There for the Church… in good times and in bad

What our donors want matters to us. And they want the endowments they support at the Foundation to help the Catholic parishes, schools, and ministries they love, both in good years and in bad. Because of donor support, we distributed more money this year to our Catholic beneficiaries than ever before!

The Catholic Foundation of Eastern Montana recently presented a whopping $610,000 to the Catholic parishes, schools, and ministries that have endowments with us. That amount keeps growing—with all thanks to our donors, and all glory to God!

You may be thinking: how is that kind of growth possible, given the challenges of the 2022 investment market? Our response to that is that the whole point of the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Montana is to serve as a dependable, constant force for good for the Church. We are here to provide a reliable source of funding for Catholic organizations in good times and in bad.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors embraces this mission. They know how strong our historical investment performance has been, giving them confidence in future returns. They were happy to make the decision to distribute the maximum to our endowment beneficiaries—just as we have done in good years.

We are staying true to our mission to help our donors help the Church. In fact, our endowment beneficiaries are already letting us know the ways their distribution checks are making a difference:

“Our church’s lighting control board stopped working, but it is no longer in production and cannot be replaced. Fortunately, this year, the two distribution checks from our Holy Spirit Parish Greatest Needs Endowment and Holy Spirit Parish Building and Maintenance Endowment will allow us to get the lighting running smoothly again, without requiring us to rewire the church building! Thank you to everyone who gives to the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Montana, specifically to the two endowments for Holy Spirit Parish. You are truly helping our ministry.”

— Aubrey Hiller-Rearden, Parish Administrator and Worship Coordinator

“I want to thank the people who have given to the Seminarian Education Endowment. They are supporting vocations today, and vocations 100 years from now! In the fall, we are going to have three seminarians for our diocese: Thomas in Rome, and two new seminarians—one at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon, and one at Sacred Heart in Wisconsin. There’s even a fourth who will likely be entering formation for our Diocese in January.

Well-formed priests are critical to our faith. This world is a challenging place to maneuver if you have a desire for holiness, and we need good priests to guide us. That’s what makes the Seminarian Education Endowment so important. The vocations are out there. As men respond to His call, we need the funding to educate them. The whole point of endowments is that they grow, helping today but also expanding continuously in order to meet the needs of the local Church. By building this endowment, we ensure that we will always be able to help men say yes to the priesthood in Eastern Montana. Thank you, and please continue to support our seminarians in this way.”

— Monsignor Daniel Wathen, Vocations Director for the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings

We are so thankful for the donors who make the work of the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Montana possible. What you do for the Church matters! And if you haven’t yet joined the ranks of our wonderful donors—Montana Catholics who are financially supporting the Church forever, in good times and in bad—please reach out. We’d love to help you support the parishes, Catholic schools, and other ministries that matter to you in an everlasting way. Just reach out to us at (406) 315-1765 or [email protected].