How to create a new endowment
To provide an ongoing source of income for the care or financing of a concern that's close to your heart, the Fredonia College Foundation invites you to consider three different ways you can create an endowment (see column at right), each designed to fit your financial resources. An endowment exists in perpetuity for the benefit of the university and the special use for which you designate it. While your gift, the principal, remains invested, the income it earns is spent annually according to your wishes, to benefit SUNY Fredonia.
Endowment Basics:
- Purpose: Endowments may exist to support any aspect of university operations, but they are most often created to fund scholarships, meet the priority needs of an academic department, or provide enriched learning opportunities for students.
- Name: Endowed funds are named by the donor. They often carry the donor's name, reflect the purpose for which they were created, or are named in honor of another person or organization.
- Required size of gift: Although a minimum of $10,000 is required to establish an endowed fund, larger endowments are encouraged to provide as much assistance as possible to students.
- Additional gifts: Additional gifts may be added by you and others at any time to increase the endowment principal, and thereby increase the support for deserving students or other campus initiatives you have identified.
- Spending the endowment: The Fredonia College Foundation currently makes 5 percent of the endowment's value available annually. Earnings beyond 5 percent are used to grow the endowment's market value to offset inflation.
- The first award: One year after a fund becomes fully endowed (reaches $10,000), the permanent and on-going awards process begins, according to the wishes established by the benefactors, through a signed Memorandum of Agreement.