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Knights of Columbus Sets Record for Charitable Giving, Service

The Knights of Columbus announced today that it set new all-time records for charitable giving and volunteer service hours in 2007.  Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson released the results of the survey in a speech to state deputies and members of the board of directors in New Haven..

The results of the Order’s annual Survey of Fraternal Activity for the year ending December 31, 2006 show that total contributions to charity at all levels reached $144,911,781 – exceeding the previous year’s total by more $1 million.  The figure includes $31,235,220 donated by the Supreme Council, and $113,676,561 in charitable donations from state and local councils, Fourth Degree assemblies, and squire circles.

The survey also shows that the reported number of volunteer hours by Knights for charitable causes grew to 68,270,432 hours, up more than 400,000 hours from 2005.  There were 393,030 Knights of Columbus blood donors during the year, and Knights made more than 5.5 million visits to the sick and bereaved.

Cumulative figures show that during the past decade, the Knights of Columbus has donated nearly $1.28 billion to charity, and provided in excess of 612 million hours of volunteer service in support of charitable causes. The Knights of Columbus announced today that it set new all-time records for charitable giving and volunteer service hours in 2007.

The results of the Order’s Annual Survey of Fraternal Activity for the year ending December 31, 2006 show that total contributions to charity at all levels reached $144,911,781 – exceeding the previous year’s total by more $1 million.  The figure includes $31,235,220 donated by the Supreme Council, and $113,676,561 in charitable donations from state and local councils, Fourth Degree assemblies, and squire circles.

The survey also shows that the reported number of volunteer hours by Knights for charitable causes grew to 68,270,432 hours, up more than 400,000 hours from 2005.  There were 393,030 Knights of Columbus blood donors during the year, and Knights made more than 5.5 million visits to the sick and bereaved.

Cumulative figures show that during the past decade, the Knights of Columbus has donated nearly $1.28 billion to charity, and provided in excess of 612 million hours of volunteer service in support of charitable causes.

Throughout its 125-year history, the Knights of Columbus has been an effective advocate and defender of civil and religious rights for all. The Knights pioneered service to U.S. troops with the Army Hut program in the Mexican Campaign and World War I. This program would serve in later years as a model for the creation of the USO. The Knights published books on the contributions of racial minorities in the 1920s and defended Catholic education when the state of Oregon attempted to ban religious schools, the organization focused U.S. and international attention on the persecution of Catholics in Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s, and helped pioneer nationwide blood drives in the 1940s. In the 1950s, it was the Knights who spearheaded the movement to add of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance - and the organization continues to defend the presence of those words today.

Since 1975, the Knights of Columbus has funded the broadcast of the midnight Mass celebrated annually by the Pope, and in the 1980s the Knights contributed to the restoration of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

In 2001, the Knights were among the first groups to respond to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, providing $1 million in checks for emergency funds to the families of emergency responders killed in the attacks. In 2005, the Knights donated more than $10 million and hundreds of thousands of man hours to hurricane relief in the wake of Katrina and Rita.