Grants
The National Religious Retirement Office maintains four grant categories for religious communities in the United States that have unfunded liability for retirement.
About 88 percent of donations to the Retirement Fund for Religious appeal are distributed as Basic Grants. Religious communities must apply for these grants and NRRO encourages community leaders to use Basic Grants to establish or build retirement funds.
Special Assistance Grants are generally awarded to communities engaged in collaborative retirement project planning. For example, the Sarah Community in Bridgeton, Missouri was established out of a collaboration among the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the Society of the Sacred Heart sisters, the Daughters of Charity, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, and the Sisters of Loretto. With a grant from NRRO, the communities collaborated in feasibility studies, consultation, and analysis, and embarked on an initiative that would provide skilled care for elderly and infirm sisters.
Supplemental Grants are awarded when there is a critical need for a subsidy to help implement a retirement strategy. NRRO and the National Association for Treasurers of Religious Institutes (NATRI) coordinate the services of trained volunteers who visit religious communities, assist with financial planning, and submit recommendations for the distribution of these grants.
The National Religious Retirement Office requests referrals and makes site visits through which it can identify religious communities that have special needs for assistance with management or planning that can be alleviated by Supplemental Identified Need Grants.