Divine Mercy Academy

February 8, 2022

Divine Providence

When enrollment trends at private schools recently took a sharp upward turn, Divine Mercy Academy was ready. The Catholic school in Belgrade just hired four new teachers and completed a capital improvement project, including a two-story addition with new classrooms, common space for assemblies, lunch and school activities, a commercial kitchen area, and restrooms.

DMA’s enrollment rose 28 percent in the past year, with Belgrade and Bozeman students enrolling as well as others from Georgia, Hawaii, Texas, and Colorado. According to a fall New York Times article, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed children out of many public school classrooms, into online instruction, homeschooling, and private schools offering in-person education.

Megan Stout, chair of the DMA board, says, “With the completion of this addition, Divine Mercy Academy expanded instruction into high school and broadened offerings for our preschool and K-8 classrooms. The new space allows us to accept more students in those younger grades, and it freed up a space for a dedicated science lab, which we wanted especially for upper-level science courses.”

The new high school program is based on the Catholic intellectual tradition, offering classes in Theology, Philosophy, Math, Science, Literature, Composition, and History.

Eligibility Criteria

Tax status: We only fund work done by organizations ruled to have tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Geographic location: In most cases, our funding is limited to organizations in Montana. We will occasionally provide funding to organizations that operate nationally, when their work aligns with our focus areas and impacts the nation as a whole. We rarely fund work overseas unless we have a personal connection with the group doing the work.

Funding amounts: We do not generally fund projects where we are the sole providers of funding, nor do we like to account for more than 50% of the budget for a project (and in most cases, less). In addition, we prefer to start with smaller amounts for organizations that we have not worked with in the past.

Focus areas: We limit our funding to work that falls within one of our focus areas:

Jobs, Education, and Entrepreneurship

Valuing Families and the Vulnerable

Christian Outreach and Discipleship

Bozeman Arts and Culture

If your project aligns with our criteria, press the button below:

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