Thanksgiving, 2020 Dear friends and fellow missionaries, I suppose it is no surprise that we focus on gratitude, at least here in the US, during this time of year. I want to suggest, however, that gratitude is worth focusing on ANY TIME of the year, and not...
Dear sister and brother missionaries, I know that is NOT how the song goes! And I also am pretty sure that the Wise Men were not submitting grant applications either 😊. BUT, I do believe there are at least two reasons to reflect on during this Advent/Christmas...
In Memoriam: MPS Founder Fr. George G. Cotter, MM It is said that “we stand on the shoulders of those who precede us.” As that is true, there is probably no Catholic missionary alive today who does owe some connection or debt of gratitude to Maryknoll...
“Dear missionaries, “Sustainablity” A sophisticated and popular word these days, but one with a simple definition: “How we keep our projects going in the future.” The attached document from the UN identifies the key principals we need to bring to our work insofar as we envision...
For those of you missionaries who are avid readers of literature, I have a test question for you: what is the length of the longest sentence in published literature? Answer: 13, 995 words! It is in The Rotter’s Club, a 2001 novel by British writer Jonathan...
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...
“Is there a Local Contribution?” This is the question that every missionary should ask her or himself when completing an application for a project grant. If there is not a specific line on the application itself for this information, be sure to announce your “local contribution”...
USE THE CHECKLIST & CHECK THE LIST! I am in the middle of an experience that causes me to risk your seeing me and MPS as a broken record. What do I mean? This past summer I have worked with missionaries in Zambia and Mexico to submit...
I had a meeting recently at a large funding organization that makes grants by committees that are dedicated to various parts of the world, such as an Africa Committee, a Latin America Committee, et cetera. At one point in our meeting, one of the committee directors,...
TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GRANT WRITING FOR CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES Thou shalt never miss an application deadline because it will cause automatic disqualification of your application Thou shalt not apply for a project that the foundation does not fund because this would be wasting your time (and...