New endowments help Catholic school, parish

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SALT LAKE CITY — Despite the financial stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Catholic Foundation of Utah received 21 new endowments during the past year to help provide for the financial needs of the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

The CFU oversees almost 400 endowments that have been established over the past three decades by individuals, families and organizations. These endowments provide for numerous ministries of the local Church, including individual parishes, seminarian and priest formation, youth ministry and missionary outreach, among many others.

Two examples of new endowments are the Richard and Catherine Gourde Family Endowment and the Saint George Catholic Church EA Building Endowment.

The Gourde Family endowment was established to assist students at Saint Olaf Catholic School who have a financial need.

“All 11 children of Richard and Catherine Gourde attended Saint Olaf Catholic School and wished to honor their mother, Catherine, who is 91 years young,” said Jennifer Carroll, CFU executive director.

 The Saint George EA Building Endowment, established by an anonymous donor, will help establish future additional parishes in southern Utah, beginning in Washington.

 An endowment is established when a benefactor chooses a purpose “that matches their heart to provide funding for the beneficiary of their choice – their parish, their favorite Catholic school(s), their favorite Catholic charity, such as CCS [Catholic Community Services of Utah], the Diocese of Salt Lake City, seminarian education,” Carroll said.

The benefactor also chooses the name of the endowment and the amount of funding they wish to contribute; this can be given immediately or in their will, trust and estate planning.

In most cases, the original donation is invested in perpetuity and only the dividends are distributed to the beneficiary recipient.

“When we establish an endowment, blessings pour in because their family and friends want to contribute to it; it is just such a blessing,” Carroll said.

The Catholic Foundation of Utah was established 36 years ago. Currently, the CFU endowments distribute about $1 million annually to the various entities of the local Church, Carroll said.

 “Once an endowment is established, anyone and everyone can give any amount of money to an already established endowment,” she said, explaining that if a person has one dollar, $1,000 or $1 million and wants to make a charitable donation, they can contribute it to an already established endowment.

“There is no amount too small or too large to give to an already established endowment,” she said.

Carroll is fond of quoting Mother Teresa: “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” In the same way, “everyone can be part of the Foundation whether that is giving to a parish endowment, a Catholic schools endowment, CCS endowment, a family named endowment,” she said. “They help all the parishes, all the Catholic schools, Catholic Community Services [of Utah], the Cathedral of the Madeleine, seminarians, priest education needs, rural churches and missions. This is a legacy gift.”

The endowments are gifts that “will live on in perpetuity forever and always, beyond their lifetime, so it’s a gift for the rest of time,” Carroll said.

To contribute to an existing endowment, or to establish a new one, contact Jennifer Carroll at 801-456-9306.