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. It operates under the auspices of Sharelink-Spiritan Worldwide Aid Foundation, Inc.
Since 2013 SOMA has distributed over $960,000 in grants in support of that work. The average grant is $9,300. The maximum individual grant is $10,000.

Spiritans do change lives!

Spiritan confreres may submit one mission-related grant application per year. A maximum of three grant applications will be accepted during the calendar year from any province when they are approved and forwarded through the province's development office.

• projects not directly supervised by Spiritan confreres
• vehicles
• personal 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

1. Requestor completes the application report and submits to SOMA, along with a letter from the provincial acknowledging and approving the project
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 below
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. 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.

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.

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 2019 SOMA distributed $206,148 to projects in 22 countries. Past results are no guarantee of future performance.

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 has also caused us to postpone our major fund raising event to 2021.