outreach endowment fund
FIRST FRUITS AND LAST GIFTS
The Mediator Endowment Growth Program
Dear Friends,
You may recall that about six months ago I wrote a letter to all of you about a new initiative called "The Mediator Endowment Growth Program." The letter included a brochure explaining how we could all help to assure the future of Mediator's life as a worshipping and caring community of God's people by extending our stewardship commitments beyond our mortal lives with various types of "deferred" gifts usually by means of our wills.
I am happy to report that since I wrote to you some thirty couples and individuals have been invited to attend small informal living-room dessert and coffee discussion meetings hosted by members of the Endowment Growth Committee in order to learn more about how they might participate in the new program. Many of those invited attended and have either already made gifts or are considering doing so in the future. Our dear friend, the recently deceased David Aldrich, for example, attended one of the meetings and made a gift to the Endowment Fund.
We are planning more informal sessions in parishioners' homes during the coming months. I hope that when you are invited you will attend one of these meetings. This is a relaxed way to learn how you can be involved in assuring Mediator's future and there is never any pressure to make a commitment.
Those who make gifts usually do so by provisions in their wills designating a percentage of their estate to the Mediator Endowment Fund, usually in the two to ten percent range. (The obvious advantage of this sort of gift is that if the economy is poor when we die, our estates are not overwhelmed by the gift as they could be if we bequeathed a fixed dollar amount.)
Contributors automatically become members of the Mediator Endowment Society and the Diocesan St. Matthew's Society. Their names will be placed on an attractive plaque sometime in the near future. To date we have 21 names on our list.
Phil S., Chair, Endowment Growth Committee