How a Monthly Practice Became a Platform: The Story Behind OCM Foundation
Before OCM was a company, it was a habit — a monthly Corporal Works of Mercy rotation. Here's how that practice became a platform and a foundation.
Before OCM was a company, it was a habit.
Every month, my wife and I pick one of the seven Corporal Works of Mercy and do it together. Feed the hungry — so we volunteer at a food bank. Visit the sick — so we bring meals to homebound parishioners. Clothe the naked — so we organize a coat drive. Shelter the homeless — so we serve at a shelter. We've been doing this rotation for years, not as a grand charitable initiative, but as a small, recurring practice that keeps the works of mercy concrete instead of abstract.
That practice shaped how I thought about OCM from the beginning. When I was designing the platform's business model — how we'd make money, what we'd do with it, how we'd align the company's success with the parish's mission — I kept coming back to the same question: what if the platform itself could fund the Corporal Works of Mercy in every parish community?
That question became OCM Foundation.
The Model
OCM Foundation is a 501(c)(3) funded by 10% of OCM's profits. Not donations. Not grants. Not a surcharge on parishes. When OCM earns revenue through financial services — card interchange, deposit optimization, financial marketplace commissions — a tithe of that profit flows to the Foundation.
Each parish using OCM gets a designated fund within the Foundation — similar in concept to a donor-advised fund, but governed locally by the parish. The parish directs where the money goes, choosing the organizations and causes that serve their specific community's needs. OCM doesn't decide. The diocese doesn't decide. The pastor and finance council decide, because they know their neighborhood.
The organizing framework is the same one my wife and I use at our kitchen table: the seven Corporal Works of Mercy.
Feed the hungry
Food pantries, meal programs, grocery assistance.
Give drink to the thirsty
Clean water initiatives, community kitchen support.
Clothe the naked
Clothing banks, winter drives, emergency supplies.
Shelter the homeless
Shelter support, transitional housing, emergency assistance.
Visit the sick
Hospital ministry, home visitation, medical bill assistance.
Visit the imprisoned
Prison ministry, reentry support, family assistance.
Why Structure Matters
Catholic charitable work happens everywhere — St. Vincent de Paul societies, Knights of Columbus, parish outreach committees, informal networks of parishioners who show up when someone needs help. That work is beautiful and irreplaceable. But it's also often underfunded, invisible to most parishioners, and dependent on a few dedicated volunteers who carry the weight.
OCM Foundation doesn't replace any of that. It creates a sustainable funding floor underneath it. The designated fund provides recurring resources that grow as the parish's relationship with OCM grows. In a lean giving year, the Foundation fund still has money in it. When the food pantry needs to restock, there's a funded account — not a special collection that may or may not raise enough.
And because the Foundation is a 501(c)(3), additional contributions from parishioners who want to give specifically to their parish's Corporal Works of Mercy fund are tax-deductible. The platform-funded tithe is the floor, not the ceiling.
The Connection to Parishioners
Through the OCM Giving app, parishioners can see their parish's Foundation in action: how much has been distributed, to which organizations, for what purposes. They can sign up for volunteer opportunities tied to Foundation-supported programs.
This closes a loop that's missing in most parish finance. When a parishioner uses the OCM co-branded card for groceries, a portion of the interchange flows to OCM's revenue. Ten percent of OCM's profit flows to the Foundation. The parish directs those Foundation dollars to the local food pantry. The parishioner volunteers there on Saturday morning.
The chain from everyday financial activity to tangible community impact is short, visible, and personal.
What Makes This Different
Plenty of companies pledge a percentage of revenue to charity. Most are branding exercises — a donation to a national nonprofit, announced in a press release, with no local connection.
OCM Foundation is different in three ways. The money stays local — each parish's fund serves their community. The parish governs the fund — OCM built the structure and funds it, but the parish decides where it goes. And the parishioner can see and participate — impact reporting and volunteer coordination are built into the same app they use for giving.
The Bigger Idea
Every month, my wife and I still do our Corporal Works of Mercy rotation. It's small. It's local. It's consistent. OCM Foundation is the same idea, scaled to every parish on the platform: small, local, consistent acts of mercy — funded automatically, governed locally, visible to the community.
That's what "on Christ's mission" means to us. Not a tagline. A practice.
Learn more about OCM Foundation
See how the Corporal Works of Mercy framework guides our charitable mission and how each parish’s Foundation fund works.
Visit OCM Foundation