Financing Social Change: The Daughters of Charity Foundation and Catholic Efforts to Disrupt Poverty in California, 1984–2015

Financing Social Change: The Daughters of Charity Foundation and Catholic Efforts to Disrupt Poverty in California, 1984-2015

Founded in France by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac in 1633, the Daughters of Charity use a holistic, multidimensional approach to combat poverty. Although this transnational community of Roman Catholic sisters has nearly 13,000 members serving in ninety-six countries, the social and political context of each region shaped its history. My research explores the Daughters’ experiences in California as they sought to reimagine their services following the disruptions of Vatican II. Developing new funding structures played a key role in these efforts, particularly as the Reagan administration reduced federal support for social services.

My presentation will explore the ways that California’s social and political landscape provided opportunities for the Daughters to innovate, creating new services and methods to finance them. Many religious communities searched for new approaches to increase private giving in the early 1980s, but the Daughters of Charity chose to establish a supporting organization, known as the Daughters of Charity Foundation, to raise funds to supplement the resource development strategies of the sisters’ schools and social services in the western United States. Traditionally, scholars of American religious history tend to minimize the business structures that undergird religious institutions but studying funding patterns offers a more complete picture of the processes that religious actors used to extend the influence of their ideals in the region. Focusing on funding highlights Catholic sisters’ abilities to drive social change, strategically wielding resources to enact their vision of a just and compassionate society.