Our Endowment Is Our Future

And you play an important role in both.

The Sisters of Charity do not believe in saving for a rainy day. We prefer to think of it as saving for the future, rain or shine.

We're not talking about squirreling away some funds just in case we encounter tough times down the road. And we're not talking about a “money–in, money–out” approach to covering our day-to-day operating expenses.

We're talking about the future of our mission of charity. We're talking about expanding our programs, extending our mission, and reaching out to greater numbers of people to help in more effective and exciting ways.

We're talking about building endowment.

What is Endowment?

An endowment is a permanent fund that provides annual support to the Sisters of Charity. It serves a similar purpose to the kind of saving your family does when you establish a retirement plan or set up a savings account. It is how we prudently set money aside to make our future secure.

Unlike a savings account, however, an endowment lasts in perpetuity so that a regular stream of support is available to the Sisters of Charity every year—now and for decades, or even centuries, to come.

It enables us to pursue our mission in bigger and better ways.

How Endowment Giving Works: An Example

  1. Imagine you leave the Sisters of Charity a gift of $10,000 through your will.
  2. You direct this gift to be used to renovate a new building.
  3. The Sisters of Charity add your planned gift to our endowment and invest it to get the best return possible.
  4. In the future, we employ income from your gift to accomplish the purpose you specified. And your endowment fund remains intact so that we can use its next year's income to pay for next year's expenses.
  5. Because your fund remains invested in our endowment in perpetuity, it may very well grow over time, yielding greater amounts of income to help us achieve our mission in bigger and better ways. It's truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Yes, annual support is critical to help the Sisters of Charity meet our daily expenses. But a permanent endowment is something that short-term, “money–in, money–out” giving can't accomplish. The above is only a modest example of how endowment giving makes transformative changes possible—new buildings, new programs, new staff, you name it!

Planned Gifts Build Endowment

There are many ways to create an endowment gift. Outright gifts of cash and appreciated securities, for example, provide an immediate boost to our endowment and are gratefully received. But one of the best ways to make a meaningful endowment gift (and reap some personal benefits as well) is to make a “planned gift”.

Planned gifts include gifts created through your will, living trust, retirement plan or life insurance policy. Also included are giving tools we call “gifts that pay you back” such as charitable trusts and gift annuities that provide you with an income stream for the rest of your life.

Some planned gifts entitle you to an immediate income tax deduction; others provide flexibility during your lifetime and can provide benefits to your estate and your heirs. All of them enable you to create a philanthropic legacy much more meaningful that you may have ever imagined.

The Sisters of Charity will be pleased to talk with you confidentially about the opportunities for you to support our endowment. We will also be happy to share more information with you about planned gifts and how they can meet your personal, financial and philanthropic goals. Please contact us. And we invite you to look further into these Gifts Anyone Can Make.

Thank you for your interest and support. The gifts you plan today will create a solid foundation for the Sisters of Charity tomorrow and far into the future.