FAQ

1.    Why could I not find “Knights of Columbus Bishop of Pittsburgh Diocese Project” listed as a charitable program?

The chartered name (1966) was “Pittsburgh Diocese Knights of Columbus Bishop Wright Project” which is how the IRS and Charity Navigator have them identified.  In 1976, the name was officially renamed “Knights of Columbus Bishop of Pittsburgh Diocese Project”.  The IRS has not, to our knowledge, updated the name.  Charity Navigator lists us (Knights Of Columbus Bishop of Pittsburgh Diocese Project) as an “Unrated Organization” because we do not file IRS 990s.  (We are a 501(c)3 under the umbrella of the Diocese of Pittsburgh as listed in the “Kennedy Directory”.)

2.    Is the Advisory Board or Knight of Columbus salaried/compensated for their work on this project?

No.  (The Knights of Columbus volunteer their time and talents.)

3.    How are donations divided between McGuire Home and St. Anthony School Programs?

The funds from this program are provided to the Bishop of Pittsburgh who then divides them between the two beneficiary organizations.  For the last several years, the funds have been divided equally.

4.    What percentage of donations is provided to these programs?

For the last 15 years, 86% (+/- 1%) of donations are provided to the programs.  Nominally, 14% of donations went to expenses.  (Note, none of the Knights of Columbus are compensated – all expenses are for material costs, postal expenses, and the like.)  Use of the website may increase that percentage which goes to the programs.

Through its 64th year (February 2023), the project has raised $7.54+ Million and $6,270,000 (82.6%) has been provided to the beneficiary organizations.

The internal audit (financial statement) of the 2022/2023 is available (downloadable) via the link below:

2022-23-financial-statement

5.    Does the project accept employer matching funds?

Yes.  Typically, employer matching funds are limited to “educational” or “medical”/“physical” type programs.  How this is approached is that the employer match form with the donation is mailed to the project’s treasurer who, after some record-keeping effort, then provides both the check and forms to the applicable beneficiary organization – St. Anthony School Programs for “educational, and McGuire Home for “medical”/”physical”.  Thereby, the applicable beneficiary organization gets the donation via the treasurer and the matching fund is directly mailed (later) to the beneficiary organization.  Additionally, the beneficiary organization (correctly) answers all the employer match form questions.  (We call this a “direct donation” because the Bishop does not actually distribute it.)

Mail matching fund eligible donations and forms to:

“Bishop’s Project”
c/o Gary Williard, Treasurer
54 Florence Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15220-2948

Or (slower processing)
Knights of Columbus Bishop of Pittsburgh Diocese Project
ATTN:  Treasurer – Match
PO Box 9691
Pittsburgh, PA 15226-0961

6.    Can I make regular periodic donations?

Yes. Via the website’s PayPal method you can make regular periodic donations.  PayPal does charge a transaction fee for each donation.  To avoid this fee-based reduction to the donations, regular (or irregular) periodic donations can be made via the mail to the same address is question 5 wherein there is no fee for the check to be processed.

7.    Do you formally acknowledge donations?

The PayPal process provides you a method to print a receipt for donation.  Regardless, for donations over $75 (USD), the chairman will send a confirmation of the donation made.  For regular (or irregular) periodic donations, the confirmation may come from the treasurer.

8.    Do you use donor information in any other way than acknowledgements and trending?

No.  Your donor information is only used for determining who will receive acknowledgements for their donation and trending where donations are coming from (essentially if the donor is affiliated with a Knights of Columbus council or Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh parish).  The project does not get any financial record (credit/debit card information) from PayPal.  The Knights of Columbus, by policy, does not sell or redistribute donor lists to anyone (including other Knights of Columbus programs). Please view our privacy policy for more information.

9.    What will a credit card or bank statement transaction record show?

If using a credit card to make a donation via PayPal, the entry on the periodic will look like this – “PAYPAL *BISHOPSPROJ   4029357733  CA”. (The phone number may or may not include dashes.) The fact that the record shows California (“CA”) is because the donations are being collected by PayPal which is in San Jose, California.  The donation is being deposited to this project though this has caused some confusion.  Similarly, a bank statement may show “SAN JOSE CA”.  The same rationale applies to bank statements.