A Story of Investing in Long-Term Impact
Stewardship is about recognizing that all the gifts we receive – our skills, our families, our personalities, our treasures, and every minute of the day – are gifts from God. Steve and Elisa Baroni strive to be good stewards of the gifts they have received by giving generously back to their community.
Steve and Elisa grew up in San Jose and attended different parishes and Catholic schools. They saw stewardship modeled for them by their parents, peers and fellow parishioners. As a young married couple, they joined Saint Francis of Assisi Parish and were inspired by the example set by other couples in the parish. “Through our fellow parishioners we learned how to become actively involved in giving back beyond our parish,” says Elisa. One couple at the parish introduced them to the work of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. They were invited to join the Caritas Society where they first learned about the important programs Catholic Charities provides for people throughout Silicon Valley.
Almost 20 years later, Steve and Elisa are still steadfast supporters of Catholic Charities because they continue to see how impactful the programs are in the local community.
“Every new program we learn about – we see that they’re having a major impact in terms of meeting the needs of people here in our community and having a lasting impact,” says Steve.
Assisting those who are housing-insecure has become a focal point for their philanthropy in recent years. “We’re both native to San Jose,” notes Elisa. “We’ve seen the cost-of-living increase so much and we’ve seen how difficult it has become to reside in San Jose. Seeing my fellow teachers try to afford housing, family members who can’t afford to stay here, people in our parishes…many of them are struggling just to keep a roof over their heads. So, in recent years that’s become a significant issue that I think we as a community need to address.”
They wanted to make a more permanent gift for Catholic Charities’ programs in the area of rental assistance, but they thought a gift like that would have to wait until later – perhaps once their children were done with school or when they retired. However, when they became more familiar with how the Foundation’s Family Endowments work, they started to realize they could create a permanent gift now. They thought, “Why wait?”
So, at the end of 2021, Steve and Elisa started the Stephen and Elisa Baroni Family Endowment which will support Catholic Charities’ rental assistance program. The endowment will generate a grant every year for this purpose while the principal of the fund continues to grow.
“I think about [our philanthropy] like investing. You’re making investments in your parish, diocese and charitable organizations ,” says Steve. “We have our current philanthropy – dollars going out right away for immediate impact. But I think as we looked at our long-term strategy, we didn’t want to wait. We wanted to start making some investments now and start looking for areas of need where we could have permanent impact.”
A Family Endowment at the Foundation allows the Baronis to provide consistent, permanent support to these vital programs FOREVER.
Steve and Elisa’s Impact
“We were just thinking – if we can help keep one family housed, that would be amazing. So, if that grows over the years and the fund is able to help even more people stay housed, then that’s great. But it really was about the Foundation and Catholic Charities allowing us to have a direct impact on individual people,” says Elisa. The endowment will continue growing every year, even as it generates an annual grant.
“If [the fund] is able to grow over time and have more impact, that will be a real blessing.”
To learn more about Family Funds at the Foundation, visit catholiccf.org/family-funds