Since 1988, Mary, Queen of Heaven Parish has served the Argyle and Oakleaf areas of Jacksonville’s Westside. As the parish and community have experienced tremendous growth in recent years, so has Mary, Queen of Heaven’s endowment fund at the Catholic Foundation.

When Father Philip Timlin became pastor in 2019, he knew he wanted to invest in the future of his parish. “It just made sense to consider the future needs of the parish.”  

After considering the many financial options available, he focused on building the parish endowment fund at the Catholic Foundation. Father Timlin said, “I like knowing our parish contributions are being invested with Catholic values. The four percent annual pay-out of the endowment gives me the flexibility to decide from year to year to use the annual disbursement or reinvest it, based on the needs of the parish.” 

With his vision in mind, Father Timlin knew that establishing a specific growth plan was important to rally the support of his parish faithful. Though he was confident of their generosity, the Catholic Foundation was still a bit of a “secret”, so Father Timlin began educating the faithful about the foundation. “I explained the benefits of giving to the endowment fund and the response was always so positive. I set a goal amount for the endowment fund of $100,000 and I was confident we could reach it.”

As executive director of the foundation, Patty DiSandro was keenly aware of Father Timlin’s goals for the endowment fund. “As each gift was received, we were so inspired by the generosity of this parish and Father Timlin’s commitment to its future.  We were pulling for them and excited to see them get closer and closer to their goal.”

During one of his visits to the foundation office, Father Timlin observed the cowbell that is used for celebrations and achievements. He announced, “I’m going to ring this cowbell when we reach our goal.” Several months later Father Timlin reached his goal of $100,000. Though he has yet to ring the foundation’s cowbell, we know he has celebrated reaching his goal and set new goals for building God’s kingdom. Mrs. DiSandro said, “We were happy to mail a cowbell to Father Timlin and hope he has many more reasons to ring it!”