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Criteria, Policies and Guidelines

The following are the criteria and guidelines governing participation in the Foundation:

Any diocesan entity may establish an endowment in the Foundation for the People of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois with a contribution of $1,000 or more.

Donors may add any amount to an existing endowment within the Foundation at any time throughout the year.

The beneficiaries of the Foundation shall be the parishes and parish schools of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois and those diocesan entities or purposes specifically designated as the beneficiaries of the Foundation by the diocesan bishop (e.g., the formation of the seminarians, the continued formation of priests, the health care of priests, the pension of priests, etc.).

The “representatives” for any execution of forms or for any decisions to be made by beneficiaries shall be the pastors (or their equivalents in canon law) of the parishes and parish schools which are beneficiaries, and the diocesan bishop of the diocesan entities and purposes which are beneficiaries.

Each beneficiary shall have a local advisory board whose bylaws are approved by the Board of Directors. This advisory board will advise the representatives of the beneficiary on the disbursement of earnings. Parishes may choose to select an existing group to fulfill this role.

Distributions from the Foundation are made annually. Beneficiaries have the option of taking full payment of any earnings, reinvesting those earnings, placing those funds in a deferred account for later disbursal or any combination of the above.

The Foundation is audited once a year in accordance with standard accounting practices.