Retirement Fund for Religious

Volunteer consultants help donations to the Retirement Fund for Religious (RFR) have a greater impact on religious communities.

The National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO), sponsor of the RFR, trains and coordinates a network of roughly eighty volunteer consultants who are experts in eldercare, financial planning, and community leadership. In conjunction with the NRRO staff, they provide personal, hands-on support for religious communities in assessing and addressing specific retirement issues. In addition to offering their professional services at no charge, the consultants share their unique understanding of planning for retirement within the context of religious life.

Recently, five new volunteers received training to be consultants for the NRRO’s Planning and Implementation (P and I) Assistance program, an initiative that provides targeted financial and consultative support to religious communities that are significantly underfunded for retirement. Prior to the program’s tri-annual planning workshop, which was held in San Antonio, Texas, from January 26-29, NRRO staff members met with the volunteers to explain the P and I process and to detail the consultants’ particular roles and responsibilities. The new consultants then observed the three-day workshop, allowing them an opportunity to see the process in action and to interact and learn from veteran consultants.

Sister Fran Moore, CDP, was among the newly trained consultants. As a former provincial of the Congregation of Divine Providence in Melbourne, Kentucky, she has firsthand experience with P and I. Her community successfully completed the program in 2012, enabling them to address their property-related challenges, enhance eldercare delivery, and reduce their unfunded retirement liability by 30 percent over the last two years. Sister Fran explained that she wanted to become a volunteer consultant because she believes in the process and wants to help other communities plan for the future. “This (Pand I) was such a blessing for us that in a sense I wanted to ‘pay it forward.’ I know the pain and emotional struggle of making decisions around property and buildings and hope to be able to offer support and encouragement to others who must go through that same struggle.”

Above: The NRRO’s newest volunteer consultants are: (standing, from left) Sister Margaret Wick, OSF; Mr. Alan Stache; Sister Joyce Lehman, CPPS; (seated, from left) Sister Marie Verrilli, SND; Sister Fran Moore, CDP.