Ahead of this weekend’s CCHD collection, the Lepanto Institute urges Catholics to keep their money out of the basket.
Washington, DC (The Lepanto Institute) – Just days before parishes across the country take up the annual collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), a new report from the Lepanto Institute shows that 28 of the 89 organizations funded by the US bishops’ anti-poverty program this year are connected to abortion, LGBT ideologies, or Marxism.
The Lepanto Institute’s full 2026 report finds that $1,070,000 of the CCHD’s $3,498,000 in grants for 2025–2026, nearly a third of the total, went to organizations that violate CCHD’s own grant guidelines and Catholic moral teaching. The sum total for all money collected by these 28 groups over the years is $7,458,000.
“Every year, the bishops ask Catholics in the pews to give to the CCHD, and every year we find the same thing,” said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute. “Nearly one out of every three dollars is going to groups that fight against the very things the Church teaches. Catholics deserve to know where their money is going before they put it in the basket.”
According to the report, five grantees directly promoted abortion, 11 directly promoted LGBT ideologies, and six were organizationally committed to socialism. Many more are tied to abortion, LGBT, and Marxist causes through the coalitions they belong to. Additionally, of the organizations marked with bad leadership,16 organizations were led by boards and staff who are pro-abortion, 19 who are pro-LGBT, and six who are Marxists.
Among the grantees documented in the report:
- The Workers’ Center of Central New York, which received $50,000 for 2026, took part in a Workers World Party meeting on the “path to socialism,” publicly declared that it “fully support[s]” the 2020 riots and looting, and celebrated a campaign to expand abortion coverage.
- We Are Unchained, a Syracuse group that received $50,000 for 2025–2026, declared it was “actively working for the decriminalization of prostitution” and joined a coalition to decriminalize sex work.
- The Greater Minnesota Worker Center, which received $45,000 for 2025–2026, is chaired by a co-founder who celebrated a “victory for Planned Parenthood.”
This year’s findings are no aberration. The Lepanto Institute found 66 grantees in violation for fiscal year 2020–2021 and 67 for fiscal years 2022–2025, a span covering 395 individual grants. Through it all, the CCHD continues to deny any wrongdoing.
“The CCHD tells Catholics it has a robust vetting process, and the USCCB says every funded group is approved by the local bishop,” said Hichborn. “Either the vetting doesn’t work or they don’t want it to work. After years of the same results, the answer is the same: it’s time to shut down the CCHD once and for all.”
According to the USCCB, parishes in many dioceses will take up the CCHD collection this weekend, November 14 and 15. The Lepanto Institute is urging Catholics not to give to the collection, and instead to direct their charity to local Catholic organizations that serve the poor in full fidelity to Church teaching.
The Lepanto Institute is also renewing its call for bishops to withdraw from the CCHD collection, shutting the campaign down in their own dioceses, and for the USCCB to end the CCHD permanently.
The full 2026 report can be read here.
