162 Reasons for Catholic Sisters to Enroll and Complete GW101
Earlier this year, Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) initiated a project of information sharing among 162 communities of Catholic sisters. The goal of the exchanges, conducted monthly via ZOOM, is to increase international understanding of the healthcare-related needs of sisters and to share “best practices” or other innovative approaches that communities of sisters are using to address their challenges.
And the challenges are numerous. Here are just a few of the challenges that have already been identified:
*40% of congregations don’t have adequate beds for their sisters
*Only 36% of congregations provided regular medical check-ups for sisters
*In Africa, congregations estimate that 40-45% lack the infrastructure to address future needs
Not surprisingly, limited financial resources only exacerbate these problems:
*Health expenses for sisters currently total about 60-65% of a congregation’s budget
*80% of congregations have no advisors to provide expertise in managing these issues
*75-90% of congregations are financially constrained to begin addressing these issues
One thing is clear: more financial resources will be needed in the future to help those sisters who have helped so many others throughout their lives as religious.
One way of preparing for the future will be to increase the number of sisters who are more knowledgeable in the areas of finance and fundraising.
MPS, through its partnership with the Hilton Fund For Sisters, is offering its online course Grant Writing 101 (GW101), FREE to sisters through the end of 2023. GW101 will not solve all of a congregation’s problems and challenges, BUT there is little doubt that it will be more helpful for a congregation to have more sisters educated in finance and fundraising than not.
Please take advantage of this opportunity to increase your sisters’ skills!
To learn more about GW 101 – click here and select your preferred language (English, Spanish or French). You will then be directed to a landing page that explains the course and curriculum. To register in order to obtain the course for free (courtesy of Hilton Fund For Sisters), click here.