How Are My Estate Gifts Used?
By board policy, estate gifts to MCH are placed in our permanent endowment fund, unless otherwise stated by the benefactor. Since the corpus of estate gifts in the permanent endowment are never spent, these gifts help ensure MCH can fulfill our mission to future generations.
Some benefactors choose to designate their estate gifts for specific uses such as the following popular choices:
- MCH endowed scholarship program. These gifts are placed in the permanent endowment but only their earnings are used to help graduates of MCH pursue their educational goals.
- Capital projects at MCH. These gifts would be used for things such as improvements, renovations and/or construction on the Waco residential campus, Boys Ranch or outreach offices throughout Texas and New Mexico.
- Program(s) at MCH. Depending on the size of the gift, the MCH Board of Directors will authorize the monies to be directed to an annual use or the creation of an endowed fund that benefits the program(s) named by the benefactor in his/her estate.
Methodist Children’s Home is committed to following the wishes of our benefactors in order to help their legacy live on through our ministry. In cases where a request cannot be fulfilled, MCH has to either decline the gift or go through a lengthy process to receive permission to reassign the monies within our ministry. Therefore, if you are interested in designating your estate gift for a specific part of our ministry, please contact MCH to ensure your intentions to positively impact the children we serve can be accomplished.
Permanent Endowment Fund
A majority of the resources in the Methodist Children’s Home (MCH) endowment fund are a result of gifts through the wills, trusts or other planned gifts of our benefactors. Thanks to the generosity of our benefactors, good stewardship of the resources entrusted to our mission and our adherence to sound investment practices, MCH benefits from a strong permanent endowment fund. The appropriations from the endowment, other endowment appropriations such as royalties and mineral rights and other planned gifts such as trust income provides more than 80 percent of the funding for our annual budget.
The strength of our endowment enables MCH to make program decisions based on what is best for children, not a dependence on government funding. The endowment protects MCH in many ways from dramatic swings in the financial markets that often force nonprofit agencies to cut services. Also, these resources give an assurance that the ministry at MCH will be viable for generations to come.
In addition to providing a strong financial foundation for this ministry, funding provided through the endowment and other appropriations ensures that no child who meets our admissions criteria is ever denied admission based on their family’s inability to pay for services.
Five Year Averages of Funding for the MCH Annual Budget
Our annual budget is funded by four sources of income: endowment appropriations, other endowment appropriations, annual revenue, and third-party trusts. Below are the average percentages of the annual budget funded by each source of income over the past five years.
- 58% Endowment Appropriations:
Appropriations from the permanent endowment that come through designated gifts from individuals and estates - 18% Other Endowment Appropriations:
Other endowment appropriations, such as royalties from property and mineral rights, donated to MCH - 16% Annual Revenue:
Unrestricted gifts, offerings, family support or state and federal income
- 8% Third-Party Trusts:
Revenue from trusts managed by a third party, such as a bank or foundation, where MCH is the beneficiary
Even with our strong permanent endowment fund and planned giving program, MCH must raise almost $5 million to fund the annual budget.
Less than 5 percent of our annual budget comes from a combination of government funds or family support. We receive no monies from United Methodist Church apportionments. Our benefactors are crucial to our ministry!