"We Have Worked Tirelessly to Create a Truly Separate Foundation..."

By Jennifer Haselberger
Canonical Consultation
December 18, 2014

http://canonicalconsultation.com/blog.html

Tim Healy and the Catholic Services Appeal Foundation made another effort this week to convince stakeholders (meaning priests and donors) that the foundation is a separate entity deserving of their (and our) support.

I have already written about why I won't be contributing to the CSA this year, and I have also provided some reasons for why I don't think the word 'separate' (meaning to remove or severe from) applies to the foundation in the way that the Archdiocese wants us to believe it does. I wasn't planning to comment on the latest email sent to clergy, but the claim that they have 'worked tirelessly' seems to beg a response, as does the article that appeared yesterday in The Catholic Spirit.

This is the email to which I am referring:

I find it interesting that both The Catholic Spirit article and the email to priests claim that the 2014 campaign exceeded its fundraising goal in pledges. Pledges are different than actual money contributed, and I think we would all be far more interested to see the latter amount rather than the former- especially given that both the article and the email refer to the Foundation being unable to meet campaign expenses.

I also chuckle when I read about the 'tireless' efforts to create a separate foundation. Tim Healy, who, as I have already mentioned, is the brother-in-law of Bishop Cozzens, offers the following in support of his claim: the Foundation has a separate bank account, an 'independent board' (chaired by the brother-in-law of the bishop), separate employees, and its own database (where did they get my address then? I didn't give it to them.). What he does not mention is that this 'independent' foundation is operated out of the Hayden Center (the pastoral building of the Archdiocesan Central Corporation). In other words, the tireless work did not include moving from the old offices, or getting new phone numbers, etc, but instead they continued to use the same ones as they did before they were a 'separate' foundation. Some of you may remember that at one time the Catholic Community Foundation rented space in the Hayden Center, but they moved years ago when it was determined that remaining on Archdiocesan property called into question the independence of the CCF.

I also laughed when I saw that the Foundation was using its two full time employees as proof of its separation. These employees might be paid by the Foundation now, but they are hardly new and independent. Jennifer Beaudry (nee Dawson), the Executive Director, has worked for the CSA/Archdiocesan Development Office for as long as I can remember. Her mother, as many of you will know, is Bobbi Dawson, the longtime Archdiocesan staff member who ran Archbishop Flynn's office as well as almost all of the entertaining that takes place at the Archbishop's Residence.

There are almost four million people in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, and thousands of empty offices for sale or lease. Surely a tireless effort would have surfaced more plausibly independent people to lead and administer the Foundation, and better space from which to operate. Assuming, that is, that the goal was for the Catholic Services Appeal Foundation to be independent.