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Catholic-Funded Networks Financially Tied to Pro-Abortion Initiative

From 2009 through 2012, members of the Reform CCHD Now Coalition had regular communication with the leadership of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (“CCHD”). Through the publication of reports, the coalition sounded the alarm on CCHD funding for organizations acting in direct opposition to Catholic moral and social teaching, which forced the CCHD to update its grant policies in late 2010. One of the new policies implemented by the CCHD was on coalition memberships.

All applicants for CCHD funding must sign a grant agreement that says, “Grantee agrees that it will not knowingly participate in any coalition that has as part of its organizational purpose or agenda the promotion of actions in conflict with fundamental Catholic moral or social teaching.”

Membership in the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) runs afoul of this guideline. Members of the NCRP include three CCHD-funded organizations and four of CCHD’s most favored network affiliations. Yet NCRP is very active in working for the total decriminalization of abortion and is responsible for a number of pro-LGBT (including same-sex “marriage”) efforts.

All members of NCRP are required to pay annual membership dues. In addition to violating the CCHD grant agreement, membership in NCRP means that any organization receiving funding from the CCHD is, by extension, providing Catholic funding to NCRP and its initiatives.

The membership dues pay scale is as follows:

Membership dues for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

Dues-paying members of NCRP that are directly tied to the CCHD are Faith in Action, Gamaliel, IAF Northwest, Metro IAF, Jobs With Justice, Latino Union, Faith in Action Florida, and New Orleans Center for Racial Justice.

Faith in Action, Gamaliel, and IAF (which stands for the Saul Alinsky-founded Industrial Areas Foundation) are three of the CCHD’s most favored network affiliations. In 2015, Faith in Action (then called PICO National Network) received a $500,000 strategic grant from the CCHD. Additionally, no less than 10 of its affiliates receive CCHD funding every year. Currently, 11 CCHD grantees are affiliates of Faith in Action. Last year, we reported Faith in Action’s political, pro-abortion, pro-LGBT and pro-riot and looting activities herehere and here. According to Faith in Action’s tax form 990 from 2019, its total expenses came to $19.693 million, meaning that it paid NCRP $1,500 in annual dues.

The Vortex: Alinsky and the U.S. Bishops

According to a March 2020 article on the Gamaliel Foundation’s website, Gamaliel received a strategic grant from the CCHD in 2019 (the amount was undisclosed and not announced on the USCCB website). Like Faith in Action, at least 10 Gamaliel affiliates receive CCHD funding every year, which is the current case. In 2012, Gamaliel was discovered to have lied directly to the CCHD about its membership in a coalition promoting same-sex “marriage.” Worth noting as we explore the evidence against NCRP and its dues-paying members, the executive director for the Gamaliel Foundation, Ana Garcia-Ashley, served as a board member for NCRP from 2010–2016. According to Gamaliel’s tax form 990 for 2019, Gamaliel’s expenses came to $851,757, meaning they paid $325 in annual dues to NCRP.

Saul Alinsky founded the Industrial Areas Foundation

The CCHD was originally founded to finance Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation (for the history of CCHD’s origins, click here), and every year, at least 10 of its members receive CCHD funding. Northwest IAF and Metro IAF file their taxes separately, so their dues assessments would also be determined separately. According to IAF Northwest’s tax form 990 for 2019, their expenses came to $319,000, which means their dues would be assessed at $225, and Metro IAF’s annual expenses for 2019 came to $1.379 million, meaning its dues would be $500.

CCHD used to fund many more affiliates of Jobs With Justice than they currently do (more on them in a follow-up report), and currently, only the JWJ affiliate receiving CCHD funding is the Tompkins County Workers’ Center. That said, JWJ had $4 million in expenses for 2019, putting their annual dues at $750.

New Orleans Workers’ Justice Center received a grant for $50,000 from the CCHD in 2019–2020. Its expenses for 2019 came to $1.425 million, meaning it paid $500 in dues.

Faith in Florida (through two separate grants) received a total of $50,000 from the CCHD for 2019–2020. Its expenses for 2019 came to $931,000, meaning it paid NCRP $325 in dues.

The Latino Union received a $40,000 grant from the CCHD for 2019–2020. Its annual expenses for 2018 (2019’s tax form 990 was not available) came to $445,000, meaning it paid NCRP $225 in annual dues.

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News Report: Bishops’ Shell Game

All told, NCRP is receiving around $4,350 annually from CCHD-funded organizations and networks.

