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Service Milestone: Jesuit Grants Collaborative tops $20M in Grants for Partnering Organizations

The Jesuit Grants Collaborative recently celebrated a significant milestone: $20 million raised for nonprofit organizations in the Ignatian family. This unique ministry of the Jesuits U.S. Central and Southern Province has claimed an annual average of $1.25M in grant awards since it began partnering with Jesuit-affiliated works and institutions in 2005.

The Jesuit Grants Collaborative supports nonprofit missions through “ghost writing” for grant awards. Institutions ranging from schools and universities to parishes and community centers contract for an annual “share” of research and writing time. The province also invests an annual sum in the Collaborative to support grassroots organizations without robust fundraising capacity, in lieu of direct financial support.

Students at Loyola Academy. a Jesuit middle school in St. Louis that the Grants Collaborative helps to support.
Students at Loyola Academy. a Jesuit middle school in St. Louis that the Grants Collaborative helps to support.

The Grants Collaborative is made up of two full-time grant writers, one part-time writer and one full-time grants manager, under the guidance of Mary Baudouin, assistant for social ministries. Their work supports the missions of 11 contracting organizations annually, as well as the province’s own initiatives.

Grants Collaborative staff also engage regularly with the province’s two advancement officers to address benefactors’ particular interests in international works, the formation of new Jesuits, care of senior Jesuits and new apostolic works.

Grants Collaborative staff and the advancement officers of the U.S. Central and Southern Province are all women, somewhat of a rarity in what is the largest men’s religious congregation in the Catholic Church, creating a complementarity that strengthens the work of the province.

While the Jesuit Grants Collaborative is at service capacity for the upcoming fiscal year, interested parties may contact Amy Levidis for future opportunities at alevidis@jesuits.org.