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· Public charity

The Catholic Association Foundation

The mission of the Organization is to educate the public on the wisdom of the Catholic Church on social and moral matters.

$3.3M
Granted FY2024still arriving
17
Grants FY2024still arriving
10
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20192024.

Religion$7.5MEducation$6.3MHealth$5.2MInternational$4.4MPhilanthropy$2.7MCrime & Legal$1.5MCommunity Improvement$700kCivil Rights$645kOther$0
02FY2024 · 17 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k6 grants · $102k
  • $50k–250k8 grants · $830k
  • $250k+3 grants · $2.4M
$60,000
Median grant
10
States reached
$479k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Neuro Kids Inc$1,000,000
The Heights Inc$750,000
Knights of Columbus$600,000
Ava Maria School of Law Foundation$205,000
Napa Institute Legal Foundation$200,000
National Catholic Prayer Breakfast$115,000
In Shifra's Arms$75,000
Biking for Babies$75,000
The Federalist Society$60,000
COLLIS Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture$50,000
The Center for Study of Technology and Society$50,000
International Catholic Jurist Forum$35,000
Jerome Lejeune Foundation$20,000
McLean Board for Catholic Liberal Education$15,000
Association for Catholic Formation$11,600
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY23–24, $1.6M) land where the poverty rate runs at 6%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%Neuro Kids Inc: $1.0M → 6%Neuro Kids Inc: $400k → 6%In Shifra's Arms: $75k → 8%In Shifra's Arms: $75k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
NV
IN
OH
CA
CO
MO
VA
MD
NM
DC
LA
AL
TX
FL

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$28M · 30 repeat orgs$1.8M to everyone else

30 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 21 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

30
13

Total granted

$28M
$1.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+42%
+64%

Still filing today

80%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $292k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’19’20’21’22’23’24
ReligionEducationInternationalCivil RightsPhilanthropyHuman ServicesOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • ID
    INTERNATIONAL DOMINICAN FOUNDATION
    5× · 2019–2024 · $3.3M · revenue +386% · 40% of their budget
  • TC
    THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
    2× · 2019–2020 · $2.9M · revenue +26%
  • TH
    THE HEIGHTS INC
    3× · 2022–2024 · $2.0M · revenue +25%

Funded once

  • TI
    The Institute for the Psychological Sciences Inc
    one grant, 2022 · $350k · revenue +24%
  • LP
    LA PROMESA FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2019 · $300k · revenue +3%
  • FC
    FIDELIS CENTER FOR LAW & POLICYgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $250k · revenue +52%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Collegium Institute

Collegium Institute is a Catholic intellectual apostolate that fosters the Catholic intellectual tradition within the University of Pennsylvania community and within the greater region and secular academia. (Continued on Sch. O)

2
The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies

The institute's mission is to conduct research on key issues facing society to help both the church and society deal thoughtfully with the major issues they face globally. the institute also sponsors and conducts research and scholarship…

Religion
3
Center of Theological Inquiry

The Center of Theological Inquiry is an independent research institution with an international visiting scholar program which convenes researchers in an ideal setting for interdisciplinary inquiries where theology casts light on global…

Religion
4
Paulist Press Inc

The Paulist Press was founded to provide Catholic literature and resources for the the religious use of parishes, institutions, individuals and other religious bodies to further the educational and mission goals of the Christian faith and…

5
Institute of Catholic Culture

The institute of catholic culture is an adult catechetical organization, faithful to the magisterium of the catholic church. the institute seeks to fulfill its mission by offering educational programs structured upon the classical liberal…

Religion
6
Instituto De Estudios Teologicos

Conference

Education
7
Ave Maria University Inc

University education grounded in the traditions and faith of the roman catholic church

Education
8
Institute for Religion Media and Civic Engagement

Creating public scholarship through mixed media.

