The following Shine On Grants were awarded in 2021. The next round of Shine On Grants will begin on July 1, 2022. Click here to apply.

• The Msgr. O’Dwyer Retreat House is seeking a $5,000 grant from the Pacione Foundation to fund the build-out of an outdoor worship space to be used for youth retreats. The centerpiece of the worship space will be the cross used in 1995 at the Papal Mass celebrated by St. John Paul in Baltimore, an event that was orchestrated by Mark Pacione. The outdoor worship space will be used in conjunction with a separate project we are building, an outdoor ropes course. This new “Ropes & Religion” initiative will give youth an opportunity to bond over a ropes course and then gather for Mass as part of a unique outdoor retreat experience.
  • Cost of entire project $193,000
  • They have received $75,000 from the Knott Foundation.
  • Planning to break ground in Summer of 2021 and be operational by Fall of 2021
  • Has full support of the archbishop and Bishop Parker
  • Continuing to seek additional funding

The Msgr. O’Dwyer Retreat House was awarded a grant of $5,000 from The Mark D. Pacione Foundation.

• Ministry Training Source is asking for $5000 for a research project to study the current generation of ministry leaders to gain a deeper understanding of the current realities of youth and young adult ministry and those that lead this ministry on behalf of the church.  “With millennials being majority of the youth and young adult leaders serving in parish ministry, there is much to learn about their approaches and service to the Church. Findings from the first phase will inform the development of the methods and focus of the second phase of this research.”

Click here for update and click here to watch their promotion video on the research.

Ministry Training Source was awarded a grant of $5,000 from The Mark D. Pacione Foundation.

• St. Agnes Book Drive is requesting $500 donation to purchase books for children and adolescents to be given to patients of the St Agnes Pediatric Emergency Room.  The Emergency Department see and treats children ages birth to 18 from the surrounding communities and Baltimore city.
  • Mission   Books provide a diversion in an often stressful situation for children and parents.  Being sick is no fun but a story can help alleviate the anxiety while involving the parent in a comforting mode.  Sharing a story/book helps build a child’s cognitive level, family bond, self-esteem with new knowledge and desire to learn and explore.  These children and adolescents are our future youth ministers, school leaders, scholars, and so much more as the sky’s the limit.

St. Agnes Book Drive was awarded a grant of $500 from The Mark D. Pacione Foundation.

• Springtide is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization exploring the intersection of religious and human experience through expressions of community, identity, and meaning in the lives of young people (ages 13-25).  We are inquisitive listeners and respectful chroniclers whose work proceeds from evidence. 

In 2020 we released our first annual State of Religion and Young People Report.  This report is the largest representative sample in the US with 10,516 surveys completed 165 in-depth interviews.  The 2021 study will add another 10,000+ surveys and 75+ interviews.

We are seeking the Mark D. Pacione Foundation’s partnership in helping us significantly expand our reach in 2021 by providing the funding to create print copies of The State of Religion and Young People 2021: Catholic Edition, and distribute those copies to select active US bishops, diocesan directors of youth ministry as well as young adult ministry, and heads of key Catholic religious orders.  

Specifically, a partnership gift of $5,000 will allow us to achieve the following outcomes: 

1. Springtide will print and distribute 600 copies of the report to select key Catholic leaders, identified in collaboration with the foundation’s board and Springtide.  Recipients of the print copies will be invited to a VIP webinar series.  

2. Springtide will host a VIP thought-leader webinar series consisting of two (2) one-hour sessions, conducted by Springtide’s Executive Director, in partnership with the Pacione Foundation, for select Catholic youth ministry leaders. One session will be a live presentation of the findings with Q&A, a second session will be a live panel discussion of Catholic youth ministry innovators sharing how the report’s findings will reshape their approaches to youth ministry in the future, or how their innovative approaches are  showing promise for new models of ministry amid the changing religious and cultural  landscape of the US. The goal is to promote true thought-leadership, and for Springtide and the Pacione Foundation to be seen as conveners of evidence-based innovation, both within and outside the traditional structures of the Church.  

Springtide was awarded a grant of $5,000 from The Mark D. Pacione Foundation.