Grants
FALL 2024 GRANT PROGRAM RECIPIENTS
Annunciation Catholic Church
Purpose of Grant: To help our church defray the costs associated with the parish turkey dinner for the purpose of raising funds for the parish's benefit
Amount of Grant Award: $1,500
Outcome: The grant provided funds for expenses associated with our turkey meal, which helped to put funds back in our parish to help cover the costs to provide the Children's bulletin, cover costs of CCD books, First Communion Gifts, Confirmation Gifts, provide bibles & rosaries to graduating seniors, etc. The grant was instrumental in helping us to continue these in our parish. The turkey dinner brings parishioners of our parish working and socializing together as well as welcoming and connecting with community members and individuals from other parishes that attend. We had a record crowd serving 470 meals.
Ascension Catholic School
Purpose of Grant: Enrollment and marketing improvements
Amount of Grant Award: $1,000
Outcome: We are working with Cuervo Media to update our website making it easier for current and prospective families to access the information they need. The work being done on our website will help us highlight our stewardship model, promote Catholic education, and streamline the book between the school and parish website. These updates are still in progress.
Bishop Miege High School
Purpose of Grant: Improve our fundraising efforts and efficiency by purchasing access to specialized software to perform comprehensive donor wealth assessments
Amount of Grant Award: $5,000
Outcome: Bishop Miege High School purchased access to Altrata's Wealth Engine software for one year. This has allowed us to gain wealth information on our current donors and alumni. We are now able to prioritize our fundraising efforts to people who have the means to donate and the propensity to donate to charitable organizations. Additionally, we have gained access to new phone and email data for many alumni.
Blessed Sacrament Church
Purpose of Grant: Establish Fiesta Office for year-round fundraising
Amount of Grant Award: $4,500
Outcome: Create and furnish and office space for a Fiesta Office that can be a year-round source of funding and sponsorship opportunities for a part-time employee, with partial funding for that position
City on a Hill Young Adult Apostolate
Purpose of Grant: To allow alumni to attend our City Lights Gala on November 16
Amount of Grant Award: $1,000
Outcome: Thanks to the grant from the Catholic Foundation of Northeast Kansas, these alumni donated to our organization and contributed towards meeting our fundraising goals to support our mission of reaching, supporting, and forming young adults. In addition, by allowing more alumni to attend our event, we were able to announce the start of an Alumni Giving Society - The Communion of Saints - that will be key to the long-term support of our organization. This alumni group brings an energy and enthusiasm to our organization that will be crucial in our success moving forward.
Didde Catholic Campus Center
Purpose of Grant: Complete branding for new logos
Amount of Grant Award: $2,000
Outcome: We were able to have our logos printed and installed around the center.
Donnelly College
Purpose of Grant: The grant was used to support initial purchase, implementation and training costs for replacing Donnelly's outdated accounting software, Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains, with Blackbaud's Financial Edge
Amount of Grant Award: $3,000
Outcome: The implementation is proceeding on schedule. The test environment is projected to be ready by April 1, 2025, and the software is scheduled to go live on July 1, 2025, the first day of Donnelly’s new fiscal year.
Holy Trinity Catholic Church
Purpose of Grant: To increase offertory giving
Amount of Grant Award: $3,400
Outcome: We have averaged a 30% monthly donation increase
Mater Dei Catholic School
Purpose of Grant: This project is a multi-faceted approach to enhancing development opportunities for Mater Dei Catholic School
Amount of Grant Award: $4,821
Outcome: Maximizing our use of the features included in our Greater Topeka Partnership membership; increased marketing for our scholarship fundraiser; updating and enhancing our website; a subscription to Kansas Grant Watch
Office of Catholic Schools
Purpose of Grant: Marketing / Advancement
Amount of Grant Award: $4,000
Outcome: Production of a professional video for universal Archdiocesan use to support schools' efforts in enrollment, hiring, and donor engagement.
Our Lady of Unity Catholic School
Purpose of Grant: Support the cost associate with our signature event, Hog and Grog
Amount of Grant Award: $2,931
Outcome: Our grant reduced our expenses of Hog and Grog. Your grant provided us the opportunity to host over 150 people for the cost of $4,939.00. We were able to raise $134,090 this year. Decreasing the expenses allows us to use almost every dollar for scholarships for our students.
Resurrection Catholic School
Purpose of Grant: Underwriting for annual Taste of KCK event
Amount of Grant Award: $5,000
Outcome: We were able to raise $163,591 which will all be used at our school to offset the cost of educating students whose families are not able to pay the full tuition amount. The amount raised was significantly higher than the amount raised the prior year.
St. Francis de Sales Church
Purpose of Grant: The purpose of the grant was to provide funds for our inaugural annual fundraising event
Amount of Grant Award: $2,500
Outcome: The inaugural Bala Bash fundraising event was a success! Tickets for the event sold out within the first week, filling the capacity of our parish hall at 150 people. Many parishioners donated items for the silent and live auction, as well as supplies, prizes, decorations, and refreshments for the event. The response from our parish community was overwhelmingly positive. Net profits from the event were over $15,000. Monetary proceeds for the event came from ticket sales, tips at the bar, game tickets for a wine pull and whiskey ring toss, silent auction of 56 donated themed baskets, live auction of 13 items, a 50/50 raffle, and cash donations. Attendees commented on what a great time they had! A committee of volunteers has been formed to begin planning for next year's event in the spring of 2026. Although our 2025 event was held in February, it was decided to move the 2026 event until after Easter. This was to avoid possible winter weather events, and for our "snow bird" parishioners to be able to attend.
St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church
Purpose of Grant: To help pay for printing, postage, marketing of our Stewardship campaign
Amount of Grant Award: $2,252
Outcome: We were able to send out stewardship brochures and pledge cards to over 600 families.
St. Patrick Catholic School
Purpose of Grant: Purchasing of the Little Green Light Program to aid in the development of our school
Amount of Grant Award: $5,000
Outcome: The use of the LGL Program tracked the generous donors and contributions we were able to acquire during our very successful Shamrock event in October of 2024. We raised a little over $100,000 to support the development of our school community.
Xavier Catholic School
Purpose of Grant: Support development, community engagement and marketing efforts
Amount of Grant Award: $5,000
Outcome: Increase engagement among stakeholders and community members.