USC Dornsife College Of Letters Arts and Sciences

University of Southern California

Building the Global Sisterhood: Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Catholic Sisters Initiative Strategy

Building the Global Sisterhood: Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Catholic Sisters Initiative Strategy

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Catholic Sisters Initiative launched a five-year strategy in February 2013 to enhance the vitality of Catholic sisters, who in turn advance human development around the globe. The Sisters Initiative aims to support efforts to attract, form and retain members, develop their leadership skills and help them take advantage of the financial and social resources available to them.

“Give aid to… the sisters, who devote their love and life’s work for the good of mankind.” – Last will and testament of Conrad N. Hilton

The Foundation awarded the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC) a grant in April 2014 to evaluate the Catholic Sisters Initiative strategy over four years. As the Sisters Initiative’s Measurement, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) partner, CRCC seeks to answer the question, Does the strategy effectively increase the vitality of women religious across the globe as they advance human development?

In order to answer this question, CRCC has developed an understanding of the landscape of Catholic sisters, where the Sisters Initiative’s strategy ts into this landscape and how it can evolve. The evaluation also includes examining how the Sisters Initiative  implements its strategy and how closely aligned the grants are to the goals of the strategy.

Building the Global Sisterhood is CRCC’s first report for the Hilton Foundation about the Catholic Sisters Initiative.

Click here to download a PDF of the executive summary.

Click here to download a PDF of the full report.

CSI-CRCC_ReportCover