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phone: 773-363-5454
e-mail: nrvc@nrvc.net

HILTON FOUNDATION AWARDS  $2 MILLION 
TO NATIONAL RELIGIOUS VOCATION CONFERENCE OVER THREE YEARS

Chicago, June 19, 2014—The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation awarded a $2 million grant to the Chicago-based National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) to support upgrading and expanding the organization’s structure, programming, and resources. NRVC has been identified by the Hilton Foundation as a key partner in the foundation’s priority area of support of Catholic Sisters. The initiatives made possible by this grant include:

• New programming and research, including a study of the influence of parents and family in nurturing vocations to religious life and priesthood
• Participation in the 2016 World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, including planning and vocation programming for the English-language pavilion
• Development of a national communications office for religious vocations
• Redesign the award-winning VISION Vocation Network multilingual website (VocationNetwork.org)
• Organizational restructuring, fundraising, marketing, and promotion

In addition funds from the grant will go toward resources and programs for the 2015 Year of Consecrated life—a special year designated by Pope Francis to honor the lives and witness of religious sisters, brothers, priests, and others in consecrated life. All of the resources, including a specially commissioned hymn and consecrated life timeline, will be available for use by dioceses and parishes. NRVC will also host a convening in Rome in 2015 of international religious vocation organizations to share information and develop collaborative strategies in vocation promotion.

Holy Cross Brother Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the NRVC, expressed confidence that “by increasing the organization’s influence, broadening its support, and expanding its programming, NRVC will be better positioned to serve the church, religious communities, and most especially, those who are discerning religious life.”

In a letter to members, Bednarczyk thanked the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Board of Directors “for their vision and generous investment in the future of religious life and for their confidence in NRVC and its leadership.” 

For additional information on these and other initiatives of the National Religious Vocation Conference, visit our website at www.nrvc.net.

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The National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) was founded in 1988 as a professional organization of men and women committed to vocation awareness, invitation, and discernment to consecrated life as brothers, sisters, and priests. The NRVC has nearly 700 members, most of whom are vocation ministers for religious congregations. The NRVC serves its members by providing continuing education, resources, and services for professional growth.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was created in 1944 by international business pioneer Conrad N. Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels and left his fortune to help the world’s disadvantaged and vulnerable people. The Foundation currently conducts strategic initiatives in six priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance abuse, helping children affected by HIV and AIDS, supporting transition-age youth in foster care, and extending Conrad Hilton’s support for the work of Catholic Sisters. From its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $1 billion in grants, distributing $92 million in the U.S. and around the world in 2013.  

Chicago, Jan. 6, 2020—The GHR Foundation awarded a $200,000 grant to the Chicago-based National l Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) to provide extensive data mining and visual display of the responses to its 2020 Study on Recent Vocations, to be released in Spring 2020, which the GHR Foundation also helped fund.

With the goal of helping vocation directors in their ministry and using the most current data-mining and story-mapping software, NRVC will gather information on the newest entrants to religious life to create a vivid portrait of the characteristics, influences, and touch points that help shape the individual vocation journeys of men and women who chose to become Catholic religious sisters, brothers, and priests.

NRVC Development Director Mr. Phil Loftus recognizes this major gift “not only as an investment in NRVC, but as a commitment to using the latest technology to capture and share a fuller picture of religious life today. We are very grateful to GHR Foundation for their continued support of our mission."

NRVC hopes that the data-mapping program to be developed will have a broader application among religious communities and dioceses in creating up-to-date information about contemporary men and women religious and the ministries where they serve and the people whose lives are enhanced by their work.

The National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) was founded in 1988 as a professional organization of men and women committed to vocation awareness, invitation, and discernment to consecrated life as brothers, sisters, and priests. The NRVC serves its 1,000 members by providing continuing education, resources, and services for professional growth. The National Religious Vocation Conference serves as a catalyst for vocation discernment and the full flourishing of religious life as sisters, brothers, and priests for the ongoing transformation of the world.

GHR Foundation applies entrepreneurial creativity and universal Catholic values in the areas of health, education, and global development. Started in 1965 by Opus founders Gerald A. and Henrietta Rauenhorst, the Foundation seeks transformational change, and partners with the world’s experts to achieve impact. This results in a powerful exchange of ideas, and a community of thought leaders providing locally-driven solutions. GHR is anchored with a belief in responsibility, action, and the knowledge that we are all deeply connected. Despite global challenges, GHR meets each task with entrepreneurial optimism because the Foundation has seen the impact of strategic, thoughtful change.