News and events for El Hogar Projects in Honduras and El Hogar Ministries in Winchester, MA

Winchester-based El Hogar Ministries, Inc.
Chosen for 2005 Massachusetts Catalogue for Philanthropy

Click here to visit our page on the Catalog for Philanthropy web site.

(Boston, MA) Winchester-based El Hogar Ministries, Inc. has been selected as a Massachusetts 2005 Catalogue for Philanthropy charity. This year’s edition of the Catalogue profiles 72 of Massachusetts' outstanding environmental, cultural, and human service agencies as "examples of excellence" in Massachusetts philanthropy. El Hogar Ministries, Inc. was chosen from a total applicant pool of over 250 organizations.

In Honduras, 10 times more boys than girls are abandoned to live on the streets. In 1979, El Hogar de Amor y Esperanza — “The Home of Love and Hope,” a mission project of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras — took in five of those destitute boys, and gave them food, shelter, education, a trade and self-confidence. Today, 26 years later, El Hogar serves 200 boys in three centers: an elementary school, a technical institute and an agricultural school. El Hogar has graduated hundreds of young men who participate fully in Honduran society, earning middle-class wages for their families while continuing to live the values they learned at “Home.” It has a waiting list that it tries to accommodate, to save even more young lives. Its budget is austere: ,000 feeds all the boys for a week, 0 pays a teacher’s salary for one month — so even modest contributions are a significant help. If you become a donor, you will hear from the boys, and you will even have the opportunity to work more intensively with the program if you choose. This is an opportunity for you to enhance your own foreign policy.

The Catalogue, which was the first of its kind anywhere, was created by a group of leading foundations here in 1997 to help close the gap between Massachusetts’ ranks in income and in charitable giving — then the largest such disparity in the nation. To do this, in addition to the annual Catalogue itself, the project developed the nationally-known "Generosity Index"™, "Giving Massachusetts Day" proclaimed since 2001 as the day after Thanksgiving by Governors Swift and Romney, and many other "donor-friendly" tools. Since 1997, charitable giving here has doubled, from $2 billion to $4 billion, and though the Catalogue makes no claim for this growth, the Catalogue Project is widely recognized as a national leader in donor education. There are now similar Catalogues in Washington, DC, and St. Louis, MO, and others are being planned in several other philanthropic markets.

According to George McCully, President of the Catalogue, "The Catalogue is designed as a showcase for Massachusetts philanthropy, and a one-stop shop for a family's charitable giving. A single check, electronic transaction over the web or stock transfer can be allocated to as many charities as the donor pleases, and because the Catalogue is sponsored and paid-for by its philanthropic sponsors, 100% of every donation goes to the designated charities."

El Hogar Ministries, Inc. was chosen in rigorous competition by professional grantmakers, private donors, fundraisers and executive directors of charities. "Charities are selected for general excellence, cost-effectiveness, and teaching value about philanthropy," McCully said.

Reprinted with permission from the Catalog for Philanthropy