Education
9
Loyola University

Loyola University New Orleans, a Jesuit and Catholic institution of higher education, welcomes students of diverse backgrounds and prepares them to lead meaningful lives with and for others; to pursue truth, wisdom, and virtue; and to work…

Education
10
Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

To promote the teaching of the Western Tradition, its relationship to other traditions and its importance in the modern era, through educational courses, resources and teacher training.

Education
11
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

To prepare students to serve christ and his church through biblical, experiential and practical ministry. prts provides theological training and instruction in accordance with the scriptures and the historic reformed creeds for promotion…

Education
12
Reformed University Inc

Provide education in theology, divinity, religious education, ministerial training, business and organizational leadership.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Fidelis Center for Law & Policy and the most unlike its peers is Center for Thomas More Studies. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyIndependent K-12 SchoolsCancer Support ServicesPregnancy Support ServicesSenior Support ServicesHealth Access Advocacy and …Women & Girls Leadership De…Policy Research and AdvocacyFaith-Based Liberal Arts Co…Christian Missionary Organi…Community Foundations
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 26 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%9%<5yr14%11%5–10yr19%22%10–20yr16%22%20–35yr13%22%35–55yr16%15%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%1%<5yr14%11%5–10yr19%16%10–20yr16%36%20–35yr13%22%35–55yr16%15%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 9% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 2% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
2%1/54
the rest of the field
13%
240,395/1,819,511

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

47 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 47 of the 54 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

