Posted April 6, 2021

The Ambassador’s Fund for Catholic Education invited grant proposals to its online portal on Tuesday, April 6 for a second round of funding to be awarded in the 2021-22 academic year. The deadline for applications is 11:59 p.m., May 3.

The Wayne-based charitable organization awarded almost $583,000 in eight grants to Catholic schools and organizations from its first proposal cycle last fall. This funding is in addition to approximately $115,000 previously designated for the second year of four multi-year grants.

Grantees include four first-time proposal applicants: Archbishop Wood High School, Merion Mercy Academy, La Salle College High School and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. They join previous awardees Independence Mission Schools and Sophia Institute for Teachers in funding awarded at the fund’s board meeting in January.

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Funding will expand Archbishop Wood’s learning support program; complete Merion Mercy Academy’s all-curriculum integration of project-based learning with its Discovery and Design Studio; launch La Salle College High School’s Emerging Technology in Business and Design (ETBD) program; and establish the John Paul II Education Center at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa to understand, appreciate and promote our Catholic intellectual heritage through the teachings of St. John Paul II.

The Ambassador’s Fund grant to Independence Mission Schools will strengthen the catechetical foundations of its teachers, while a two-year grant to Sophia Institute for Teachers will underwrite an intensive catechetical orientation training for every newly hired archdiocesan Kindergarten-through-eighth-grade teacher.

Faith in the Future Foundation continued with its annual grant for general operating support of the three schools of special education, as did the Archdiocese of Philadelphia with its annual grant for discretionary use by the Archbishop of Philadelphia.

Organizations receiving second-year grants committed at the 2020 board meeting include CatholicPhilly.com for a digital marketing campaign, the Newman Center at St. Agatha-St. James for two targeted outreach programs, and the Office of Catholic Education for a Keystone STARS certification initiative.

The proposal portal for the second round of 2021-22 grants will close at 11:59 p.m., May 3.

The Ambassador’s Fund for Catholic Education was created and funded as the Archdiocesan Educational Fund by Matthew H. McCloskey Jr. (1893-1973), building contractor and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland (1962-64), in 1967 to advance Catholic education and evangelization throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The name changed in February 2020.

For more information or to answer questions about an application, contact Patricia Canning, director of grants management at info@ambassadorsfund.org or at patricia.canning@comcast.net.