Emmanuel Parish Endowment Fund

A. Introduction

Emmanuel Parish Endowment Fund, Inc was granted a charter in the Superior Court of Clarke County, Georgia, on April 21, 1944.  The purposes of the corporation were stated to be: “…religious, educational, and charitable, with references to the accumulation, maintenance and management of an endowment fund to be used by the corporation for the benefit, development and expansion of the work of Emmanuel Church or parish, and for missions and charity, sponsored by or associated with said Church or parish, and such other purposes as may be hereafter granted by amendment.”  In short, the Endowment Board manages and administers the funds and distributes the income to the Vestry for their discretionary giving.

Over the years a number of small funds have been established by gift and bequests for various purposes in the parish.  They were received and invested in an informal fashion until 1965 when the vestry directed that these funds be transferred to the Endowment Fund that was to be administered as the Special Funds Account within the Endowment Fund.

In 1980, the Endowment Fund received distributions from the estates of Mrs. Elizabeth VonderLieth Williams and Mrs. Mildred VonderLieth Rhodes, life-long communicants of Emmanuel Church.  These trusts were set up for the purpose of distributing income to be used for the works of the Vestry of Emmanuel Church. 

B. Governance

The Bylaws, updated and approved by the Vestry in 2007, provide for the affairs of the corporation to be conducted by a Board of Trustees composed of seven persons, all of whom shall be communicants of Emmanuel Episcopal of Athens, and one of whom shall always be the Rector of said Church.  The other six shall be chosen by the Vestry.  No Trustee may serve more than two consecutive 3-year terms, but may be elected again after at least one year’s absence from the board. 

The members of the Board of Trustees and the dates on which their three year terms expire are as follows:

The board serves at the discretion of the Vestry, but maintains itself as an independent authority to make decisions regarding the security and welfare of the Endowment accounts.  The founding Trustees intended for the Endowment to represent a blessing and so they crafted the documents to remove any potential conflicts of interest.  

C. Fund Management

Through the guidance and support from the Episcopal Church Foundation, the 2007 Trustees hired State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) to provide full discretionary investment services.  This includes custodianship, management, and limited administrative duties.  The board will meet with SSgA on a quarterly basis and monitor risk and returns.  Initially, the accepted asset allocation breakdown is 70/30 stocks to bonds.  The Manager employs a disciplined combination of active and passive investment strategies. The four separate trust accounts will be merged into one for the purposes of managing the money in a pooled trust account, thereby, attaining obvious economies of scale.  SSgA will provide quarterly and annual sub account breakdowns of values and investment results so that the four trust accounts can be reviewed separately.  Lon Rice, CPA, will continue to file the Tax Returns and provide the necessary accounting services.

In 1972, the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act (UMIFA) was conceived and later adopted by 46 of 50 states in the Union, including Georgia.  Its intent was to provide greater certainty in the administration of permanent endowment funds and to permit investment for long-term growth while preserving the ability to make short term distributions.  The Act clearly defines distributable income as growth and income from investment results.  This law accommodates Endowments that historically distributed interest and dividends only.  Therefore, it is the opinion of the board that a total return distribution policy is a responsible policy for the Endowment Funds.  The board adopted a “three year smoothing” policy:  The average of the past three year-end values of the Trust Funds would determine the level quarterly distributions for the Vestry to anticipate and commit to the works of Emmanuel. 

Distributions are reported in monthly fiscal statements prepared by the director of finance and distributed to the Vestry.  Reports of investment results are on file with the Secretary of the Board.  The Bylaws of the Emmanuel Parish Endowment Fund, Inc are on file in the church office.