Scholarships and Beneficiaries

Churches and other ministries are blessed to receive and benefit from bequests and other gifts that create an Endowment. A donor instructs The Foundation that the interest or earnings be used to benefit a purpose, but the principal or corpus of the fund remain intact. By law this describes what the state determines to be an Endowment. In Virginia, the state legislature has adopted the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) to help guide the proper investment of such funds as well as assist with guidance in distributing from endowments.

The Foundation helps many churches and ministries invest their endowments properly. We suggest they diversify - and not put all their eggs in one basket. Our Balanced Fund offers a low cost, diversified way to reduce risk and provide returns. While investing an endowment properly is important, we have found that proper distributions from an endowment is just as crucial. UPMIFA requires awareness of inflation and suggests the use of a rolling 3-year market value average in making distributions. In other words the spending power of the fund must rise over time to keep up with inflation.

The Foundation manages many Endowments with the purpose of expanding ministry... and we recently received the following note about one such ministry.

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April, 30, 2015
Dear Rev. Clark,

In this land of plenty, it is shocking that more than 900,000 of our brothers and sisters in Virginia didn't always know where their next meal is coming from. We are so grateful for the VAUMF's long-standing commitment to alleviating hunger in the Commonwealth through the Hunger Trust. Thank you for again selecting The Society of St. Andrew as one of the agencies through which that commitment is lived out. Through the 2015 disbursement of $895.94, The Virginia United Methodist Foundation and its donors will share 44,794 servings of nourishing food with those who need it most. Thank you for partnering with The Society of St. Andrew to serve health and hope in Christ's name.

Photo: Everyone helps bag sweet potatoes for hungry neighbors at an April 2015 SoSA crop drop, made possible by gifts like yours.

Every blessing,
Lynette Johnson
Director of Church Relations

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Dear Mr. Clark,

Please accept my thanks, on behalf of Randolph-Macon College and its students, for your scholarship gift from the Bishop Robert Blackburn Merit Scholarship Fund. We are excited to be amongst the beneficiaries of this fund, and can always put additional scholarship monies to good use. We will be sure to have the beneficiary write to Bishop Blackburn's family via The Foundation.

I know you will share my excitement that the College will enroll four new students into the A. Purnell Bailey Pre-ministerial Program this coming fall. The group is again diverse in gender, race and academic and extracurricular interests. This will bring our number of enrolled participants to 14. We currently have 27 graduates of the program of which 17 have graduated from seminary and 6 are currently enrolled in seminary. We are proud to be contributing to the increase of young clergy in the Virginia United Methodist Conference.

Sincerely,
Robert R. Lindgren
President

October 9, 2014
Dear UM Foundation of the VA Conference,

Thank you very much for your recent gift to Ferrum College. This gift has been credited to Other Scholarships.

The close of our Centennial Celebration year also marks the wonderful participation and continuing relationships with alumni, donors and friends of this great institution. As we begin "100 Years & Counting" we work together to continue the mission of our founders and promote our motto of "Not Self, But Others" of which your support truly exemplifies.

Because of your continued and generous support of Ferrum College, we are able to offer our students a superb education in a dynamic setting while adhering to our historic mission of affordability and accessibility. We can continue to make the kind of progress that will prepare students for lives of service to their communities and the nation.

Thank you again for your continued support of Ferrum and the students who attend this great College.

Sincerely,
Kimberly P. Blair
Vice President for Institutional Advancement