If You Build It, They Will Come... Right? How KMF Can Help You Grow Your Church's Endowment Fund

“So, we have this endowment, but we aren’t getting any new gifts.”

Sound familiar?

Churches have created foundations and endowment funds for a variety of reasons, perhaps most commonly because some – or one – large donor leaves the church considerable resources either to start an endowment or church members decided that the best way to utilize the large gift was to endow it and use only a portion of the fund annually.

In either case, creators were intentional about stewardship. No doubt, more gifts were anticipated – perhaps even expected.

But what do you do if those gifts don’t materialize?

You do what every other nonprofit organization does to secure resources: you ask.

But more often than not, church members need help promoting the opportunity and making the ask.

Susanna Wesley UMC in Topeka, KS, has been partnering with the Kansas Methodist Foundation to manage their endowment. “Our Endowment Committee members are not alone in charting their funding strategies,” says Norm Klocke, chair of SWUMC’s endowment committee.

KMF not only manages the church’s endowed resources but is also assisting them with creating ways for members to give to the endowment.

How?

The church has actively promoted KMF’s Putting Your House in Order program. Several church members have participated in online Zoom cohorts and in the on-demand option.

As those members plan their estates and consider their legacies, they are invited to make Susanna Wesley UMC a recipient of their generosity.

“KMF’s staff provide a foundation of expertise to help us move ahead with inviting members to consider financial support and legacy giving,” Klick explains.

KMF has also shared messages at worship services and offered an annual calendar of stewardship communications and sermons. The church takes advantage of webinars, too.

“Congregation members can access various education modules on the KFM website. In addition, KMF provides staff persons for presentations in member group settings and during worship.”

Together, KMF and SWUMC are building opportunities for donors to make gifts to the church and its endowment. KMF can help your church do the same.

“Build it, and they will come” … we trust God’s provision — but growth still calls for faithful action.

At Susanna Wesley United Methodist Church in Topeka, leaders realized that simply having an endowment wasn’t enough to inspire new gifts. Like many churches, they had faithfully stewarded what was given — but growth required something more intentional.

That’s where Kansas Methodist Foundation stepped in. KMF not only manages the church’s endowed resources but is assisting them with creating ways for members to contribute to the endowment.

Now Hiring - Development Coach

The Kansas Methodist Foundation is currently seeking a KC Area Development Coach to join our team. If interested, please click below for the job description and how to apply.

KC Area Development Coach

Pass the Torch Scholarship Impacts Next Generation of Clergy

With aspirations of serving every seminary student in the Great Plains Conference, the Pass the Torch committee stepped closer to their goal through the growth of the scholarship fund.

Since its founding, the Pass the Torch Scholarship has provided more than $100,000 to help seminary students answer their call. Through generous gifts and memorial funds, in 2021 alone the scholarship endowment fund grew by over $14,000.

“It’s an effort on the part of retired clergy and surviving spouses to address the needs of people wanting to answer God’s call to ministry in the church, but for whom the cost of that was prohibitive,” Pass the Torch Committee Chair Rev. Gary Beach
said.

Started in the 1990s by retired pastors and surviving spouses of the Kansas West Conference, the Pass the Torch Scholarship has since expanded to serve the Great Plains Conference and provide financial support to the next generation of clergy.

“When obeying God’s call and making plans to attend seminary, I had to have faith that God would provide,” scholarship recipient Brenda Hogan said. “The cost of seminary is daunting. While still ‘dreaming’ of going to seminary, I learned about the Pass the Torch scholarship from my pastor at the time, Mark Conard. I filed it away as future help with school expenses. It was an early step in believing in the possibility of this new chapter in life. I was blessed to receive scholarship funds that have been a great help to me in furthering my
education.”

For the students receiving the scholarship, it not only helps provide financially, but also provides encouragement in the seminary journey.

“While the Pass the Torch scholarship only covers a small percentage of the annual cost of seminary, the impact is far greater,” Victor Peterson, a scholarship recipient said. “It warms my heart to know that former pastors and spouses are willing to invest in the future of the church and specifically help fund young pastors, like me, in training. Most retiring pastors are not wealthy, and there are numerous causes I’m sure they feel called to help fund. So their generosity toward me and my call both affirms my call and makes me feel valued and appreciated. Being in seminary and ministry simultaneously can be challenging and exhausting at times, but their gifts encourage me to continue pushing through.”

Brenda and Victor are just two of many scholarship recipients impacted by the generosity of past and current retired clergy and spouses.

As seminary costs continue to rise, the committee is hopeful it will be able to provide a greater impact through increasing the number of scholarships awarded and the dollar amount.

“The cost of seminary is far in excess of what we retired clergy would ever have had to pay for a seminary experience,” Gary said. “The retired clergy want to continue to beef up what we are able to do.”

The Kansas Methodist Foundation is honored to partner with the Pass the Torch committee to support the next generation of clergy through investing the scholarship endowment funds and helping administer the
scholarship program. If you are interested in joining the retired clergy in their efforts, please contact the Kansas Methodist Foundation.

Endowment Program Funds Upgrades for Live Stream Worship Service at Council Grove Dunlap UMC

When the pandemic started, members of Council Grove Dunlap UMC were not strangers to live streaming worship. However, when they resumed worship in person, they found new technology was needed to provide the in-person and online experiences they desired.

The church’s streaming worship service started with humble beginnings in 2019. A member of the congregation had a procedure that required him to be hospitalized for several months. Since he wanted to continue engaging in the weekly service, the congregation began using a cell phone and a tripod on Facebook live.

When the pandemic closed the church building, the congregation was familiar with live streaming and made quick adjustments.

“It wasn’t a leap for us at all to go to continue our live-stream worship service when they shut down buildings,” Rev. Brenda Davids, pastor of Council Grove Dunlap UMC said. “It was a bit of a leap to get it more intimate.”

Throughout the pandemic, they got better at providing a streaming option in which viewers felt a part of the service. However, when the building reopened, the camera person moving around became a distraction to those worshiping in person.

“We wanted to provide a hybrid worship service - continuing to worship with our online congregation,” Brenda said. “We have a pretty large following online now.”

As one of the only United Methodist Church in their area to offer a live stream worship service option, Council Grove found a niche broadcasting its weekly service. Although it is hard to estimate exactly how many people participate online after the livestream is ended, the Facebook recording receives numerous views throughout the week.

The congregation looked at options to provide an intimate worship experience in person and online and found a video solution with MSM Systems in Lawrence. There was only one hurdle.

“It was more money than we were expecting,” Brenda said. “We’ve had zero investment in this. We were using our own phones and Facebook live is free so we had no bank to do this project…. We had to come up with some money and that’s where we leaned back into our investments with the Foundation.”

Before an online service was on their minds, the finance committee chair had a dream of starting an endowment program. The congregation worked to start an endowment and opened investment funds with KMF.

“When we got the endowment started, I don’t think we even had $1,000,” Brenda said. “It really didn’t have anything, but what was important was starting it.” Congregation members could now leave an estate gift to the endowment fund to be used at a future date.

Through the endowment program and the faithfulness of congregation members to give, the church had immediate availability of funds to upgrade the cameras for the online service. Through these gifts, their legacy will live on in the church and community in a way they would probably never have imagined.

“Our live-stream worship service is missional,” Brenda said. “We were serving our own congregation and we were serving people who we don’t even know we’re touching. We don’t know when the next thing is going to happen where we would need a vital way to reach people.”