With a love for his faith and a background in finance, Jacob Talley sees his new position as the director of planned giving for the Catholic Foundation of Maine as an ideal fit.

“I think the position is just that neat combination of my previous experience,” he says.

That experience included working for investment firms but also time spent in seminary, discerning for the priesthood.

Although he says he realized that wasn’t where God was calling him, he describes it as a time of great growth in his faith.

“I loved the faith before going in, but being at the seminary, I just absolutely fell in love with the faith and realized that it was the most important thing in my life,” he says.

It is that love for Christ that Jacob says he is looking forward to sharing with people as he travels around the diocese to introduce them to the work of the Catholic Foundation of Maine and the benefits of planned giving.

“I am excited about being able to go out and meet with people who share the same belief as I do,” he says. “I think a big thing will just be getting in touch with people and communicating with the faithful and going out to different parishes, meeting the priests, meeting the parishioners there, and just building relationships with them and bringing awareness of the good work that the foundation does through all its charitable endowments.”

Jacob says he has spent his first weeks on the job familiarizing himself with the foundation’s more than 130 endowments, which support everything from Catholic schools to church ministries to building maintenance. He says the reality of today’s world is that money is needed if the Church is going to flourish, and establishing or contributing to an endowment through the Catholic Foundation of Maine is a great way to help make that happen.

“There is a lot of opportunity there. It is a great way to give a lasting gift, and it’s neat to have an endowment because the parish might not need the funds immediately, but when the time comes, they can start taking distributions,” he says.

Jacob says his deep faith goes back to his upbringing. He was born in Norway, Maine, but grew up in the Delaware-Pennsylvania area where his parents made faith a priority.

“We prayed the Rosary every night as a family, and our faith was the center of our family,” he says.

Jacob attended a Catholic elementary and high school before majoring in finance and economics at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where he later earned a master’s degree in business administration.

After college, he says he began to dive deeper into his faith, as he tried to figure out who he was and who God wanted him to be. That led him to enter the seminary for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), a clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right.

Before entering seminary, he had been living in Maine, where he had always maintained ties, and after discerning that the priesthood wasn’t his call, he says he was excited to see the job posting for the director of planned giving, knowing that he wanted to remain involved with the Church.

Jacob would love to hear from you if you would like to learn more about the many opportunities available through the Catholic Foundation.