CCF-LA News | November 15, 2024 | |
A Time of Gratitude and Looking Ahead! | |
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New leadership for
CCF-LA
Since the beginning of 2014, I was part of a professional team of investment managers, attorneys, entrepreneurs, and religious people that came together to form a Catholic community foundation. We thought the time then was right, and maybe overdue, to find new ways to support giving to the Church, build long-term assets for our parishes, schools, and ministries, and begin to teach philanthropy to new generations of Catholics.
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During this time, we developed the framework for an unbeatable charitable faith-based organization that attracted $1 billion in financial assets and granted out $500 million in support for our schools, social services, vocations, and more. Today, the good governance structure of CCF-LA positions it for growth, new types of funds, and above all, to continue to be solution-oriented in developing financial products in the world of tax-exempt charitable giving, lifetime giving, and scholarship funds.
At the end of this year, I will complete my 11th year as the chairman. My family and I could not be prouder of the work we have accomplished during these years with an amazing board and the CCF-LA team led by Kathy Anderson. As Kathy and I will each have ended our terms on December 31, 2024, we welcome and support the new leadership under Ed Roohan as chairman.
The next phase of CCF-LA will create even more value for our clients—individuals, parishes, schools, and charitable organizations—that have grown their philanthropy through the pooled investment funds we offer and widened the impact of their philanthropy through the services we provide in grantmaking.
At this month of thanksgiving, we are grateful for what CCF-LA has become over ten years and for what lies ahead.
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Kathy Anderson
President and Executive Director
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A Time of Gratitude and Looking Back!
In these last two newsletters for 2024, this month is about being thankful for all that has been, and next month is the gift of what is to come.
Looking back over the last ten years, we owe a debt of gratitude to the 2014 CCF-LA organizing committee that dreamed big to create a community foundation with nothing but a vision to change the way we give to support our Church and those aligned with our values. Creating an operating environment driven by our faith-based values was critical.
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During these first ten years, the board and staff developed charitable fund options to meet the needs of our clients. These were primarily based on tax incentives for individuals and agency funds to add value in investment management for organizations. We also believed that a community foundation had a duty to teach philanthropy, so over these years we worked with multi-generational families, parishes, and schools in supporting fundraising and in the area of lifetime giving.
From Day One, we knew that to be successful, we would need to offer extraordinary client services in our Catholic environment, providing the extra touch in the way we processed grants, issued tax receipts, and managed financial assets. We studied other community foundations and quickly discovered that we would be the glue holding our contractors together to achieve economies of scale. It was important to have a lean operation since we had no upfront capital investment and survived on fee income.
We recognized the important role that each of our contractors played in helping with everything from fund management to payroll. Starting a financial institution like this was a daunting task as we addressed the size and professional experience in recruiting our staff, the types of services we offer, creating engaged board committees, and the role of interns and volunteers in our work.
Above all, our leadership team with the board created a bond of trust, and that’s how it all began. One of our early clients had been carefully following the creation of this foundation and called me one day to say his family would be sending us $1.5 million for our first Donor-Advised Fund. The idea was that we were to learn how to invest, grant, and report on their family’s DAF—and we could make mistakes before we expanded with additional clients. As one of our board members pointed out, when you open a restaurant for business and the food is bad on the first day, clients won’t come back. What a gift that first DAF client was to our organization!
Today, we can proudly say that $1 billion in funds have been entrusted to us during our first ten years; we have granted almost $500 million to charities and religious-exempt organizations for education, social services, and other great causes that make our world better, and our assets under management are $550 million. Our gratitude goes beyond the board and the staff to our contractors and clients who believed in us.
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Development-Client Services | |
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Tania Naaman
Director of Client Services
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William Cruz
Manager of Business Development
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Season of Gratitude: Celebrating a Decade of Exceptional Client Relationships
As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, we take a moment to reflect on a decade of growth and success in our philanthropic management services. Since launching in March 2015 with just two funds, we’ve grown to manage a diverse portfolio of 358 active accounts, including 114 agency fund accounts. This significant milestone is a testament to the trust and support of our clients, partners, and donors, whose confidence has helped us reach this achievement.
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Over the years, we've responded to the increasing demand for more flexible and donor-centric giving options. While agency funds were initially created to help our charitable clients manage their assets, many organizations and individuals are now seeking the flexibility of charitable funds. These funds, such as donor-advised funds and designated funds, offer clients greater control, transparency, and the ability to maximize their philanthropic impact.
Today, we are proud to share that we continue to excel in serving our clients with increased transactions and streamlined processes. Achieving our goal to process tax receipts within 24 hours and providing clients with accurate, prompt service so they can maintain their records with ease. For grant processing, we remain committed to issuing grant requests within three days, enabling our clients to support their chosen causes swiftly and efficiently.
