About FSC Foundation
The De La Salle Christian Brothers are delighted that the FSC Foundation was able to resume making annual grants in 2016. Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) remains the Foundation’s primary benefactor.
The Foundation is grateful to CBIS for its generous support.
The FSC Foundation (A title taken from the three first letters of Fratres Scholarum Christianarum - Brothers of the Christian Schools) was established by seven provinces of the De La Salle Christian Brothers in the United States together with Manhattan College (N.Y.). Resources of the Foundation are provided by CBIS – the company has committed, since its founding, a significant portion of its profits to be used to support and advance educational services for the poor, especially victims of systemic injustice.
About Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS)
CBIS is a global investment management firm that has been a trusted partner for Catholic institutions and their consultants worldwide for over four decades. The firm manages more than $11 billion (as of March 31, 2024) across a broad range of Catholic organizations, including dioceses, schools, hospitals, and religious institutes. Specializing in Catholic Responsible Investing, a distinct investment approach that combines research-driven stock screening with active ownership, CBIS helps Catholic organizations align their investments with Catholic beliefs. Using Catholic Responsible Investing as an overlay, CBIS actively blends complementary institutional managers to sub-advise its diverse investment strategies. CBIS is a Registered Investment Advisor owned by the De La Salle Christian Brothers in the United States and the Center of the Institute in Rome. Headquartered in Chicago, CBIS also has an office in the Generalate of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Rome.
The FSC Foundation invites proposals to initiate and/or support educational projects which will serve the poor, the handicapped, and others victimized by society. It hopes that ultimately such projects will become self-reliant and their participants will be enabled to help themselves.
This is the principal goal of the foundation. It represents yet another effort to continue and expand the three-hundred-year-old Lasallian tradition of serving the poor through education, extending the caring vision of St. John Baptist De La Salle into the future.
Funding Approval Criteria
Through a clear, concise and objective presentation the application should show how the project:
- Reflects the philosophy and objectives of the FSC Foundation.
- Can achieve the specific goals and objectives envisioned in the service(s) to be offered.
- Evidences the need for financial support while it documents requests from other funding sources.
- Explains that there is an administrative or organizational structure, adequate for the success of the project.
- Involves the project’s participants in planning and implementing it.
- Includes the possibility of replication by other individuals or groups.
- Attempts to network with other fitting agencies, groups, businesses, etc., in the delivery of services.
- Will expand the Grant funds being requested and describe briefly its methods of financial record keeping and reporting.
- Envisions the time frame for initiation and duration of services, and the process of evaluating its success in achieving stated goals.
Philosophy and Objectives
The FSC Foundation has been established to promote and support educational services directed to the poor and disadvantaged.
The FSC Foundation seeks to discover and support "new and adapted forms of education for those poor who are most neglected."
The FSC Foundation hopes to encourage and energize through financial assistance organizations which wish to accept the challenge to assist the poor and marginalized in our societies by providing effective educational services for them.
Project Parameter Guidelines
The FSC Foundation will support educational activities, projects and services that attempt to respond creatively to the needs of these poor and/or handicapped in the following ways:
- Structured educational training centers, such as schools, community service centers, vocational training centers, etc.
- Alternative educational services such as training for independent living, counseling and personal support services, family training and employment skills training, etc.
- Making small grants not to exceed $4,000.
- Making grants to help projects get started.
The FSC Foundation will accept proposals from organizations that are in accordance with its philosophy and objectives, and that are in compliance with its guidelines. The FSC Foundation will not consider:
- Making grants for ongoing salaries, and administrative expenses, tuition scholarships or endowments
- A proposal for a project that received FSC Foundation funding within the past three years
- Multiple proposals from the same organization within the same year. Applicants are asked to limit themselves to one proposal per year.
- Proposals for capital campaigns
Board of Directors
Brother Johnathon Emanuelson, FSC
Chairman of the Board
Minneapolis, MN
Brother Thomas Hetland, FSC
Chicago, IL
Sister Margaret Dempsey, RSM
Brooklyn, NY
Brother John Montgomery, FSC
Los Angeles, CA
Sister Barbara Nelson, IBVM
Wheaton, IL
Sister Karen Nykiel, OSB
Lisle, IL
Brother Raymond Papenfuss, CSC
Notre Dame, IN
