Lord of Love Lutheran Church ELCA – Omaha, NE

The Endowment Fund at Lord of Love provides an ongoing source of funding for various Mission related projects. The fund is managed by a committee of five members of the congregation and advised by  the Pastor and a member of the Church Council designated by the president. Although donations can be made to the fund at any time, many church members choose to include the Endowment Fund in their estate planning.

Money is distributed to projects based on an application process. Each year the committee chooses to distribute three to five percent of the total fund assets based on the value on September 30th. The distributions will be reduced if they would result in lowering the value of the fund below $50,000. Applications for funds are taken and reviewed by the committee who decides how the money will be distributed. Contributions are made to various individuals or organizations. They cannot, however, go to general fund expenditures of Lord of Love.

The current Endowment Committee members are Paula Foster,  Gary Krause, Paul Kroll, Doug Aden, John Florea and Pastor Brad. In 2010 donations totalling 5% of the fund value, or $3,600 were made to support the following:

To support part of the tuition needs of two students in Tanzania so they can attend secondary school. The students are Reginald Stephano Mwanga and Marta Onesmno Mkumo.

To help pay for tuition to seminary school for Rebecca Sheridan.

To help pay for books and other college expenses for Adam Lueders so he can work as a counselor at Camp Carol Joy Holling.

To provide scholarships to low income children attending the Day Camp Program provided by Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries.

To provide assistance to people in Tanzania as identified by the group from Lord of Love when they are on their trip to Tanzania in February 2011.

If you have an idea for an individual or ministry that could benefit from a grant from the Endowment Fund, consider applying. Just ask one of the committee members, or look for an announcement in September. Also, please consider the Endowment Fund when you do your estate planning. As the fund continues to grow, it will be able to help more and more people every year.

Endowment Fund Grant Requests:

The next time the Endowment Committee will be accepting Grant Requests will be in September of 2011. Forms are available at the Service Center in the Narthex, or from Mary Lou. When indicating the “purpose of the grant” please state how the use of the funds will be “Mission Driven”. Money may be requested for local, regional or global mission projects. Request for grants must be submitted by November 1, 2011. The members of the committee will determine which requests will be funded. If you have any questions, please contact any of the Endowment Fund Committee members.