Matt Kramer, President & CEO, The Catholic Foundation | The Jeff Crilley Show

Jeff Crilley sits down with Matt Kramer, President and CEO of The Catholic Foundation, to trace the organization's history from its founding in 1955 by Bishop Gorman and two Dallas businessmen to its record-breaking year in 2024. Kramer explains how the Foundation's unusual lay-led governance structure — independent from the Diocese — has helped it earn lasting trust with donors across the country....

Show Notes

The Catholic Foundation was born in 1955 when a Dallas bishop did something almost unheard of — he gave up control of the money. Matt Kramer, who has led the Foundation as President and CEO since 2013, joins Jeff Crilley to explain how that decision shaped a lay-led community foundation that now manages nearly $370 million in assets.

Kramer walks through the Foundation's record-setting 2024: $52.25 million in contributions and $32 million granted to 900 organizations across the U.S. He shares specific examples of where the money goes — from building a soccer field for kids playing on broken glass in one of Dallas's poorest neighborhoods to security grants for churches and schools.

The episode includes a full scholarship speech from a Cristo Rey Dallas junior who won the Foundation's annual essay competition, delivering a personal reflection on Catholic education and hope to an audience of 1,100 people.

Kramer also makes a point that surprises many: you don't have to be Catholic to work with the Foundation. It operates as a community foundation focused on relationships over transactions, helping donors with both current giving and legacy planning.

