Questions About Fund Agreements.”View the Resource.

Members who register to attend the 2025 CEO Symposium in Green Bay, WI will be given the opportunity to visit this lovely Shrine, tour the grounds, participate in the rosary walk, and celebrate mass in the Chapel!

This beautiful Marion apparition site is the first and only Vatican-approved Marian apparition site in the U.S.A.  Today's date celebrates Our Lady's appearance to seer, Adele Brise on Sunday, 9 October, 1859 in what was originally known as Robinsonville (now called Champion!), 30 minutes north of Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Adele was walking to church for mass with her sister and neighbor when she saw a mysterious woman who had a yellow sash around her waist and a crown of starss around her head!  At church, Adele relayed to Fr. Verheof, the local Catholic Priest, her encounter and he made a suggestion.

In Adele's way back home, she saw the women again, and she did as Fr. Verhoef suggested and asked the Lady, "In God's name, who are you and what do you want of me?"

The woman said she was the Queen of Heaven who prays for sinners.  Our Lady told Adele to make a confession and to pray, and offer communion for the conversation of sinners.  At that moment, Adele recognized her as Mary, the Mother of Jesus!

Our Blessed Mother told Adele:  "Gather the children and teach them about Jesus and what they need to know for salvation; pray for everyone so that they might know and love Jesus."  Mary's parting works to Adele were, "Go and fear nothing.  I will help you."

To learn more, visit here!

Your colleague, Josh Diedrich of the Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Green Bay, departs this weekend leading a two week Pilgrimage to Medjugorje!  Did you know 40 million pilgrims have visited Medjugorje since 24 June 1981 from around the world to witness the Blessed Virgin Mary and hear her messages of the Five Stones, inspiring us to:  prayer from the heart, fasting, daily reading of the bible, confession, and mass receiving the Holy Eucharist!  Our Blessed Mother loves us all so much! 

Let's join together and bless Josh and those traveling together:

"Thank you, Lord Jesus, for always leading us along the right and peaceful paths of life!  Please provide safety in travel to Josh and his companions - - and may they all experience Your Mother Mary's blessings, grace, and peace throughout their pilgrimage!  Amen"

Click here to view the article.

Jim was selected through an extensive search process that included applications from a number of candidates with extensive experience in Development work within Catholic entities. Jim comes to the Foundation after serving as the Executive Director of Catholic Social Services in the Diocese of Rapid City for over 30 years. He is also involved in a significant number of nonprofit Boards, industry associations and volunteer positions within the Diocese. Jim is well known and respected throughout the Diocese and will hit the ground running in his efforts to promote the Foundation as an opportunity for Catholics throughout the Diocese to make financial commitments to support the spiritual needs of current and future generations of Catholics in Western South Dakota.

Jim will be transitioning into his new role over the course of the next two to three months. Please join us in welcoming Jim Kinyon to the Western South Dakota Catholic Foundation!

As the Catholic Community Foundation for eastern South Dakota (CCFESD) looks to the future, it is pleased to announce that current Vice President and COO Tony Menke will be replacing the retiring President and CEO Mark Conzemius on January 7, 2024.  See the full announcement here.

On behalf of the steering committee of the Consortium of Catholic Foundations, we want to offer a huge gift of gratitude and appreciation to founding member Mark Conzemius for all his many gifts and talents shared on the origional steering committee that helped create the Consortium two years ago;  serving as Host of the 2022 CEO Symposium, among his many contributions, faith-filled witness, and friendship offered so many of our members.

Blessings to you always, Mark as you embark on your leadership transition.  Welcome Tony to your new role!  We look forward to on-boarding you as you join our member Consortium community!

Come Holy Spirit!!

In the spirit of quickly getting the word out & invite generous support to empower those most affected in the local community and equip those who can provide immediate relief efforts, The Catholic Community Foundation, San Jose, a valued Consortium Member is sharing information today with all Consortium Members who are asking, "what can we best do?" 

