By Sr. Laura Goedken, OP
The Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Davenport was established in the State of Iowa as a nonprofit corporation in February 2009. Its invested assets now total over $9 million. At this point, 79 percent of pledge payments from the capital campaign, Moving Forward in Faith and Hope, have been received.
Our annual audit is posted on our diocesan website (www.davenport
diocese.org) on the Foundation page. The audit reflects an unrealized gain on investments of $875,362 for fiscal year 2013. Since inception the foundation has averaged an 11.32 percent return. The market has been very good.
The cost of operating the foundation is minimal. Costs include audit expenses, some reimbursements of salary for staff who work for the diocese, pledge reminder mailings, credit card and electronic transfer costs. This is less than 1 percent of the total value of the foundation.
Since the beginning of the campaign, the foundation has paid $3,419,131 to parishes as part of the 20 percent sharing policy of the capital campaign. This will continue, but decrease in amount until pledges are paid.
A board of directors governs the Catholic Foundation. This board meets quarterly. The board membership is also listed on our web page. This board follows the State of Iowa laws for a nonprofit.
The board has investment and spending policies which can be found on the web page along with other policies. The spending policy is to distribute 4 percent of the average financial assets of 12 consecutive quarters annually to the various funds as specified in the case statement for the campaign. The Diocese of Davenport received $261,688 in the last couple years for seminary education, deacon formation, chancery support, Faith Formation and Social Action and Catholic Charities.
The Catholic schools received a total of $63,266 over a three-year period. This was distributed to the schools on a per-student basis. The diocese and the schools will benefit from the Catholic Foundation for years to come.
The Catholic Foundation accepts additional donations and various kinds of estates gifts. These are invested in funds as specified by the donor and will live on for many years to benefit the ministries of the Diocese of Davenport and our Catholic schools. For more information please contact Sister Laura Goedken, O.P., at goedken@davenportdiocese.org or (563) 888-4252.
(Sr. Goedken is director of development for the Diocese of Davenport.)
