Mexican American Catholic College Celebrates San Antonio Nonprofits

Mexican American Catholic College Celebrates San Antonio Nonprofits highlights MACC’s commitment to the River City’s charitable sector.

As planning began at the beginning of the year, Louis Fawcett and I were thinking in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 San Antonio nonprofit leaders participating in the Major Gifts Ramp-Up Conference planned for July 23-24, 2025. We agreed that if attendance grew beyond that level that would be a welcome problem.

We knew we were heading in the direction of record attendance when in short order, Association of Fundraising Professionals – San Antonio, The Nonprofit Council and Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce signed on to enthusiastically promote participation among their respective memberships. Registration grew so quickly we were forced to scamper for venues to accommodate such a large audience composed of more than 125 professional and volunteer nonprofit leaders.

VISIT HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MAJOR GIFTS RAMP-UP SAN ANTONIO

“Be careful what you wish for.” That time tested adage came into sharp focus as interest mushroomed, and the San Antonio based MGRU outgrew the capacity of its first two designated venues.

Mexican American Catholic College Celebrates San Antonio Nonprofits

Exasperating the situation is the reality that mid-summer is the peak season for numerous nonprofits who are overflowing with heavy traffic from longstanding youth camps and programs and preventing them from providing suitable venues.

So, we reached out to our good friend, Father Juan Molina, President and CEO of the Mexican American Catholic College. Connected by Father David Garcia, one of San Antonio’s most prolific and joyful fundraisers, Eskin Fundraising Training totally enjoyed a productive 10 Simple Fundraising Lessons training session with MACC administration, faculty and staff in April 2023.

We explained our situation and the entire MACC team stepped up generously and graciously in accommodating every conceivable venue requirement including comfortable classroom seating for a huge crowd, computer and projection equipment, state of the art sound system, unlimited Wi-Fi access, space for refreshments and even overnight lodging.

The entire San Antonio social sector joins together in expressing its heartfelt gratitude to MACC for the inspiring way they are making this conference possible for such a broad range of professional and volunteer nonprofit leaders to meet, learn and grow together.

Padre Juan J. Molina, PhD

“As soon as Jim contacted me, we were delighted to partner in hosting this largest-ever fundraising conference uniting the entire San Antonio nonprofit sector, “ commented Father Molina. “We champion the shared vision that when nonprofits thrive, San Antonio thrives.”

Perhaps, not as well-known as it deserves to be, Mexican American Catholic College was founded in 1972 by the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Texas Catholic Conference as the Mexican American Cultural Center for pastoral formation and language study. At the time, there were no pastoral materials for the growing Spanish speaking communities around the United States. Without well trained leaders and a lack of understanding of the Hispanic culture and traditions, the need for transformative agents seemed insurmountable.  For that reason, PADRES and Las Hermanas, a Mexican American priests’ organization and a religious women’s group, respectively, worked with the Texas Catholic Conference and the Archdiocese of San Antonio to create MACC, a cultural center focused on opportunity and need.

MACC quickly became a national center for theological education and the catalyst for development of Hispanic Ministry throughout the U.S.  In the 1990’s the mission expanded to address systemic racism and foster intercultural understanding through a ministerial formation program accredited by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Certification and Accreditation, and in 2008 it became a Catholic college, the first post-secondary institution in the country to offer a biliterate Bachelor of Arts. MACC later joined with the University of Incarnate Word to offer the bachelor’s and the master’s degree as a collaborative effort.

VISIT HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MAJOR GIFTS RAMP-UP SAN ANTONIO

MACC shines as the first Catholic center in the U.S. to serve and provide resources to Hispanics, its transformation from a cultural center into a college, and the impact it is making today in preparing leaders in Hispanic ministry as a cultural academic center to help the large population of Catholics in this country.

It has robustly proved itself in the resource development arena. Last year MACC was awarded a $6.29 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative. The grant will support MACC’s project Caminando Juntos: Accompanying Rural and Small-Town Ministry Leaders, an initiative designed to provide resources to help churches in rural areas and small towns enhance the vitality of their ministries and strengthen the leadership of pastors and lay leaders who guide them. The Caminando Juntos project will focus on strengthening and expanding the outreach of twelve Roman Catholic dioceses in rural and small-town areas in the states of Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The project’s central goal is to build local capacity for effective ministry in small-town and rural-serving parishes, with a particular emphasis on developing Hispanic Ministry, young adults, and lay pastoral leaders.

Wonderful chemistry has developed with Father Juan. Being Jewish and Father Juan being familiar with our faith, values and culture has reinforced San Antonio’s splendid tradition of interfaith and ecumenical collaboration.

What we cherish about working with Father Juan is the instant ability to understand the big picture and support the interests of the community at large. In the Jewish faith we like to refer to an individual of high integrity and honor as a “Mensch.” Fittingly he is Mensch Molina to us.

VISIT HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MAJOR GIFTS RAMP-UP SAN ANTONIO

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