Supporting Catholic Sisters
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation seeks to enhance both the vitality of consecrated religious life for women and the impact of the services Sisters provide to the poorest and most vulnerable populations globally.
Catholic Sisters played an important and influential role in the life of our founder, and, as such, the Hilton Foundation has a significant relationship with Sisters and their work. Our investments in this area have primarily focused on supporting the direct-service ministries of Sisters worldwide through the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters and developing the business acumen and project management skills of indigenous African Sisters through the Sisters Leadership Development Initiative (SLDI).
Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has a special partner in the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters, which provides small grants to Sisters throughout the world in support of their ministries in the areas of education, the environment, health care and social services. The Fund for Sisters also provides grants to build the capacity of national and regional leadership conferences of women religious. While it has been a principal grantee of the Hilton Foundation, the Fund for Sisters is an independent organization with its own staff, governance structure, and funding guidelines.
Sisters Leadership Development Initiative
As members of missionary congregations age, retire, or otherwise leave Africa, indigenous African Sisters are increasingly called upon to serve as leaders in their congregations and communities at large. To help ensure that they are adequately prepared for this transition, Marywood University (Scranton, PA) received a Hilton Foundation grant in February 2007 on behalf of the African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC) to develop a training program for Sisters in five African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda) in the areas of finance, administration, and project management. To date, 340 Sisters from 108 congregations have graduated from the Sisters Leadership Development Initiative (SLDI).
In February 2010, we awarded a second grant to continue the development of the initiative and to extend its reach into Zambia. The goal of this next phase is to provide training to a total of 400 Sisters across six countries while offering graduates of the pilot program opportunities to develop further their newly acquired skills and competencies.
Nurturing the Call to Religious Life among Women
The Foundation is presently developing a strategy for ensuring that consecrated relgious life remains a compelling, viable option for women, especially in the Global North, where the number of Sisters has been in decline since the mid-1960s. As part of this process, we have awarded grants to the National Religious Vocation Conference, the Religious Formation Conference, and the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, among others, to help fund research and to support targeted programs that will help inform our strategic thinking. Once approved by the Board, the details of our strategy will become available on this website along with any requests for proposals, if appropriate.