This Thanksgiving, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed to our success. Looking forward, we remain committed to providing innovative solutions that help our clients give with purpose and create a lasting difference in the causes they care about.
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October Performance Financial Market Updates | |
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CCFLA started in 2015 with two fund options for Agency Funds - a long-term option, the Balanced Pool, and for shorter term money, the STIF option. As CCFLA grew we expanded Agency Funds to Charitable Funds and to ensure good choices for our clients, CCFLA created an Intermediate Fund. We are now in our tenth year and have partnered with Bank of America/ Merrill as our new custodian and investment advisor to better serve our clients with less expense to CCFLA, and a more stringent focus on Catholic values for our investment portfolio.
Armando Nevarez
V.P. of Finance, Controller and Treasurer
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October 2024 Performance Report for the pooled funds managed by CCF-LA. October is the first month of reporting with Bank of America/Merrill and the YTD results have been calculated to include the first 9 months with our previous Investment team. For the month of October, the Balanced Pool portfolio returned -0.92%, net of fees, bringing the YTD returns to +10.71%. The Intermediate Fund pool returned -0.49%, bringing the YTD returns to +6.44%, and the estimated annual yield on the Short-Term Investment Fund account is currently +4.96%. The returns in the STIF are slightly lower as a result of the Fed’s interest rate cut in the last session.
Stocks were lower this month as the S&P 500 broke a streak of five-straight monthly gains, while the Nasdaq Composite was lower for the first time in three months. The small-cap Russell 2000 was lower and trailed the larger cap S&P 500 for a third-straight month.
The U.S. equity market, as measured by the Russell 3000 Index, lost -0.73% in October. Developed markets, measured by the MSCI EAFE Index, decreased -5.44% for the month. In fixed income, the Bloomberg US Aggregate Index decreased -2.48% in October.
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Growing with appreciation by St. Philips School honoring his memory!
The Fr. Joe Moniz Education Fund was created at CCF-LA on his retirement as pastor in 2020. It is an endowment for tuition assistance and for the educational needs of the students at St. Philip the Apostle School in Pasadena. Since his passing on September 7, 2024, the fund took on a new meaning as members of the school and parish set a goal to reach a $1 million endowment so that he would never be forgotten by the school that he loved and supported for over 20 years!
Fr. Joe Moniz St. Philip the Apostle School Education Fund
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Incarnation Parish School Has Dodger Bragging Rights
Archbishop Gomez won the finals wager with Cardinal Dolan when the Dodgers won in the world series against the Yankees. The celebration took place on Monday November 11 at Incarnation School in Glendale. Click on the link below.
Incarnation Holy Bragging Rights
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L-R: Sr. Anita Mary, Bonnie Peralta, Sophia Peralta & Sr. Teresa Christine
Fall Family Festival
It was my first time visiting the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra, where the Carmelite Sisters live. This was their big fundraiser for the whole community, with home-baked goodies, creative crafts, and a Santa workshop for the kids. It was a heavenly event!
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L-R: Lilia Avancena, Marysan Joy Archeta, Jennifer Cheung & Jennifer Tam | |
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St. Francis Center Dinner
On Saturday, October 19, we supported our client, St. Francis Center, for their Benefit Dinner at the University Club in Pasadena, honoring Elvira Valenzuela, our relationship banker at East West Bank and outgoing chair of St. Francis Center, and Oscar A. Romero, from the Young Ministering Adults Peace and Justice Committee of the St. Monica Catholic Community. Elvira shared her passion for St. Francis Center, philanthropy, and teaching children to be philanthropic.
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Good Shepherd Shelter hosted Mending Broken Wings Gala at The Garland Hotel on Sunday October 27th. Honoring Queens Care, George Buckley, Sean Mc. Mahon and Sr. Barbara Beasley, proceeds from this event directly support all of the programs Good Shepherd Shelter provides to their resident families. This includes mental health therapy, case management, onsite elementary school education, child watch services and adult learning skills classes. | |
CEF Launch Party
CEF 2024 Impact Report Launch Party was held Saturday, November 2nd, at Hotel Indigo in Los Angeles to unveil their 2024 report. This experience brought their Impact Report to life through student music, art, and storytelling.
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CCF-LA Halloween Luncheon
Staff always looking forward to celebrating Halloween at CCF-LA. It’s a time for food, games, friendship and this year dressing up in costume. A bit of humor keeps the culture real.
Let the holidays begin!
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Mission Statement
The Catholic Community Foundation of Los Angeles empowers charitable individuals and organizations across cultures and generations through professional philanthropy management solutions that allow clients to develop and sustain their philanthropy in support of Catholic values.
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