Endowment Program
The Endowment Program of the West Ohio Conference was initiated in 2007 by action of the Council on Development and the Annual Conference. The purpose of the Endowment Program is to offer to Conference organizations and agencies, churches, and members a vehicle for organizing, funding, and managing endowment funds. These organizations can transfer an existing endowment fund to the Foundation to be held and invested in the Organizational Endowment Funds. Donors may make designated gifts to these endowments at any time or may include them in their estate plans.
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Endowment FAQs
The Foundation has been serving West Ohio congregations since 1978. We provide investment management that allows investors to choose an allocation mix of equities for growth, fixed income, or a balanced fund and that are aligned with the social principles of the UMC found in the Book of Discipline. We partner with highly respected investment advisors and highly vetted fund managers to offer investors exceptional investment opportunities. Our Foundation team meets on a regular basis with our investment advisors to review reports and adjust as needed.
The Foundation currently partners with Huntington National Bank and Morgan Stanley. All investment decisions are based on our Investment Policy Statement which aligns with the Social Principles of the UMC. Performance and economic context for assets under management are reviewed quarterly by our Conference Investment Policy Committee (CIPC). The Committee meets with representatives of our investment firms and presses them on investment outlook, risk in our invested portfolios, and their returns relative to stated benchmarks. The discipline of the quarterly CIPC meetings ensures the managers are overseen closely and that any deviation from expected returns are understood.
The majority of our investment accounts are endowment funds that share the stated goal of long-term growth as well as current income. Accordingly, we recommend a significant portion of fund assets to be invested in equities and a lesser portion in fixed income assets. Historically, the balanced strategy has been allocated 55%-60% to equities and 40%-45% to fixed income. Please contact us for more information.
You may change the asset allocation of your account at any time with a written request along with two signatures from the Management Agreement Signature page.
Yes, online access is now available through Huntington Bank.
Statements are issued quarterly. Beginning in 2021, churches with Endowment funds at the Foundation may opt to receive online access through the Stellar program at Huntington Bank.
Please contact UMFWO Executive Director Susan Black at 380-223-9257 x247. Please request our Endowment Information Statement and our Investment Policy for detailed information about our Endowment Program.