Last Friday 11 August 2023 an email was sent to all donor-advised fund-holders, inviting them to consider donating to Catholic Charities Hawai'i, who has set up a new “Maui Relief Fund.” In the first hour, more than $15K in donations were given, which will support housing, food and other needs for what could be thousands of victims. Donations are more important than supplies at this point in time because of limited space on the island.  

Catholic Charities Hawaii is a statewide organization. There is an office on Maui and thankfully the team on Maui is safe.  The offices throughout the state will be coordinating with other service providers to support the devastation on Maui.

• A copy of The Catholic Community Foundation, San Jose's email invitation to DAF holders as an example that other Members may use for their own outreach efforts to their donors and fund-holders, is now in the Consortium's Community File Library, in the collection folder entitled, "Disaster Relief."

• Here is a link to the Maui Relief Fund of Catholic Charities Hawai'i

https://www.catholiccharitieshawaii.org/maui-relief/

• There is also a beautiful prayer that Consortium executive committee/steering committee member Mary Quilici Aumack has provided, inviting the power of our Consortium's collective prayers to console those most in need.  This prayer is now in the Consortium's Prayer Corner on the website main landing page under Latest News.
  

"Give us all your Grace, Oh Lord!"

• Please check your inbox for a Consortium Member e-blast to view all five Groups and consider joining! 

• A handy "How To" handout is also provided here to assist you with easy joining - both for you as a Member, as well as how to send a "sub-account" invitation link to a member of your staff team, so they too many join a Group! 

• If you would like as a Member to "Sponsor" a Group, please let us know as we remain open to serving Members with the topics and experiences that are of the highest importance and value to you!

Our thanks to the following Consortium Group Sponsors & Admin leaders:

- Donor Engagement:  Anne Cullen Miller, Sponsor; Christopher Nelson, Admin Leader

- Governance/Compliance:  Kimberlee Riley, Sponsor; Charles Van Patton, Admin Leader

-  Grant making:  Ed Larranago, Sponsor; Michele Benavidez, Admin Leader

- IT/Technology:  Mary Quilici Aumack, Sponsor; Sean Finigan, Admin Leader

- Marketing/Communications:  Matt Kramer, Sponsor; Bill Kula, Admin Leader

Please let us know if you have any questions - enjoy this new Member benefit!  Let us hear from you how your Group experience is going!

Blessings!

Did you know that according to our monthly Google Analytics since the inception of the Consortium's tech platform, the third most popular feature in the Consortium's digital community is posting your Q & A's within the Community Forum!  Since the tech platform began on 14 January 2022, there have been 30 different Questions posted, by 16 Members.  We want to make sure every Member is familiar with how and where to post as it is easy to access.  After logging in to access your Members-only portal, go to Quick Links and the drop down menu will feature Community Forum, click there to bring you to the Post page!

In a recent steering committee monthly meeting, a decision was made to "refresh" the Community Forum on a quarterly basis so that Members have the latest questions within a current quarter to Read, Answer, and/or Ask their own Questions regarding sharing best practices! 

As a result, today all the Community Forum Q & A posts have been downloaded into a document.  Each document has been given a title of FORUM: with the post topic.  The FORUM documents from 2022 Q1 & Q2 have now all been placed in the Community File Library!  This way, the File Library may continue to serve as your primary "go-to" resource for your content; while the Community Forum for July posts is front-and-center on the Forum page, easy to review and respond to Member Questions.

Please "Message" Colleen Mitchell, Member Services Steward, should you have any questions.  2022 Q3 Community Forum posts will remain up on the Forum board thru mid-October, when they too will then be moved out to the Community File Library to make room for more Member Posts in the Community Forum!

Blessings and keep posting, Members love this benefit of learning best practices from each other!

Each member of the Consortium will be given the opportunity to serve on the Steering Committee, as founding Steering Committee members will be rotating off in classes of three, each fiscal year. Consortium members will be hearing more about the governance policies and practices of the Steering Committee at the upcoming 2022 CEO Symposium in Sioux Falls, SD.

Welcome, Kimberlee and thank you for your service on behalf of all members of the Consortium of Catholic Foundations!