![[home]](/latinamerica/images/usccb_logo.gif){kind=logo}
 |
 Participants holding their diplomas in Religious Studies from E.F.A.P. - Honduras, 1999. |
Q. If
I have identified a pastoral need in my community, what should I do
to apply for funds from the Bishop's Subcommittee on the Church in Latin
America?
Q: What should I do if my community
has various needs at the same time?
Q: What should I do once I have
written my proposal?
Q: Who will respond to my application?
Q: What should I do after I receive the official application form?
Q: Can I send my official form
by fax?
Q: I have a blank copy of the application
form from a previous project, would I be able to use it for a new
project?
Q: What happens with my form once
it arrives at the Collection for the Church in Latin America?
Q: What happens if during the review
process a member of the staff finds inconsistencies, incomplete
information or aspects that in their opinion are not sufficiently
clear?
Q: Who approves the financial
support for pastoral project in Latin America?
Q: When will the Subcommittee meet
during the year?
Q: What type of decision should I expect from the Subcommittee?
Q: How are the funds mailed from
the staff to the applicant?
Q: What should my organization
do once it receives the funds?
Q: If I already have an approved
project, can I apply for funds again?
Q: How much time is necessary
for the processing of the application?
Q: In what LANGUAGE may I fill
out the grant application?
Q. If I have identified a pastoral need in my community, what should I do to apply for funds from the Bishop's Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America?
A. The first thing that you should do is write a proposal about the project that you have in mind and a possible solution to the pastoral need. In the proposal you should list in general terms a justification for the project, or the motive for proposing the project and why it is important for your community.
In the proposal you should describe the goal of the project, the objective the project seeks to complete, making sure that the goal can be obtained in the amount of time proposed. Remember that a project can have more than one goal.
Example:
Goal: Form fifty pastoral agents in the rural zone of Chía-Cundinamaraca in a period of 8 months.
In the document you should write how much time it will take to develop your project proposal. Finally, you should calculate the general cost of the project. It's important that you have an idea of how much you can contribute to the project and the approximate value needed in a grant from the Subcommittee of Bishops.
| Back to Top |
Q: What should I
do if my community has various needs at the same time?
A: If you have detected various needs, first consider if those needs
can be treated as different stages in the same project. You would need
to develop those activities so that they meet the proposed goal. A way
to test if an activity belongs to the same project is examining if its
development would contribute to accomplishing the proposed project's
planned objectives.
If these activities definitively belong to different projects, you should
determine which is the priority for your community and apply for funds
at the Subcommittee for only ONE project. Remember that the Subcommittee
of Bishops can only distribute funds to an organization one time a year.
The year begins after the date that the Subcommittee approves the funds.
| Back to Top |
A: Congratulations for completing the first phase of the process. You can send your application to the Subcommittee on the Church on Latin America in three ways, but remember that you should only utilize ONE
If we receive the same proposal various times the application can be nullified.
You can mail your written proposal by regular mail to the following address:
Church in Latin America
3211 4th Street, NE Washington, D.C. 20017-1194
You can also send your document by fax to :(1)(202) 541 3460
| Back to Top |
Q: Who will respond
to my application?
A: The USCCB works with an office called the Collection for the Church
in Latin America, whose staff will manage the projects.
The staff of the Collection for the Church
in Latin America will analyze your proposal once it has
arrived in the mail, by fax or in electronic form and will determine
if the proposal falls under one of the eight categories established
by the Bishop's Subcommittee and if the amount that you have estimated
is appropriate for the completion of the project.
If you desire more information about the project categories that the
Bishop's Subcommittee has established, you can consult the link on categories.
If you proposal is pre-approved, we will mail you the official application
form and a complete guide for your use.
| Back to Top |
Q: What should I do after I receive the official application form?
You should fill out the application form following the instructions that can be found in the guide. It is important that you study the guide before completing the form. This guide is designed so that a person without experience in projects development can easily prepare a proposal. The guide includes practical examples taken from the proposals that arrive everyday at the Church in Latin America.
Once you have the official form correctly filled out, you should consult the guide or our web page (/latinamerica) to find what support letters you will need to obtain. These letters will depend on the geographic area covered by the project in the proposal and the type of institution(whether or not it is ecclesiastical). Keep in mind it is very important to obtain these letters of support. Without these, your petition will be returned.
| Back to Top |
Q: Can I send my
official form by fax?
NO. The staff will only accept the original form sent by regular
mail accompanied by the letters previously referred to.
The Subcommittee on the Church on Latin America recommends that you
keep a copy of the filled out form. Sometimes clarifications are required
about specific aspects of the proposal. Also, you will need the form
during the project in order to follow it's guidelines and suggestions.
Finally, we have noticed the tendency of certain organizations to
send back the Project Manual with the application form. It is not
necessary that you send this guide, it is something that can serve
for future consultation if you decide to apply for a grant again either
through our organization or another funding entity.
| Back to Top |
Q: I have a blank
copy of the application form from a previous project, would I be able
to use it for a new project?
NO. When an application is pre-approved by the staff it creates
a file in the database for that specific application and automatically
prints a form for that specific project. The form has the name of
the person who applied, the date and a provisional project number.
Additionally, the form specifically asks that "no photocopies
be made of this form." We would sincerely appreciate it if you
followed these instructions.
