“The Church is the hope of the world, and the local parish is the hope of the Church,” says Tom Corcoran, co-author of ChurchMoney, a book that is part of the Rebuilt series. Tom’s experience in helping his own parish to be a thriving, vibrant community of faith inspired him, along with his pastor, Father Michael White, to help other parish communities throughout the world to experience the same renewal. Tom encourages parishes to develop a model of ministry and to invite other into that vision. Younger generations are less inclined to donate money to institutions, Tom notes, and so parishes need to shift the paradigm from supporting the Church to supporting ministry and mission. “People give to vision, and people give to people.” A renewed sense of discipleship will result in a renewed sense of stewardship.

“The way back to financial health in parishes is to start connecting the dots between money and following Jesus.” Tom has a plan for how parishes can raise givers, rather than just raise money. Since “money is a spiritual issue,” Tom stresses that raising givers begins with prayer as step one. He also notes that people will learn about money either from the culture with its emphasis on spending and saving, or from Scripture, which prioritizes giving and generosity. Frequent preaching on how often money is presented in Scripture, then, is crucial to a sound formation of Christian stewards. Giving may cause us to sacrifice parts of our lifestyle, but handing over what is dear to us—making a sacrifice—actually begets cheerfulness and joy. This is the central message that parishes must embrace, pray about, reflect on, and implement… to be brought closer to God requires us to imitate his generosity and freedom.

Guest: Tom Corcoran
Title: Author, Speaker, and Evangelist

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After completing her M.B.A., Jennifer Baugh went through a soul-searching period while waiting to start a new consulting job, asking God to deepen her faith. She came to a new and profound realization of God’s love and the mission to share that love with others. Not long thereafter, Jennifer established Young Catholic Professionals (YCP), an apostolate that has grown exponentially, signaling that Catholic professionals in their 20s and 30s have a shared longing for encouragement and for a community to support excellence at work integrated into a life of discipleship.

Now with chapters in over 40 cities across the U.S., YCP is a network as much a community aimed at instilling an authentic Catholic identity equipped for apologetics in the public square, providing community to breakdown isolation and build strong friendships, and inspiring members to action in response to God’s call to serve. YCP seeks to foster an awareness of stewardship and generosity among members with inspiring accounts from mentors who have experienced the joy of giving of time, talent and treasure. This is of vital importance, particularly in the face of decreasing church giving among younger generations. “Authenticity is what young people are craving,” Jennifer noted, and giving cannot be simply transactional for the young but more engaging and impactful.

YCP has strategies to grow geographically but also in evangelistic efforts in the cities where chapters are already established. Looking to the future, YCP wants to offer members increasing opportunities for spiritual enrichment, professional advancement, and more intentional networking so that members can live the authentic, integrated life to which God has called them.

Guest: Jennifer Baugh
Title: Founder and Executive Director, Young Catholic Professionals

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Responsible for faith-based and secular non-profit markets at Innovest, Sarah brings to bear her rich experience of non-profit development, marketing, and business development along with her faith and sense of stewardship in managing clients’ investment portfolios. In this episode, Sarah explores how building a morally conscious investment portfolio is more than avoiding “sin stocks,” but requires a deeper due diligence to ensure funds are not applied to causes antithetical to the Gospel and the Church’s teaching on faith and morals. Maintaining value alignment is important so that support is not given to causes that harm authentic Christian discipleship or true communion.

“Our clients are always at the center of every decision we make,” Sarah explains, emphasizing that in managing clients’ investments, establishing client mission over shareholder interest is essential to maintain value alignment. Making investment decisions based on shareholder returns can be “a big problem and conflict of interest” in a fiduciary relationship. As a secular firm with Catholic values, Innovest manages $45 billion for retirement plans, for non-profit foundations, endowments, operating reserves, and retirement plans, and for high net-worth individuals. Sarah said that, in keeping with the vision of Innovest’s founders, “we believe that we are stewards of everyone we come in contact with, whether that’s clients, people in the community, even our employees…we very much have a stewardship culture.” In addition to stewarding clients’ investments, Innovest seeks to be stewards of its own resources by providing educational opportunities for the underserved, monthly volunteer opportunities for employees, and by donating 1% of revenue back to their clients to help their missions.

In Catholic investing, the USCCB’s investment guidelines serve as a starting point for morally responsible investing. Dioceses have an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) which includes language on how the IPS adheres to the USCCB guidelines and in what asset parameters investments can be made. Sarah stresses the importance of having a “Catholic ecosystem of resources” to help Catholic entities manage and invest funds in a manner truly harmonious with the Church’s mission. Vendors, banks, investment companies, development professionals, asset managers, etc. must all embrace the mission of the gospel. This ecosystem helps ensure morally responsible investments. For example, companies earn ESG (environmental, social and governance) scores depending on how well they fulfill their responsibility to the community in these sectors. A high ESG score gains more investors. But a secular perspective on ESG causes does not prescind from Catholic anthropology, which in turn means that companies’ ESG initiatives often do not advance authentic human flourishing, thereby compromising value alignment. A Catholic ecosystem will help mitigate poor investment decisions and help guide Catholic entities to make the best return on investment, advance the gospel, and bring authentic human freedom, joy, peace and flourishing to the world.

Guest: Sarah Newman
Title: Vice President, Innovest

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