2024 Highlights
With your continued partnership, this year the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) worked as a catalyst, agent, and advocate for transformation and growth in The Episcopal Church, supporting lay and clergy members in innovative and spiritually grounded ways. In 2024, ECF also celebrated two milestones: 1) the significant 75th Anniversary of its founding and 2) the exemplary 19 years of service given by its retiring president, Donald V. Romanik.
75th Anniversary: ECF celebrated its milestone 75th Anniversary with a Gala at the International House in New York City in November. ECF continues to support Episcopal faith communities in managing endowments, providing resources, and supporting lay leadership development and formation. ECF’s mission today is to be a catalyst, agent, and advocate for transformation and growth in The Episcopal Church in innovative and spiritually grounded ways. It is a testament to what can be achieved when faith meets action. Donald V. Romanik, President for the past 19 years, was honored at the Gala. Romanik announced his retirement in 2023 after nearly two decades of dedicated service to the organization and The Episcopal Church. He ended his term at the end of 2024.
Endowment Management: ECF Endowment Management (EM) continued its remarkable growth in 2024, benefiting churches, dioceses, schools, and faith-based organizations across the country, seeking improved endowment management from a partner aligned with their mission and goals. As of September 30, assets under management reached $763 million across more than 300 clients. This year, EM welcomed a diverse array of new clients — including a sizable diocesan benefit fund — while maintaining a high client retention rate, underscoring our dedication to Episcopal faith communities and a commitment to exceptional client service.
For the second consecutive year, in recognition of its role as the leading resource on effective endowment management for Episcopal organizations, EM led the Episcopal Parish Network (EPN) Endowment Preconference and later cosponsored a series of widely attended topical webinars reflecting the breadth of EM’s experience on numerous issues that contribute to a healthy endowment. To further extend its reach across the church, EM launched a new endowment tip video series and revamped its endowment resources webpage.
Anchoring our endowment services, investment returns remained strong across the full range of portfolio offerings, and the EM team continued to grow, adding talented new senior staff to advise Episcopal endowment leaders on investment decisions that will support their organizations today and into the future.
ECF Vital Practices: ECF’s Vital Practices team works to provide the broader church with innovative resources to support and transform ministry. In 2024, the team introduced case studies, a new way to explore multiple points of view and solutions to a challenge in ministry. In conjunction with adding new toolkits on topics such as managing church assets, evangelism, and young adult ministry, ecfvp.org is beginning to take a new form. In support, Trinity Church in New York City made a leadership grant to ECF to enable us to create and share practical and future-focused tools and resources for lay and clergy Episcopal leaders in an ever-changing church and world.
Fellowship Partners Program: ECF named three new Fellows in 2024. The Rev. Ian Lasch is an autistic Episcopal priest and Ph.D. student at the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Autism and Theology. His dissertation seeks to challenge our conceptions of what it means to bear the imago Dei, the image of God, and how we might see the imago in autistic people and autistic experiences. The Rev. Beckett Leclaire is a vocational deacon and Ministry Developer for the AuSable Inclusion Center, a new Episcopal community serving marginalized people based on gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status in rural northern Michigan. Diana Moreland is the Director of Christian Formation and PhD student at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Diana has seen a need for the Church to reach out to rural congregations that have been forgotten as an essential step in the Church’s work. She has also seen the need inside The Episcopal Church for an alternative way of measuring health that does not leave vital congregations behind. Read more about the 2024 Fellows and their projects here.
Pivot Online Learning: As part of ECF’s Trinity Church Wall Street grant in 2022, this program creates a comprehensive cohort-based learning experience that is flexible, adaptable, contextual, and useful to a broad diversity of underserved communities. In the Fall of 2024, ECF took the program to the Diocese of Arkansas to introduce fifteen small and/or rural congregations to the Pivot curriculum to explore ways they can learn from each other on how to become more vital communities in their contexts. We are so excited for them!
Episcopal Pulse Survey: Throughout 2024, the Episcopal Pulse survey, a micro-survey intended to take the pulse of The Episcopal Church on the most pressing topics facing our church today, has provided valuable insights into key areas of church life, thanks to widespread participation in our surveys. Significant topics explored include engaging young adults, sharing the Christian faith, and fostering a deeper understanding of Christian formation. These findings have contributed to shaping our discussions and program direction. For a closer look at the main conclusions of this year’s Episcopal Pulse surveys, click here.
Diocesan Vitality Initiative: ECF’s Diocesan Vitality Initiative (DVI) completes a year of transformative work with four new dioceses: Louisiana, Ohio, Southwest Florida, and Utah! In September, this cohort met in the Diocese of Southwest Florida to collaborate and reflect across dioceses on their DVI work of transforming diocesan systems through the Define/Disrupt/Develop process and applied change models to their work. Reflecting on the gathering, the Rt. Rev. Shannon Duckworth of the Diocese of Louisiana said, “Being at this DVI gathering feels like a master’s level class for church development and strategic planning. Being in the room with individuals from across the church who are committed to this work with such a high level of engagement and creativity truly energizes me.”
Young Clergy Gathering: In May, ECF co-sponsored the third Young Clergy Gathering at St. Bart’s and Trinity Church in New York City. The event attracted 75 Episcopal clergy aged 40 and under from the tri-state area and as far away as San Diego, CA. Other leading sponsors for the event included The Church Pension Group (CPG), represented by CEO and President Mary Kate Wold, St. Bart’s New York, Trinity Church in New York City, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Virginia Theological Seminary, General Theological Seminary, Christian Kitchens and The Gathering of Leaders.
ECF is grateful to you, our community of supporters, as we continue to manifest new ways of being and doing Church. In 2025, under the leadership of new President and CEO Dail St. Claire, ECF will continue to walk with clergy and lay leaders to discern innovative, impactful, and sustainable ministries for all Episcopal faith communities. For more information about ECF and ways to support and partner with us, please see our website, www.ecf.org.