Scholarship endowments are sustained by earnings from an invested (endowed) donation. Endowed gifts can be donated all at once or in multiple installments over a few years. Once the endowment is fully-funded and has had time to mature (typically 3-5 years), a portion of the earnings is utilized each academic year to award one or more scholarships.
Unspent earnings remain in the endowment to foster continued growth. The original donated amount, known as the corpus, remains intact and can continue to grow through additional contributions.
Starting a Scholarship Endowment
Scholarship endowments require a minimum contribution of $25,000, payable either in a lump sum or spread over a period of up to five years. After reaching full funding, it typically takes 3-5 years for the endowment to mature and generate enough earnings to fund a scholarship. Once the endowment is mature, a portion of the earnings is withdrawn each year to award as you have directed.
If you want to begin awarding a scholarship right away, you can choose to make an additional contribution to fund annual scholarships while your endowment matures. These additional funds are fully awarded each year and do not contribute to the corpus of your endowment.
Endowment Spending Policies
Once an endowment is mature, our Finance Committee (made up of Foundation Board members) can elect to withdraw up to 5% of the 3-year rolling average of the endowment’s market value for scholarship awarding.
Contributions to an endowment do not incur a fee at the time of the donation. However, endowments incur an annual fee of up to 5% of the 3-year rolling average of the endowment’s earnings.