Purpose and Principles
The Trustees for the Diocese of Western Massachusetts is a corporation organized in 1902 to receive, manage, and dispose of monies, funds, and real estate not only of the diocese, but also for those parishes that have entrusted funds to their care. Their original gift of $100,000 from the sponsoring Diocese of Massachusetts formed the base which, with many additions, has today grown to a portfolio exceeding sixty million dollars.
Today, the diocese and the participating parishes each own approximately one half of the total assets of the Fund. The Trustees’ investment policy states that:
“The assets of the Fund are to be invested in a manner that provides the safeguards and diversity that a prudent investor would adhere to. The general instruction is that the investment managers shall exercise such judgment as persons of prudence, discretion, and intelligence exercise in the management of their property and affairs, not in regard to speculation, but in regard to the management of their capital for long-time investment purposes, giving consideration both to the protection of current and future income and the need to preserve the purchasing power of the principal and income there from. This is known as the ‘prudent man rule’ (Harvard College vs. Amory, 9 Pick 446,461[1830]).”
The Fund (consisting of the original funds left to the Corporation as a fiduciary, and of deposits by individual churches, parish organizations, and the diocese itself), administered by the Trustees for the Diocese, provides an excellent vehicle for parishes to practice responsible stewardship while receiving maximum value and protection for the funds. The Fund is particularly suited to manage the investments or endowments of local parishes. Such investments or endowments can be managed more efficiently and effectively in the aggregate than when fragmented in a variety of programs.
Participation in the Fund assures the individual parishes and the diocese of a professionally-managed fund, continuity of management, annual audits, automatic permanent records for invested funds and income, a canonically legal investment vehicle, and investment performance of historically proven results.
