At its July 2022 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the Growth Fund Committee’s recommendation to create a funding program that addresses environmental projects in diocesan parishes. While applications to the general Growth Fund are meant to assist participating parishes in maintaining and preserving their physical plants, with an emphasis on helping smaller parishes that may not be able to afford such repairs, the new Growth Fund for Environmental Projects is meant to encourage parishes to explore energy-saving projects at our parishes.
Parishes may apply for these funds to address smaller environmental, non-urgent projects within the parish. Examples of such projects include, but are not limited to, automatic light switches, composting, replacing invasive landscaping with native plants, rainwater barrels, xeriscaping, etc. Electric and gas companies may do energy assessments and parishes are urged to contact these companies before making application to the Growth Fund and include these assessments in their application. Priority will be given to those parishes who have not received any Growth Fund grants in the past three years.
Grant amounts are limited to 50% of the project cost. Awards will not exceed $1,000. Parishes will be asked to match the amount granted by the Growth Fund Committee and Board of Trustees with its own funds, which may include sweat equity. If there are funds remaining in the allocation at year-end, for parishes who have received funds this calendar year, additional applications may be submitted to the fund.
The application for environmental projects can be found on the Documents & Forms page of the diocesan website and is available in PDF or Word formats.
—Jim Cassaro, Chair, Growth Fund Committee