From the moment of our founding in 1882, charity has been the first principle of the Knights of Columbus. We are Catholic men of faith and men of charitable action. In 2016, the Knights of Columbus set a record in charitable giving for the 18th consecutive year. Our charitable donations increased from $175 million in 2015 to a new total of $177,500,673 in 2016. In addition, we achieved our highest level of charitable service in 2016, volunteering more than 75 million hours of service. The number of service hours contributed by Knights rose in 2016 by more than a million over the previous year’s total.