Endowments are established through the generosity of a donor’s financial gift. Their gift is then invested where the earnings are distributed as annual grants. The process is done in five steps:

1. An individual donor or a group of donors cumulatively make a gift that meets the $25,000 minimum requirement to initiate the investment. This minimum can be given at once or over an amount of time. Gifts can be made as stock, real estate, cash, 401K transfers, and etc. Often gifts are motivated by the IRS’s Minimum Distribution Requirement or from the finalization of one’s giving as noted in a will. Sunday School Classes have accumulated their giving and generations within a family have created endowments in honor/memory of a family member.

2. An Endowment Agreement is crafted to specify how designations will be allocated. The Foundation standards specify that up to 4% of the principal’s three-year moving average of the total market value of the individual endowment fund as long as it does not dip into the principle (aka corpus). The Principle/Corpus is the donated funds into the endowment; they are never distributed and only used for investments. The grant recipients are determined by the donor and are well documented in the Endowment Agreement.

3. The Foundation partners with the Georgia United Methodist Foundation (GUMF) who then invests the funds for greatest sustainable return; meaning, the funds are invested to establish a permanent source of income for the area of designation. Learn more about the Georgia United Methodist Foundation here: www.gumf.org

4. Each January, the GUMF provides the RUMC Foundation, Inc. the year-end financial report for each endowment. From these reports, the annual distributions are identified and communicated to areas of designation. The donor’s noted in the Endowment Agreement can obtain these reports upon request.

5. Prospective grant recipients complete an application process and the RUMC Foundation, Inc. board of directors review the requests to ensure that the grant request honors the donor’s gift intent. The Endowment Agreement may also specify exactly how the grant funds are to be approved.

Donors have designated the earnings be distributed to a variety of great causes. Our grants support Worship Arts, Children, Missions, church facilities, the donor’s childhood church, medical research, tutoring for struggling students, college scholarships and more!