When the staff receives the form that has been created for a
determined project, although the form is for a different project,
the old project number produces the data about the old project and
it is immediately rejected. We would appreciate if we could avoid
this situation to prevent further confusion and the waste of the staff's
time clarifying information.
| Back to Top |
Q: What happens
with my form once it arrives at the Subcommittee on the Church in
Latin America?
Once the staff at the Church in Latin America receives the application package,
it will be reviewed to make sure that it contains the corresponding
support letters according to the goal of the project and the origin
of the organization which is applying for funds.
In the following phase, it will be analyzed to make sure that the
project has an adequate justification, the goal is feasible and to
ensure that the objectives and goals are coherent. In the case of
an event, retreat, seminar, workshop and/or classes, it is important
that this information be complete.
The Project Manual that accompanies the application form is a useful
guide that contains examples that illustrate the most frequently presented
cases.
If in your project you will be developing an event, like a seminar,
retreat, workshop, etc, please take extra care to count the number
of participants, the total number of training hours, the number of
program hours and include the budget. Again, the guide will help you
correctly fill out the forms.
The Staff at the Collection for the Church in Latin America also takes care to ensure that the proposed
grant total submitted to the Bishop's Subcommittee does not exceed 67%
of the total budget of the project.
If the staff at the Collection for the Church in Latin America finds that the project is clearly
outlined, contains all of the necessary information (including the
corresponding support letters) and does not require clarifications,
we will write the applicant a letter containing the date that the
Subcommittee will evaluate the project.
Because the staff can not predetermine what the Subcommittee of Bishop's
decision will be, we ask that no economic commitments be made with
the possibility of receiving aid from us until after you have received
notification on whether or not you will receive aid and if so, the
amount of your grant.
| Back to Top |
Q: What happens if during the review process a member of the staff finds inconsistencies, incomplete information or aspects that in their opinion are not sufficiently clear?
A: If the staff of the Collection for the Church in Latin America finds that the proposal has an aspect that is not clear, imprecise, incomplete or that simply needs some type of clarification, a written communication will be mailed to the applicant by email or fax asking for the respective information.
The applicant should respond in the same means of communication inside of the following 8 days providing the pertinent clarifications.
| Back to Top |
Q: Who approves the financial support for pastoral project in Latin America?
A: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops created the Committee on National Collections to coordinate and support the national collections. This work includes administering the grant process for select national collections. For Latin America, the Committee works through the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America to make decisions with respect to the aid and financial support.
The Subcommittee is composed of 7 Bishops that are appointed for a 3 year period.
The current chairman of the Subcommittee of Bishops is Most Rev. Jaime Soto, Auxiliary Bishop of Orange.
| Back to Top |
Q: When will the Subcommittee
meet during the year?
A: The Bishops meet 3 times during the year in March, June and November.
| Back to Top |
Q: What type of decision should I expect from the Subcommittee?
A: The Subcommittee of Bishops evaluates the projects presented by the staff of the Collection for the Church in Latin America and can make 3 of the following decisions:
finance the total request of the application, finance part of the requested amount or decide not to finance the amount applied for.
| Back to Top |
Q: How are the funds mailed
from the staff to the applicant?
A: For those projects that have been approved either partially or
in total, the staff will do a bank transfer, or when this is
not possible - a check will be delivered.
It is important that you fill out the information form very carefully
and review it various times. The inter-bank transferring systems are
so detailed that whatever inconsistency in the information can impede
the success of the transaction.
The funds will be transferred inside of the month following the meeting
at which they were approved.
| Back to Top |
Q: What should
my organization do once it receives the funds?
A: Congratulations! You have succeeded in obtaining funds to benefit
your community. This is the result of your perseverance and patience
for a noble cause.
The staff will send along with the funds and a packet of information
that contains: i) The acknowledgment of receipt of the funds, ii)A
form that should be filled out with the final report once the project
has been executed, iii)A guide for the use of the funds.
The acknowledgment of receipt of funds is a formal certification that
the economic resources were received by the applying organization.
It is important that you verify that you have the grant in your bank
account. It should be filled out and sent directly by fax and/or regular
mail.
The final project form should be filled out once the project has been
finished and all of the data has been gathered. Remember that the
clarity, detail and promptness with which you send this report will
determine what the Subcommittee and staff of the Collection for the Church in Latin America consider
in future project funding for that organization.
| Back to Top |
Q: If I already have an approved
project, can I apply for funds again?
A: Keep in mind that the organizations that have applied for funds
can NOT apply for funds during the time that the financed project
is being executed. At least one year should pass from the date the
Bishop's Subcommittee approved the funds. In other words, if the project
was approved by the Subcommittee in March of 2001 and the project lasted
for eight months, the organization should do the following: i)Mail
the final report a month after the project is finished, ii) If you
have a new project you should wait until March of 2002 to write to
the staff about a new application.
Please do not forget that in order to present a new project you should
have the approval of the final report from the previous project. This
is a necessary requirement.
| Back to Top |
Q: How much time is necessary
for the processing of the application?
A: The time it takes to process an application from when it was received
to the transfer of funds is very relative. It is subject to delays
in mail, the clarity of the project proposal (whether or not clarifications
are necessary) and receipt of all required documents. If a project
meets all of the requirements and does not require clarifications,
the funds will be transferred in about 5 months.
| Back to Top |
Q: In what LANGUAGE may
I fill out the grant application?
A: In Spanish, English, and Creole. No inquiries or applications will
be accepted in Portuguese or French.
| Back to Top |