Helping Build a Culture of Safeguarding
Creating safe environments for children and vulnerable adults is essential to building a vibrant and trustworthy Church.
Catholic funders have a unique opportunity to help build safer ministries through the organizations they support. Through FADICA’s Safeguarding Initiative, members learn from safeguarding experts, exchange promising practices, and explore how philanthropy can help grantee partners build and sustain strong safeguarding practices while integrating safeguarding into organizational culture.
Together, members are helping make safeguarding an essential part of responsible grantmaking, organizational leadership, and faithful stewardship.
Why It Matters
Funders strengthen safeguarding not only through their grants, but also through their relationships with grantee partners.
By asking thoughtful questions, supporting capacity building, and accompanying grantee partners as they strengthen safeguarding practices, philanthropy can help create safer organizations and foster a culture of accountability and trust. This collaborative approach recognizes that safeguarding is an ongoing commitment rather than a one-time compliance exercise.
The FADICA Approach
FADICA helps members lead by:
- Learning from safeguarding experts and peer funders
- Sharing practical tools and emerging best practices
- Encouraging safeguarding conversations with grantee partners
- Supporting organizations as they build and sustain strong safeguarding practices
- Advancing a culture of prevention, accountability, and continuous improvement
Funder Safeguarding: A FADICA Initiative
To help extend this work beyond FADICA’s membership, the initiative includes Funder Safeguarding: A FADICA Initiative—a freely available online resource center for funders, nonprofits, dioceses, religious communities, schools, and other ministries.
The site offers practical guidance, webinars, research, model policies, grantmaking resources, and other tools to help organizations strengthen safeguarding practices and build cultures where every person is treated with dignity, care, and respect.