9
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
46/47
Grantees still filing
33/47
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE HEIGHTS INC — $2,000,000 · OtherTHE HEIGHTS INCCatholic Information Center — $1,893,000 · OtherCatholic Information CenterASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS — $1,500,000 · OtherASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOL…DOMINICAN HOUSE OF STUDIES — $1,250,000 · OtherDOMINICAN HOUSE OF STUDIESTHE DOMINICAN FOUNDATION OF DOMINICAN FRIARS PROVINCE OF ST JO — $1,150,000 · OtherTHE DOMINICAN FOUNDATION OF DOMINICAN FRIARS PROV…Ava Maria School of Law Foundation — $940,000 · OtherAva Maria School of Law FoundationFELLOWSHIP OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY STUDENTS — $775,000 · OtherFELLOWSHIP OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY STUDENTSSERVUS INITIATIVE — $750,000 · OtherSERVUS INITIATIVEINSTITUTE FOR PATIENTS' RIGHTS INC — $650,000 · OtherSANCTUARY PROJECT FOUNDATION INC — $500,000 · Other+16 more — $1,731,400 · Other+16 moreINTERNATIONAL DOMINICAN FOUNDATION — $3,310,000 · ReligionINTERNATIONAL DOMINICAN FOU…CHRIST MEDICUS FOUNDATION — $1,350,000 · ReligionCHRIST MEDICUS FOUNDATIONNAPA INSTITUTE LEGAL FOUNDATION — $600,000 · ReligionNAPA INSTITUTE LEGAL FOUNDA…THE NAPA INSTITUTE — $575,000 · ReligionTHE NAPA INSTITUTEAvila Foundation Inc — $500,000 · ReligionAvila Foundation IncNATIONAL CATHOLIC PRAYER BREAKFAST INC — $324,000 · ReligionLA PROMESA FOUNDATION — $300,000 · Religion+5 more — $395,000 · Religion+5 moreTHE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA — $2,850,000 · EducationTHE CATHOLIC …The Institute for the Psychological Sciences Inc — $350,000 · EducationThe Institute…AVE MARIA SCHOOL OF LAW FOUNDATION — $180,000 · EducationUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac — $150,000 · Education+1 more — $15,000 · EducationSUDAN RELIEF FUND INC — $910,000 · InternationalBRITISH SCHOOLS & UNIVERSITIES FOUNDATION INC — $492,000 · InternationalARISE FOUNDATION AMERICA — $460,000 · International+1 more — $10,000 · InternationalCENTER FOR THOMAS MORE STUDIES — $1,250,000 · PhilanthropyDonors Trust Inc — $500,000 · Philanthropy+1 more — $20,000 · PhilanthropyNEURO KIDS INC — $1,400,000 · Human ServicesIN SHIFRAS ARMS INC — $150,000 · Human ServicesKNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS CHARITIES INC — $700,000 · Community ImprovementFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND — $150,000 · Community Improvement
Other$13,139,400Religion$7,354,000Education$3,545,000International$1,872,000Philanthropy$1,770,000Human Services$1,550,000Community Improvement$850,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetINTERNATIONAL DOMINICAN FOUNDATION — $3,310,000 over 5y, 40% of budgetTHE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA — $2,850,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTHE HEIGHTS INC — $2,000,000 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetASSOCIATION OF PRO-LIFE OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS — $1,500,000 over 3y, 42% of budgetNEURO KIDS INC — $1,400,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetCHRIST MEDICUS FOUNDATION — $1,350,000 over 4y, 34% of budgetCENTER FOR THOMAS MORE STUDIES — $1,250,000 over 5y, 83% of budgetSUDAN RELIEF FUND INC — $910,000 over 5y, 6.0% of budgetSERVUS INITIATIVE — $750,000 over 2y, 87% of budgetKNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS CHARITIES INC — $700,000 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR PATIENTS' RIGHTS INC — $650,000 over 3y, 22% of budgetNAPA INSTITUTE LEGAL FOUNDATION — $600,000 over 3y, 37% of budgetTHE NAPA INSTITUTE — $575,000 over 3y, 14% of budgetDonors Trust Inc — $500,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAvila Foundation Inc — $500,000 over 2y, 19% of budgetSANCTUARY PROJECT FOUNDATION INC — $500,000 over 3y, 98% of budgetBRITISH SCHOOLS & UNIVERSITIES FOUNDATION INC — $492,000 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetARISE FOUNDATION AMERICA — $460,000 over 3y, 18% of budgetLUMEN CHRISTI INSTITUTE — $400,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetThe Institute for the Psychological Sciences Inc — $350,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetNATIONAL CATHOLIC PRAYER BREAKFAST INC — $324,000 over 6y, 100% of budgetLA PROMESA FOUNDATION — $300,000 over 1y, 5.3% of budgetAUSTIN INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF FAMILY AND CULTURE — $265,000 over 2y, 25% of budgetFIDELIS CENTER FOR LAW & POLICY — $250,000 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetStudents for Life of America Inc — $180,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetAVE MARIA SCHOOL OF LAW FOUNDATION — $180,000 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetINTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC JURISTS FORUM INC — $165,000 over 3y, 77% of budgetIN SHIFRAS ARMS INC — $150,000 over 2y, 15% of budgetUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND — $150,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSENT INSTITUTE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP — $100,000 over 1y, 9.7% of budgetThe Given Institute Inc — $100,000 over 1y, 16% of budgetNATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE — $85,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetBIKING FOR BABIES — $75,000 over 1y, 7.5% of budgetTHE FEDERALIST SOCIETY FOR LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES — $60,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetThe Human Life Foundation Inc — $50,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetCOLLIS INC — $50,000 over 1y, 21% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY — $50,000 over 1y, 8.4% of budgetSACRED SPACES FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK INC — $30,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetTHE FAITH AND LAW PROJECT — $15,000 over 1y, 6.0% of budgetPONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE HOLY CROSS FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund IncCT43.6× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Knights of Columbus Charitable Fund Inc · Knights of Columbus · John Templeton Foundation · The Ortner Family Foundation · Eternal Word Television Network Inc · Timothy and Sheila Patton Family Charitable Trust · Alliance Defending Freedom · Robert and Bernarda Neal Foundation · The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc · Bradley Impact Fund Inc · University of Notre Dame du Lac · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Catholic Association Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 60%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    6get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Catholic Association Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Catholic Association Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 54 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph