The MDHA Endowment was established to preserve in perpetuity (forever!) the rich traditions of good sportsmanship, healthy deer herds, hunting ethics and safe hunting practices. MDHA’s Endowment Fund consists of four separate funds to accomplish this: 1) Youth Education; 2) Wildlife/Habitat; 3) Forkhorn Camp; and 4) General Purpose. The fund itself is managed by the Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation (over 130 endowments under management) while specific oversight of the fund is provided by the MDHA Endowment Committee.
What is an “endowment”? An endowment is a fund managed to meet future needs of an organization. The fund is invested as part of a large pool of investments (that’s where the Community Foundation comes in) and a portion of the growth of the fund is returned each year to the organization to meet their current needs. Professional management by the Community Foundation ensures the original gifts and all subsequent gifts are protected, while providing distribution policies to ensure the fund continues to grow, but also ensuring a safe level of distribution is returned to the organization. In a typical scenario and under historic market conditions, a $10K gift into the MDHA Endowment Fund “now” will provide over the next 20 years nearly $10K in grants back to MDHA AND the value of that $10K gift will be up to nearly $15K. That is the power of “endowment” and how the future of an organization like MDHA is well-served to grow their endowment to as large an amount as possible.
Endowments can grow in many ways: Gifts of cash are most common – and easiest. Cash gifts generally come from checkbooks or through online donations with credit cards (Donate Now buttons). However, endowment growth is best done through thoughtful gifts of assets such as appreciated stock, naming MDHA as beneficiary for qualified retirement plans, life insurance, or other financial accounts, donations of land or collections (things of real value), Charitable Gift Annuities or other charitable trust instruments, or other creative ways through estate planning tools. The Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation has the capacity to handle these more complex gifts, so contact them at (218)999-9100 for more information or visit their website at www.gracf.org.
