Our next free, quarterly Catholic Community Network on Wednesday, March, 3, features three highly talented professionals. With very different backgrounds, each are change agents who make our community and society as a whole better.

Fernando Blanco, Dr. Mauricio Delgado, John Dziminski and Jeff Schiefelbein have been elected to The Catholic Foundation Board of Trustees and Aileen Pratt has been elected board chair, succeeding G. Marc Lyons who served as board chair the past two years. Pratt will serve a two-year term and the new trustees will serve a three-year term through 2023.

For the past 24 years, The Catholic Foundation has conducted a scholarship competition among our Catholic high schools’ junior students. The award is named in honor of Hal Tehan, a man who played an integral role in the history of The Catholic Foundation as executive director and development director for many years.

The following guest column by Matt Kramer, President and CEO of The Catholic Foundation, appeared in the Jan. 8 (Volume 70, number 11) of The Texas Catholic. Thanks to a spirit of compassion, community and connectedness, The Catholic Foundation made a significant impact on our Catholic community in 2020 despite the pandemic. With gratitude to donors and our Board of Trustees, we remained focused on our mission to provide funds to meet the needs of our Catholic community...

Kick off 2021 strong by attending any or all four free online webinars we’re hosting in February that cover End-of-Life issues from a Catholic perspective. The online webinar series, “THE CONVERSATION: A Catholic Perspective on End-of-Life Issues” begins on Monday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. The three other webinars take place on Thursday, Feb. 4, Monday, Feb. 8 and Thursday, Feb. 11.

Celebrate our dear Savior's birth this Christmas with the Catholic Diocese of Dallas televised Mass in Spanish & English that we're grateful to sponsor on Univision & KDFI-TV in the Dallas and Fort Worth market, but livestreamed globally on the Diocesan social channels.

We realize not all are able to attend Mass in person at your church, and so we're pleased to serve as the continuing financial and presenting sponsor of each Sunday's televised Mass with the Catholic Diocese of Dallas in Spanish and English. We're able to serve in this capacity thanks to the generosity of our donors past and present. This sponsorship will continue throughout all of 2021.

As we count our blessings over the holiday season, generosity is in the air. As you ponder ways to help those less fortunate or support worthy organizations near and dear to you, consider establishing a charitable fund at The Catholic Foundation as a vehicle for giving.

During “Successful Grantmaking Strategies: How to Secure Funding for Your Non-Profit” our guest panelists provided valuable insights about strategies for grant seekers from their decades of experience.

Want to learn more about ways to receive funding for your non-profit? You’re invited to a live, virtual discussion about the best practices for preparing grant applications and securing funding for your non-profit organization in 2021, so share with your colleagues.