catholicfoundation.com

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Coming up next on the Jeff Crilley Show, The Catholic Foundation has been around for seventy plus years. We're gonna be talking to the CEO and president next. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas Newsroom tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company, and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is the Jeff Crilley Show. Well, many people have heard of the Catholic Foundation, but many people are still confused on what is it? It's been around for seventy plus years, formed in 1955. It has such a rich history. I couldn't think of a better person to invite on the show than the President and CEO, Kramer. Thanks for coming on the show. Jeff, thanks for having me. Matt, Really appreciate it. Alright, let's go back to 1955. So, earliest days, who started it? Well, is interesting it is actually a historic event in the Catholic Church, because it is the only time I know a bishop has ceded power over money. So, Bishop Gorman was the Bishop of Dallas and Fort Worth Diocese at that time, the Catholic Diocese. And there was Ed Maurer and Joe Eunice were two businessmen that he got together with and said, We need a foundation that will address the growing needs of our Catholic community. And they looked at the Baptist Foundation, which was already in existence in Dallas, and they said, We want to emulate them, so let's put the Catholic spin on it. I love that. But the important piece of having a lay led organization was there is no way Bishop Gorman had the knowledge that we were going to have sexual abuse claims in the nineteen ninety's or February and so forth. So, it was just brilliant that he came up with this to have a lay led organization because we are not part of the church. The bishop is not my boss, he sits on the board, but he is not my boss. I do have a boss that changes every two years, but we are run by lay people. And what's the mission of the organization? We are there to promote compassionate charitable giving throughout the community and to serve donors. So, we help donors, people who are philanthropic that want to help the welfare of the poor, welfare of the good of society. We help donors find a better way to to conduct their charitable giving. We help them simplify it. We help them amplify it. We're the ones that have our finger on the pulse of what's going on in the community. So we offer a lot of good services. We're not like We offer similar funds like Schwab or Goldman Sachs or those types of folks, but we are not a transaction house, we are a relationship house where the donors that come to The Catholic Foundation are part of our family. Beautiful. We are going to pull up the website and as we scroll on the website you guys do so much charitable giving. Give me examples of some of the groups that you fund. Well, so let me tell you this first, This last year we granted out over $32,000,000 Wow! That was to 900 different organizations through 3,400 grants and that was across The United States. So, the philanthropic grants from our philanthropy fund, which is the origin of the foundation. We had a grant ceremony last Thursday at the grand salon at the Cathedral Shrine Of Our Lady Guadalupe downtown where we gave out $1,550,000 to 37 different Catholic organizations or organizations that serve the Catholic population here in Dallas. One of the examples, there is a group that is called Poide Network and they are downtown and they serve and teach children that are in school, but they are working on building a FIFA, hopefully with the help of FIFA, but if not they're going to still have a soccer field that we gave a grant towards for one of the poorest parts of Dallas that would not they are playing on rocks and broken glass instead of actual We soccer do a lot of security grants, unfortunately that's the case we are in today in our churches and schools and so forth. Technology, anything sticks and bricks. And I think you were telling me before the show that giving is up. Are we seeing more people donating than ever before? Contributions are up across The United States. I would tell you our last record was in 2024, we had $27,000,000 in contributions. Wow. Last year with the help of the market, with the help of the one big beautiful bill act, we almost doubled that to $52,250,000 It was the best year ever in the history of the Foundation. Incredible. Matt, I can't think of a better job than the one you have. It must feel good. I'm really blessed. It's great. And you've been doing it since 2013. Tell us about the last thirteen years. So, when I joined the Foundation, we were granting out roughly $5,000,000 a year and as I said, we granted $32,000,000 last year, which is amazing. Wow! And that's a lot of people, a lot of donors using the Foundation for their charitable giving. And so, what we've seen is a growth in that and a growth of assets. Assets have gone from roughly, when I joined about $120,000,000, we're close to $370,000,000 right now in assets. Incredible. We are going to show a video, but I want you to set this up first. So, you have a scholarship award that you grant and you know the young man that received it. Why don't you set up this clip? Tell me more. Jim Maroney from the Belo, but he had done a lot of work with Cistercian College Prep, he did a lot of work with the young Catholic professionals, and he also is a driver behind the only institute for homiletics in the world, which is at the University of Dallas, which he fundraised for and has a fund at the Catholic Foundation. So, he was honored that evening, but as part of the evening we have a competition amongst the eight Catholic high schools here in Dallas to put up their top junior student and they answer an essay or write an essay that says what does my Catholic education mean to me? And so these eight are submitted and we have a group of trustees and donors and advisory council members that actually go and research these and look at them and they make a decision on who wins the award. All the applicants get $2,500 scholarship towards their senior year and the winner gets a $10,000 gift towards their senior year. Outstanding. Okay. We found a great clip. Let's go ahead and roll that. You're doing a great job. Ladies and gentlemen, we are in no better time to use the values Catholicism has taught us than in this day and age. The world is currently in a time of chaos and conflict, not only between countries, but between people, parties, and ideologies. From the war in Ukraine and the atrocities in the Gaza Strip to American government shutdowns, corruption in the natural disasters in my parents' home country of The Philippines, and the violations of rights around the world, humanity faces injustice. Many in the world today have abandoned, are unaware of, or ignore the values that we as Catholics hold so dear. Love for one another bleeds out in protesting streets and compassion is hog tied in the back of unmarked chariots of false truths. But there is a solution to this strife, one that has existed since sixteen o six, the Catholic education. God is a mysterious being, one who we are never meant to understand, but also one who gave us free will and the right to choose our own morality. In his name, we chose to preserve his teachings and perpetuate them into the next generations. We are taught from an early age the values Jesus had preached, from the fruits of joy, peace, and kindness to the Catholic social teachings of the importance of human dignity and strength through solidarity. With this in mind, I found what Catholic education means to me, and that is hope. With all the hardships in the world, what we need most is people like ourselves to use the values we were taught in order to uplift humanity. In such a despondent time, we must ensure that the messages of kindness and compassion are continuously spread throughout the world, especially in the roles of governance and leadership. If we continue to teach the younger generations the values of Catholicism, then we will always have people who will stand up to injustice in the name of God and what is right. We must ensure that we continue to spread the teachings of Christ so the wounds of the world will heal as people lift each other up no matter their differences. With the renewed hope that this education has provided me, fear is merely a facade. It is through Catholic education and the great people it produces, including my peers in Chris Rey and beyond, that I find a better future and a better humanity. Yet hope is not the only thing Catholic education teaches me. We partake in an endeavor that many in the world cannot relate to, to find oneself through God's teaching. Today, I found myself giving this speech. I'm as someone who is hopeful for humanity's future, enabled through my Catholic faith. I would like to thank Christa Ray Dallas, my alma mater, Saint Pius the tenth, my peers and teachers who have supported me along the way, and especially my family for allowing me this opportunity and teaching me how to live through Christ. I know we are in perilous times and hope is a dying value, but I implore you to keep that value for it is the only way to grant the righteous changes we desire and to persevere in the ages to come. If you cannot see the good in the world today, then be the good in the world to ensure a better tomorrow. Thank you and have a blessed evening. So impressive. So, he was speaking in front of eleven eleven hundred people. Right. Yeah. A lot of pressure. He was the second in the family. His brother actually won in 2019. Wow. And the one who complains about these guys, because the students are always the top speaker of the evening, is the Bishop because the Bishop follows him. He says, Why do I have to follow these guys? I love it. Well, we have a few minutes left, so final thoughts. Well, I would tell you, you said it's a great job that I have, but really it's a job of stewarding the gifts of our generous donors across Dallas, but we have donors across The United States. And you don't have to be Catholic to use the Catholic Foundation. We are a community foundation and again we continue to grow. Our biggest challenge when businessmen ask me, what do you need? It's awareness. We're not Catholic charities. We are definitely a financial institution that helps people not only with their current giving, but for their legacy giving. When they want to leave something for a church or for school they want to, in perpetuity, they can use the Catholic Foundation to help them to make sure that their intentions are carried out. We build roadmaps for people. We help guide them. It's not our need to receive money, it's our need to make sure that we steward their charity and their intentions properly. So, people trust us. That's why I think we had such a growth over the last several years. There is a lot of trust in the Foundation. We have a tremendous staff of people that work and nurture. We are not a transactional house. So, like I mentioned earlier, if you call The Catholic Foundation, you're going get a voice. Actually talk to a live person, it's not going to be a voicemail jail someplace. So I would just encourage people to give us a call. It doesn't hurt to have a conversation with us. It doesn't cost anything to have a conversation with us. I will tell you we do so many different things that it does take time to learn what the foundation can do for you. But I will also tell you that after people have worked with us for even a short period of time, they're always saying, why didn't I do this earlier? Beautiful. Matt, thank you for sharing your journey with us, and thank you for doing the Lord's work. We are going to end with the website, which is catholicfoundation.com, the great Matt Kramer. Thanks for coming on the show. Jeff, thank you so much. It was a pleasure visiting with you. That's it for now. We will see you next time.