God is constantly calling us to find new ways of loving others as He has loved us. Whether it is through our time, talents, or treasures, there is always a group of people in need of what we have to offer.
CatholicVote has put together a list of verified Catholic organizations founded by inspiring young members of the Church with a desire to spread Christ’s love throughout the world. These organizations are seeking people like you to help further their mission.
Urban Hearts
Urban Hearts Missions, Inc. was founded in 2019 by then-25-year-old Josef Rutz and 23-year-old Jake Brownlee. Josef and Jake grew up in the same parish and throughout their lives discovered a deep sense of obligation toward the poor.
Josef began fostering friendships with the homeless men and women of Anchorage, AK during frequent trips downtown. Josef shared that a man he once encountered said that the hardest part of being homeless was that, “No one knows your name, no one shakes your hand, and no one looks you in the eye.”
Jake, encountered the poor all over the world as a seminarian and fostered a conviction to suffer with those who are suffering.
Jake and Josef eventually decided to create Urban Hearts to help young adults grow in their faith while serving the poor. Every week, the Urban Hearts missionaries hit the streets of Anchorage to live with and love the poor. They bring basic necessities to the people on the streets, but their true work is welcoming the stranger.
Urban Hearts simply strives to follow our Lord’s command to love the poor as Christ Himself and in doing so, missionaries are blessed to see the face of Christ in their homeless friends.
Donate to Urban Hearts here!
Sent Evangelization
Sent Evangelization provides Catholic pastors with the tools to reach all the souls living within their parish boundaries. It equips parishioners with a neighborhood evangelization method based on baptismal identity and focused on charity.
The organization began in 2016 on a whiteboard in Denver, CO, when Austin Habash was just a 24-year-old seminarian. A visiting priest drew a large rectangular border with a church at its center and some little houses drawn around it, highlighting the parish territory and all the souls within it. He then drew a much smaller circle showing how many in the territory actually attended church.
The visiting priest’s next question was what launched Sent Evangelization. He asked, “In the Archdiocese of Denver that’s only about 15% [who attend church], so what are we doing for everyone else?” After a long pause he said, “Well, we just go knock on their door.”
A few seminarians then began going door-to-door, and one year later, the first parish Sent Evangelization teams were launched. The Sent Evangelization mission was put on hold for a few years due to COVID, but teams are again being trained and sent out to evangelize in surrounding neighborhoods.
To donate, please contact Austin directly via email at austin@sentevangelization.org.
The Relic Project
After discovering a neglected first class relic of St. Maria Goretti in his parish, a greater question loomed in 26-year-old Anthony Di Mauro’s mind, “Could this be the same case in every diocese throughout the world? What about the relics in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant Churches?”
He then considered all the miracles and the lives of the saints and sensed a deep call within his soul to bring these saints out of the darkness and into the light. He created The Relic Project out of this deep love for the lives of the saints.
The Relic Project’s mission is to establish the world’s first international online library of first and second class relics, enabling the Church to know which saints are present and where their relics are located.
By offering secure veneration opportunities and advocating for the preservation and education of these treasures, The Relic Project aims to deepen people’s faith and unite communities across Christian sects. Through the lives of the saints, the project endeavors to bring Christ to the world.
Looking to the future, The Relic Project hopes to encourage communities throughout the world to build and establish sacred spaces for relics.
Di Mauro said:
I want to be able to visit a town in Italy and be able to go to this online library to see which relics are in that community.
To donate to The Relic Project, please click here.
The Hildegard Collective
As college roommates and music students in their early twenties, Cecilia Blackwell and Tara McDermott spent long hours discussing the difficulties of being Catholic musicians in the current culture and brainstorming possible solutions.
After graduating college, both women started their graduate degrees in music at different institutions. Still, they each felt a deep need for something to serve Catholic musicians, particularly those working in secular fields, and so they began The Hildegard Collective.