In addition to the massive amounts of Catholic money the CCHD provides to these organizations and their members, the CCHD is regularly singing their praises. In celebrating its own 50th anniversary, the CCHD posted its high regards for Faith in Action, Gamaliel and the Industrial Areas Foundation.

For Faith in Action, it said, “Faith in Action promotes solidarity and transform systems through organizing. Sign up for email alerts to stay informed and know when to take action!”

For Gamaliel, it said, “Your support of the Gamaliel Network allows them to continue training leaders all over the country and maintain their national campaigns.”

For the Industrial Areas Foundation, it said, “Keep up with the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation’s largest and longest-standing network of local faith and community-based organizations.”

With the #PowerOfCCHD, the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) builds broad-based organizing projects, which creates new capacity in communities for leadership development and citizen-led action.

Keep up with the IAF: https://t.co/SVFL3gwK7O#CCHD50 pic.twitter.com/WfPa6sTpvl

— Poverty USA by CCHD (@PovertyUSA_CCHD) May 17, 2021

The importance of the CCHD’s relationship with these organizations cannot be underscored enough. These affiliate networks comprise the most favored organizations receiving Catholic funding every year, and as noted above, they are dues-paying members of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

There are hundreds of pro-abortion articles on NCRP’s website, but a few of the most recent are sufficient to indicate the rabid promotion of baby killing that this organization engages in. For instance, in a press release responding to the Texas law against abortion, NCRP said: “The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) hears abortion leaders and supports the decision of if, when and how people experience reproductive parenthood, and recognizes SB 8, and all other heartbeat bans, for the unconstitutional violations to abortion access that they are.”

In January 2021, NCRP published a fact sheet about the “need” to fund abortion facilities due to recent legal moves to restrict access. The purpose of the fact sheet was to encourage the increase of donations to abortion funds.

NCRP issued a statement to its members titled ‘A Roadmap to Supporting Health Equity Through Abortion Access.’

In March 2021, NCRP leadership made it clear that access to abortion was a primary focus area of its work in an article titled “It’s Time for Philanthropy to Think Differently About Reproductive Access.” In the article, NCRP equated abortion with “economic justice, racial justice, immigrant rights and health equity,” saying, “Reproductive rights — and the availability of safe, legal and accessible abortions — are inexorably intertwined with economic justice, racial justice, immigrant rights and health equity. So is the expectation of safety — mental and physical.”

In July of this year, NCRP issued a statement to its members titled “A Roadmap to Supporting Health Equity Through Abortion Access — Why I Fund the Frontlines.” The very first line of the article reads, “I urge you to join with me in a frontline struggle for health equity: ensuring abortion access.”

That same month, NCRP created an entire page titled “Shifting Grantmaking to the Abortion Providers and Local Independent Clinics,” which is dedicated to convincing donors to provide funding to abortion facilities.

NCRP isn’t just promoting abortion to its funders and members, though. It’s also literally shouting the push for abortion on social media, such as with this tweet from September of this year. In the tweet, NCRP announced that it is “hosting an emergency call” to “hear from frontline leaders on what philanthropy can do now to help local, independent abortion clinics.”

Funders & those Organizing them: NCRP is hosting an emergency call on Tuesday, Sept 14 from 3:00-4:00 pm ET to hear from frontline leaders on what philanthropy can do now to help local, independent abortion clinics. More details to come RSVP at: https://t.co/6xgxUQd0hQ pic.twitter.com/6FPqWyqUIP

— NCRP (@NCRP) September 10, 2021

Through the course of this investigation, we made another very interesting discovery. NCRP has been supporting LGBT activism for decades, marking another clear violation of the CCHD’s grant guideline on coalition memberships. For instance, in 2009, NCRP published an article titled “Are We Making Progress? Reflections on the LGBTQ Movement, Social Justice and Philanthropy.” But what caught our attention was this NCRP tweet from October 2013, decrying the CCHD’s defunding of several organizations over membership in a coalition that supported same-sex “marriage.”

At issue were eight former CCHD grantees who lost their CCHD funding because they refused to end their membership in the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights after the coalition had formally endorsed same-sex “marriage.” Wondering why NCRP would be interested in CCHD grantees losing funding for supporting the mockery of marriage, we discovered that Aaron Dorfman, the president and CEO of NCRP, had contributed comments in 2013 to a report denouncing the efforts of the Reform CCHD Now coalition.

Read the rest at the Lepanto Institute

— Campaign 32075 —

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