Serve
Listed organizations.
A prototype directory. Catholic and secular or community organizations, presented with equal clarity and their affiliation always named. Records here are source listings and directory links, not organizations we have independently verified. A listing is not an endorsement, and independent verification is required before you rely on it.
These are prototype records. Being listed here means an organization's name and a link were entered into this directory. It does not mean we have inspected the organization, confirmed its charitable standing, spoken to anyone there, or endorsed what it publishes. Check the organization yourself before relying on it.
What a listing does and does not mean
The honest state of this directory while the site is a prototype.
No independent verification process is running yet. Nothing on this page should be read as a claim that a person inspected an organization, confirmed its nonprofit registration, checked a diocesan affiliation, or reviewed its safeguarding practices. When that process exists, it will be described here plainly and the labels on the listings will change with it.
What a record does mean is narrow: an organization's name, its stated affiliation, a description, and a link were entered into the directory from a public source. Details go out of date, links move, and services close. Treat a listing as a lead to check, never as a guarantee.
Before contacting any organization for help or offering it your time or money, look at its own official site, confirm it operates where you are, and ask directly about screening, supervision, and safeguarding. For work with children, elders, or people in crisis, ask what background checks and training the organization requires of its own volunteers.
Who is eligible: Catholic and secular alike
Both Catholic and secular or community organizations are eligible, and both are held to the same verification standard. Affiliation is always named on the listing so you are never surprised by it. Some people are looking for explicitly Catholic care, a parish, a religious order, Catholic Charities, a diocesan office. Others need help from an organization with no religious framing at all, sometimes because a religious setting is part of what harmed them. Both needs are legitimate, and neither is treated as a lesser option here.
A Catholic organization is listed as Catholic when its Catholic identity is publicly documented by the organization itself or by a diocese, religious institute, or Catholic association. We do not attach the word Catholic to a group that has not claimed it publicly, and we do not remove it from a group that has.
A secular organization is not required to align with Catholic teaching to be listed for practical help such as shelter, food, legal aid, medical care, or crisis support. Naming a secular resource is not an endorsement of everything it advocates, and we say so plainly rather than quietly hiding the tension. We do exclude organizations that practice or promote coercive change efforts aimed at a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, that require religious participation as a condition of emergency assistance, or that publicly demean the people they serve.
Donation and safeguarding checks
When a listing includes a way to give, the donation link always points to the organization's own official domain or to its own named payment processor page reached from that domain. We never route a gift through this site, we never collect a donation on an organization's behalf, and we take no percentage of anything you give. If we cannot find a giving page on the organization's own domain, the listing simply has no donation link.
Before giving, it is reasonable to check a few things yourself. Look for the organization's most recent public financial disclosure, an annual report or a filed return, and read what proportion goes to program work. Confirm the legal name on the payment page matches the organization you intended to support. Prefer a giving page on the organization's own domain over a link you received by message or email. Be cautious with any request for a wire transfer, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or a payment app transfer to an individual person, since those methods are difficult to reverse and are common in charity fraud.
For safeguarding, we check whether the organization publishes a child and vulnerable-adult protection policy, a code of conduct, or a public reporting pathway for misconduct. Where an organization publishes one, we expect the basics: screening and training before contact with minors or vulnerable adults, a rule against unsupervised one-to-one contact, a named way to report a concern that does not depend on the goodwill of the person you are reporting, and a statement that suspected abuse is reported to civil authorities. Where an organization publishes nothing about safeguarding, that absence is itself information, and it is one reason roles involving vulnerable people are treated more strictly on the opportunities page.
Red flags worth taking seriously
You do not need to be an investigator to notice most warning signs. Treat these as reasons to slow down, ask questions, or walk away, whether or not the organization appears in this directory.
- Pressure and urgency. Being told that you must decide now, give now, or sign now, or that hesitation shows a lack of faith.
- Conditional charity. Help offered only if you attend a service, convert, confess something, or agree publicly with the organization's positions.
- Secrecy about money. No public financial information, no legal name on the payment page, or a request to send funds to a personal account.
- Isolation of the people served. Discouraging contact with family, friends, a lawyer, a doctor, or another parish, or asking you to keep your involvement private.
- No boundaries around vulnerable people. Unscreened volunteers alone with minors, home visits without a second adult, or leaders who take offense at safeguarding questions.
- A single unaccountable leader. No board, no oversight body, no diocesan or association relationship, and no way to raise a concern above the person you are concerned about.
- Contempt for the people it serves in its own public writing, or blame directed at those seeking help.
- A refusal to answer plain questions. Any organization worth your time can say who runs it, how it is funded, and what happens if you report a problem.
If something here is wrong, expired, or troubling, tell us. Reports go into a queue for review by whoever is maintaining the directory. We cannot promise a response time while the site is a prototype, a report does not remove a listing on its own, and we will not publish an accusation we cannot substantiate, but we would rather remove a listing than leave a bad one standing.
Staleness, expiry, and the limits of this directory
Records carry internal dates, which reflect only when a record was entered or edited. They are not verification dates and are not shown as such. Where an expiry has been set, a record stops appearing publicly once it passes, rather than quietly aging in place.
Staff change, programs close, funding ends, phone numbers are reassigned, and a shelter that had beds in the spring may have none tonight. Before you travel, call ahead and confirm hours, eligibility, and whether the service still exists. If you find that a listing is out of date, the report control on that listing is the fastest way to get it looked at.
The honest limits of this directory: it is small, it is hand-built, and it is not comprehensive. Its geographic coverage is uneven, and absence from it means nothing about an organization's quality. We do not inspect facilities, audit finances, interview staff, review personnel files, or investigate complaints. We cannot tell you whether a particular parish or agency will be safe for you personally. For urgent needs, the Find help page and the safety page are better starting points than a directory search, and if you are in immediate danger, contact emergency services in your area first.