The Hildegard Collective currently hosts a variety of resources for Catholic musicians, including an active blog and the Little Sparks podcast. They are also preparing to launch an online platform on which Catholic musicians can connect directly. With a recognition that online connection can only go so far, The Hildegard Collective is actively preparing to host day retreats as well.
Click here to donate to The Hildegard Collective.
Project Zélie
Twenty-year-old Kathryn Pluta started Project Zélie during the summer of 2022. The project seeks to transform the culture at Benedictine College, specifically in the support available for pregnant and parenting students, mothers, and families in the community.
Project Zélie strives to create a community that celebrates the dignity and worth of every human life and works to aid in the flourishing of the human person, not just in words, but also through action. It seeks to collaborate with Benedictine College administration to create, improve, and enforce school policies concerning pregnant and parenting students, faculty, and families.
So far, Project Zélie efforts have included procuring parking spaces for expectant mothers on campus, connecting student parents with free babysitters so they can attend class, and working with Catholic Charities to directly respond to the material needs of families in the community.
Contigo Youth Club
As a college student, Mariah Naegele discovered a passion for helping underserved youth while coaching soccer. While earning a degree in Youth and Social Innovation at the University of Virginia, she worked as a volunteer and later in staff roles for the Boys & Girls Club and in church youth ministry.
Mariah noticed that the secular program lacked the moral values that a religious component could impart and that the church programs were not structured to serve those in greatest need.
In 2022, at the age of 27, Mariah, along with her colleague, Bulay Miñano, set out to bridge the gap between church and secular youth clubs. They created the Contigo Youth Club to provide consistent programming that cultivates virtue, community, and a relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Contigo Youth Club summer camp is structured to provide 50+ hours a week in a healthy, faith-filled environment. Through daily Mass and adoration, athletics, creative arts, academic support, and life skills development, children are encouraged to grow. There are also opportunities for recreational activities like gardening, hiking, bird-watching, boating, and more.
The afternoon program (20+ hours per week) continues those opportunities and includes academic help.
To learn more about Contigo Youth Club, or to support them financially, please click here.
Catholic Sports
Paul Spotts started Catholic Sports at the age of 28, because, like many young adults around his age, he was having a hard time making and keeping friendships of any real substance. He spent several years in campus ministry, a few months in seminary, and then found himself searching for young adult community in the “real world.”
Paul thought he was done working in ministry until a friend suggested he start a sports ministry. After first saying no, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to open himself up to the opportunity.
Paul started Catholic Sports in 2010 in Denver with 150 people participating in one kickball league. The organization has expanded to three additional cities, including San Diego, Chicago and Washington D.C., and has over 2,500 participants annually. The mission of Catholic Sports is to “Build Authentic Community through Recreational Sports.” Its recreational sports leagues allow players to enter into authentic community where they are then invited into Bible Studies to continue growing in a personal relationship with Jesus.
All of its leagues are co-ed and 22% of participants are non-Catholic. Catholic Sports has seen over 100 marital vocations and many conversions through its ministry. Catholic Sports’ vision is to cultivate a thriving young Catholic community everywhere, to grow God’s Kingdom, and to change the culture for Christ.
Saints Alive
Saints Alive was started by three best friends in 2021. With two actors, one nurse and a passion to move hearts to Christ with the stories of the saints, the mission was born. After working as actors and filmmakers in Hollywood for over five years, Alex and Tanner (both 33) left L.A. Each possessed a drive to share stories of courage, sacrifice, and love in order to transform the world, one soul at a time.
While Alex and Tanner saw secular media as it was being created, Melissa (31) saw its effects. As a pediatric nurse, she cared for countless patients consumed with anxiety and depression and in need of the light of Christ.
Saints Alive is an audio drama series that tells stories from the lives of the saints like they have never been told before.
The mission of Saints Alive is to reignite young hearts with the best stories ever written – the ones written by the hand of God. It is geared towards an audience of 6+ but enjoyed by everyone from teenagers to grandparents.
You can find more information about Saints Alive and their podcast here.
