By Thea Jarvis

The Catholic Foundation of North Georgia, Inc., has recently been established to provide a source of endowment income for the ongoing work of the archdiocese.

In August, the Foundation received a challenge grant of $500,000 from the Katherine John Murphy Foundation of Atlanta, whose $20 million general purpose fund has also assisted organizations like St. Vincent de Paul, the Village of St. Joseph, Piedmont and Egleston hospitals and the Woodruff Arts Center.

In setting up the Catholic Foundation, Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, said grants like that from the Murphy Foundation and individual endowment gifts will provide a steady "income stream" to ease archdiocesan budget burdens.

"We are acting as no more than good stewards by putting this Foundation in place," Archbishop Lyke said, adding that the Foundation is a corporation separate from the archdiocese and accountable to a board of directors. The archbishop is currently assembling a group of parish and community leaders who will comprise the initial board.

The board of directors will oversee the Foundation's assets, insuring that gifts are handled in accordance with donors' wishes and that endowment funds are carefully invested. It will also make the Foundation's annual financial audit available to both donors and recipients.

"Those who will be giving to the Foundation are very generous people interested in the work of the archdiocese," said Carroll Sterne, archdiocesan director of development and the Foundation's executive director.

"I think people honestly want to give back some of the gifts they have earned," he continued. "The Foundation gives an entity for people to contribute to, that will be consistent over the years, accountable to the donor. It will insure that donors' wishes will be upheld, not subject to any outside influences."

Like endowment funds in dioceses like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Spokane, the Foundation will grow mainly through gifts in the form of bequests, life insurance and appreciated assets (cash, securities, real estate) given outright in trust.

"Our thinking is that these are opportunities we have not presented to Catholics in north Georgia," said Sterne. Although institutions like colleges, universities and museums have always used such gifts of assets, "under our current setup, we haven't had a place for these gifts to go."

Funds are strictly for endowment, he said, explaining that only interest on invested monies will be spent unless a donor specifically requests the expenditure of principal.

Foundation monies will be handled by the trust department of a local bank now serving the archdiocese. Because other funds are already placed there and charges are based on the dollar amount of assets managed, fees are expected to be low.

"They do the work for us," Sterne said. "They will accept the gift from us, invest it and see that income from the investment is paid out" as the donor wishes.

Donors may contribute to a restricted or unrestricted fund. Restricted funds are specifically designated for individual archdiocesan agencies, schools, parishes and institutions.

Unrestricted funds will be disbursed by an allocations committee of the Foundation's board of directors, which is to make decisions based on current archdiocesan needs. Tuition subsidies for inner city schools is a good example of an immediate need, Sterne pointed out.

"We want unrestricted funds expended as the archbishop wants them expended," he said. The allocations committee "will require input from the archdiocesan finance department and the budget process" to determine where monies should be distributed.

Manpower for the Foundation is already in place, Sterne indicated, since staff from the archdiocesan development office will oversee everyday workings of the new corporation. The development office will mail out a quarterly newsletter to keep interested persons up-to-date on Foundation growth.

Sterne feels Foundation giving will not detract from parish or school budgets, but will complement and enhance their financial positions. Informational seminars are planned for parishes and pastors will be an important part of the communications process, he said.

The Foundation will receive "gifts that aren't being given," said Sterne, "gifts people wouldn't think of on their own."

"Just through inertia, people haven't (used endowment giving.) We're going to make them aware of the opportunity to give significant gifts to the church and save substantially on estate taxes."