The Spiritan Office for Mission Advancement (SOMA), supports the Congregation’s public and charitable works of health, education, social services, and religious mission in the United States and throughout the world.
Since 2013 SOMA has distributed over $2,400,000 in support of that work.

Spiritans do change lives!

SOMA receives no funding from foundations or other entities. The funds dispersed as grants originate from United States donors, and are acquired entirely from the efforts of the Office for Mission Advancement.
Our supporters are a blessing, and allow us to continue our mission outreach.

In addition to responding to natural disasters such as cyclones, crop infestations, draughts, famines, and viral infections such as Ebola and COVID-19, SOMA’S mission priorities include:

Education
Related projects: school construction; student scholarships; desks and chairs; computer lab; training materials

Economic & Community Development
Related projects: sustainable farming; women’s’ sewing cooperative; parish bakeries; women’s’ empowerment; technical skills training

Health & Wellness
Related projects: supplemental food; emergency generators; electricity delivery; solar paneling; rain water catchment systems; boreholes; water tanks; toilet facilities; medical dispensary construction; medical equipment and supplies; supplemental feeding

Priestly Formation
Related projects: seminarian tuition support; supplemental feeding; teaching aids

Social Justice
Related projects: women and men’s rehabilitation center; cots for prison detainees; orphan care; refugee housing

Based in Houston, Texas, the Spiritan Office for Mission Advancement (SOMA), supports, solely, the Congregation’s public and charitable works of health, education, social services, and religious mission in the United States and throughout the world.

• Spiritan confreres may submit one mission-related grant application per year. A maximum of three grant applications will be accepted over a 12 month period from any circumscription, meeting the requirements that follow, when they are approved and forwarded through the conscription's development office.
• Acceptance of an application is not an indication that funding will be approved, rather that it will be considered along with all others submitted for each review cycle.
• Eligible circumscriptions must be in full compliance with all requirements of the SRL, and be in operating harmony with the United States Province.
• The maximum individual grant is $10,000.

Applications are reviewed by the Funding Approval Committee in June and December each year.

• Submissions for review in June must be received by May 15th.
• Submissions for review in December must be received by November 15th.

• projects not directly supervised by Spiritan confreres
• vehicles
• personal requests
• circumscription requests
• projects from applicants who have not provided the necessary documentation of progress, compliance with requirements, and follow up on previous projects
• construction and renovation projects that do not reflect a realistic means of providing continuous maintenance to a structure
• administrative projects (salaries, office equipment and supplies, communications equipment, offices, etc.)

1. Requestor completes the application report and submits to SOMA, along with a letter from the circumscription provincial acknowledging and approving the project Applications from Tanzania and Kenya should flow from the country's respective development departments.
2. SOMA reviews the application and provides comments for clarification
3. For large projects beyond SOMA'S funding capabilitiy, the requestor will be referred to possible other funding sources
4. Applications to be considered for funding will be reviewed as discussed above
5. Successful grantees provide banking information
6. Successful grantees sign and return the funds use terms and conditions agreement
7. Successful grantees provide progress and completion reports as required; reports with images of those the grant is benefitting and brief videos are encouraged. Every well framed picture tells a story that can be shared with donors.

SOMA also can act as a "fiscal agent" when a province is making application to a funding foundation or agency. In those cases the potential funding entity will ask the applicant to direct them to the body acting in this capacity.

Definition: a fiscal agent is an established Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that agrees to accept donations on behalf of a group that does not have IRS tax exemption. Under this arrangement, a charitable group can get more funding to perform its mission. Many people won't contribute to efforts that don't provide them with a tax exemption for their deductions, which 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status provides, and most private foundations won't make grants to non-tax-exempt organizations. While a nonprofit acting as a fiscal agent can offer numerous services as part of the arrangement, it must at least retain supervision and control over funds, making sure they are used strictly for the sponsored group's charitable work; keep records proving that funds are used for tax-exempt purposes; and insure that funds are used in a manner that furthers the fiscal agent's own charitable work.

IRS Update: the IRS now requires that all charities show a personal relationship between the applicant and the fiscal agent, and how they verified the project. This regulation is in response to the extend of fraud through email with international applicants.
The IRS will eventually audit our connections to international applicants requiring us to prove that we can verify both projects and persons.

SOMA will withhold an administrative fee equivalent to 6% of the dispersed grant.

March 2020:
2020 offers an epic challenge as the world faces a global recesssion.
The COVID-19 pandemic has and will continue to impact our donation income. It caused us to cancel our major fund raising event scheduled for October 2020.

SOMA will withhold an administrative fee equivalent to 6% of the dispersed grant. This also applies to instances where we act as your fiscal agent. Additionally, SOMA will withhold the cost of the bank wire transfer which is presently $45.

Example: on a $10,000 grant, the administrative fee would be $600 and the transfer fee $45. The grantee would then receive $9,355.

In 2020 SOMA distributed $184,600 to projects in 13 countries. The average unrestricted gift was $5,392.


Past results, however, are no guarantee of future distributions.