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March 7, 2001 FADICA Launches New Campaign to Reach Younger Members Washington D.C. ----- In an effort to involve more young people in Catholic philanthropy, FADICA’s Board of Directors has begun a special three-year campaign to develop the leadership skills and grantmaking experience of its members ages 20-40. FADICA’s membership comprises forty-seven independent family foundations. These agencies share funding interests in Catholic sponsored projects and programs and meet regularly to discuss trends of importance to religious philanthropy. A 1998 survey among FADICA’s foundation families discovered that the organization had nearly one hundred younger adults who were either already involved in grantmaking or planned to be in the not too distant future. Large numbers of these individuals expressed the need to have a better grasp of the Catholic charitable world. "I think that FADICA’s Future Foundation Leadership Campaign is the cumulative result of what we know from our own survey research combined with generation research that our members have funded and discussed over the years," declared FADICA’s president, Francis J. Butler. "There is a strong interest among our younger members in what Catholicism represents," Dr. Butler said, "but frankly, a good number of them feel that they are on the periphery of the church’s radar screen," he added. "We want to be sure that our own younger members have the opportunity to be exposed to the exciting gamut of the church’s mission and cultivate within themselves a greater sense of stewardship," he said. FADICA’s Future Foundation Leadership Campaign will include the formation of a special advisory team of younger members, a series of symposia exposing younger people to the fundamentals of Catholic philanthropy, opportunities for younger members to work on special projects together, and to serve in volunteer positions with FADICA and other national Catholic organizations among other measures. To facilitate these new measures FADICA will be adding a professional staff member who will help with the campaign’s outreach, program, and FADICA’s web page development. "This three year campaign is an investment in Catholic philan-thropy’s future and in the church’s as well," Dr. Butler con-cluded. |