Following the death of Pope Francis last month, the Papal Foundation’s annual distribution of humanitarian aid will be in memory of the Holy Father’s legacy, the organization said in a press release. 

This year, the Papal Foundation — a nonprofit dedicated to serving the Holy Father’s wishes through donations to charitable initiatives of his choosing around the world — will channel $14 million in funding toward 116 projects across more than 60 countries. Projects include developing access to clean drinking water and housing, providing educational resources, restoring churches and seminaries, and constructing health care facilities in war-torn and impoverished areas. 

Customarily, representatives for the organization travel to Rome on the Friday after Divine Mercy Sunday to deliver the funding via check to the Holy Father, the president of the foundation’s board of trustees, Ward Fitzgerald, told CNA. This year, because their meeting was set to take place exactly one week after Pope Francis’ passing, they attended his funeral instead.

Fitzgerald said this year felt especially significant. “With [Pope Francis’] passing, we have a chance to be a voice for the poor — something he so powerfully embodied,” he said.

The average grant, according to Fitzgerald, is somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000. 

“We give them to schools, we give them to hospitals, we give them also to programs to help child trafficking issues or drug smuggling using children and abandoned children. We also are doing humanitarian aid relative to refugee situations and war situations in some of the poorest countries with some of the poorest people,” he said, noting that a portion of the grants often also go to clergy or religious communities whose buildings are in need of repair.

“It is well documented that [Francis] was a very loving, caring … sensitive Holy Father, and he had a heart for the poor,” Fitzgerald reflected. “He implored the laity to try to grow in their hearts to be more Christ-like, and specifically in their show of care for the poor. I think that that’s a big part of his papacy.”

“As we are all in anticipation of the next Holy Father,” he continued, “we don’t get to be Peter, but we can all be Paul … and hopefully, we are spreading the Gospel as well as spreading charity and caring for the poor around the globe as the early apostles and disciples did.” 

Grants have grown in steady increments for the past 20 years, Fitzgerald said. Since its inception in 1988, the Papal Foundation has distributed more than $250 million to over 2,800 projects designated by Pope Francis, Benedict XVI, and St. John Paul II. 

The foundation also announced this week its election of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, as chairman, and Edward Fitzgerald III, CEO and founder of the Catholic private equity firm ExCorde Capital, as president of its board of trustees. 

“The Gospel of Matthew teaches us: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,’” Dolan stated in a press release on Monday. “In a world where the distance between wealth and need continues to widen, the Stewards of St. Peter of the Papal Foundation take seriously their responsibility to serve the poor and vulnerable with compassion and faith.”