Annual Report and Impact: Fiscal Year 2026

Download the Full PDF Report Here or Read On Below

 

Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Friends in Christ,

The Catholic Foundation exists to serve Southern Minnesota, making stewardship simple, faithful and effective so that you can focus on mission and not worry so much about money. With that in mind, it is with deep gratitude and genuine excitement that I share the results of our annual performance at the Catholic Foundation of Southern Minnesota.

This past year was marked by strong financial growth in our invested assets and, even more importantly, by meaningful impact across our Catholic community. Because of your trust and partnership, parishes, schools, cemeteries, and ministries throughout Southern Minnesota were able to do more: strengthening worship, supporting families, caring for sacred spaces, and sustaining the mission of the Church with the very same dollars they originally invested.

This year’s success is just a beginning. As a community foundation, our calling is broader than development assets. We are also meant to provide leadership for the present, and distribute resources where they are needed most. To expand our what we do in the right ways, our Board undertook a strategic planning process grounded in listening and prayer. We spoke with Catholic individuals and groups across Southern Minnesota to understand the challenges they face today and the hopes they carry for tomorrow. From this work, we identified strategic priorities and built a roadmap through 2030 that will guide us in thinking bigger and bolder: expanding our impact, responding to emerging needs, and living out our mission to empower Catholic parishes, schools, ministries, and individuals in their divine stewardship calling.

We ask for your prayers as we continue this work. Please keep our Board, staff, and partners in your intentions as we strive to serve the Church with faith, clarity, and courage. We welcome your feedback: your ideas, your hopes, and your willingness to get involved.

With gratitude in Christ,

Dr. Michael Speltz, Board Chair and Elizabeth Williams, MS, Executive Director

 

Asset Development:

Our assets continued to grow in a way that reflects the best of Catholic stewardship—disciplined, mission‑aligned, and focused on strengthening the Church for generations. This growth directly empowered parishes, cemeteries, and schools to do more ministry with the same dollars they originally invested, all while we maintained a strong, positive operating budget.

Investment Portfolio Growth Benefits Parishes, Schools & Cemeteries

Our partners opened 18 new agency funds this year; parishes, schools, and cemeteries that chose to entrust us with stewarding and growing assets they continue to own. We are humbled and deeply grateful for that confidence. In addition, we established 2 new Foundation‑owned funds, gifts we will steward in perpetuity on behalf of their donors. These new funds reflect the trust Catholics across Southern Minnesota place in the Foundation’s permanence and long‑term commitment to serving our Church. Learn more about investing with the Foundation here.

 

Net Income Growth Means More to Grant and Ensure our Long-Term Stability

We're proud to share our growth in assets over the recent years. This is a mix of both more parishes, cemeteries and schools joining our investment pools as well as strong investment performance. 

Financial Statement

 

Positive Impact: Grants & Distributions Help the Community

Grants

Annually, we distribute more than $1.2 million in grants from our Foundation‑owned funds to over 70 organizations, directly serving the people of our diocese and strengthening Catholic life across Southern Minnesota. Below are a few stories highlighting the positive impact of the Seeds of Faith – Faith Formation Endowment this year.

$1.29M Granted in fiscal year 2026

343 Individual Grants Made

68 Parishes, Schools & the Diocese Received Grants

		Over several years, receiving funding from the SOF Faith Formation endowment has allowed Sacred Heart School in Adams to strengthen every layer of its faith‑formation program—from renewing its Blessed Are We curriculum, to providing each third‑grader with a personal Bible, to offering a school‑wide Hallow subscription that supports daily prayer for students, teachers, families, and parish staff. These resources help deepen Scripture study, expand opportunities for prayer, and weave faith more intentionally into the rhythm of school life. As Principal Katie Schaefer shared: “Through this ongoing support, we are able to intentionally and meaningfully invest in the spiritual growth of our students, staff, and school community.”
		Seeds of Faith, Faith Formation grants also helped to form multiple youth ministers across the diocese in a unique Montessori-based preschool program, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS). Read the full story here.

Distributions

One of the most exciting parts of our asset development work is the ability to offer Catholic‑values investment strategies that perform on par with institutional‑level portfolios. Our most widely used option—the Long‑Term Returns Portfolio—averaged 9.25% this fiscal year. In practice, this means Catholic organizations can grow their funds effectively, with low fees, and turn more of their resources into more ministry. This year, we distributed back to our partners $5.6 Million.

Here are a few recent examples of that impact:

• A parishes on the east side of the diocese opened an account to support passive fundraising while we conducted their capital campaign feasibility study. Through disciplined saving and strong investment growth, they were able to withdraw nearly $100,000 toward their building fund—allowing them to begin critical structural repairs in the church immediately, even before launching their campaign.
• A Rochester‑area cemetery has been preparing for significant capital improvements. With years of steady investment growth through the Foundation, they were able to take several hundred thousand dollars in distributions to move forward with construction—without needing to run a formal capital campaign.

Positive Impact: Services & Resource Build Parish Capacity

The Foundation strengthens Catholic life in Southern Minnesota by offering locally tailored stewardship consulting, services, and resources to help parishes, schools, and cemeteries thrive. We also lift up stories of hope—showcasing the good our Church is bringing to communities across the region. This fiscal year, we directly served five organizations and helped raise more than $2.5 million for Catholic ministries. Our services this year included:

• 4 Investing & Philanthropy Seminars
• 2 Capital Campaign Planning
• 2 Case Statement Development & Design
• 1 Parish Engagement Workshop
• 1 Feasibility Study
• 1 Bishops & Rector Dinner Co-hosted
• 3 Annual Appeals
• 2 Legacy Planning Seminars

We also develop locally tailored resources that strengthen Catholic organizations, build internal capacity, and highlight the stories of hope emerging across our diocese. This past year, we created and distributed:

• 35 stewardship resources
• 15 stories of hope

Find them all on our blog!

 

Advancing the Mission: How We'll Expand Impact in Coming Years

As a community foundation, we seek to create a lasting impact in Southern MN, adapt in order to address changing community needs and take a holistic approach to community betterment.

In order to do so, our Board undertook a strategic planning exercise. We grounded our planning in data collection and listening to Catholic individuals and groups across Southern Minnesota to understand what challenges they see today. From there the Foundation has identified priorities and developed a roadmap through fiscal year 2030 for how we can feasibly and best live out our mission: Empower Catholic parishes, schools, ministries and individuals to fulfill their divine stewardship calling and sustain a vibrant mission of faith, hope, and charity within the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.

The following our our strategic priorities and how we hope to fulfill them in the coming years:

 

Meet Our Board

Our Board consistent of a mix of individuals who represent both clergy and lay people in Southern Minnesota with different areas of expertise to help us advance our Mission. While we continue to be a separate legal entity from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, we purposefully engage a minimum of four individuals to represent the diocese to ensure alignment. 

 

Ready to Get Involved?

We truly are better together. If you’d like to learn more, share feedback or hopes for the future, or explore ways to participate in our mission, we’d love to hear from you—reach out anytime.

 

 

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10