Donor FAQs
The Fund for Vocations is a 501(c)3 whose charitable purpose is to support priestly and religious vocations by eliminating one particular kind of financial obstacle: student debt. That is, loans that have been used to pay for a college education. The MEFV issues grants that cover student debts, allowing men and women, who otherwise could not, to enter Catholic religious life or begin formation for the Catholic priesthood.
The Fund for Vocations raises funds each year to meet its commitments for grants issued. We do not have an endowment fund, and we do not have commited funds before issuing grants.
Almost all the funds used for issuing vocation-enabling grants come from the Catholic faithful. We solicit these gifts through regular mailings to our active donors. We find new donors by sending mail to people who subscribe to Catholic publications.
A couple of private foundations have provided significant gifts which they have earmarked to help us grow our donor base so that we will be able to help make more vocations possible.
We do not make requests of our applicants or grant recipients to actively help us with raising funds.
If you desire that your gift be tax-deductible, you cannot restrict your gift for the benefit of an individual. This policy is required by IRS rules concerning tax-deductible gifts. We are happy to receive gifts restricted to individuals if you indicate that you do not intend to take a tax deduction for the gift.
Yes! You may restrict your gift for the benefit of any order approved for participation in the Fund for Vocations’ grant programs. Just let us know when you make the gift which order you wish it to benefit. We will then use those funds only to pay grants made to individuals who enter that order.
We do not provide grants to men in formation for the diocesan priesthood. While many of our grants are helping men who will be serving as priests in parishes, their superiors have the authority to assign them wherever the order has parishes. We cannot predict where that will be.
FAQ