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Endowment — A Lasting Confession of Faith

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod   •   Mission Advancement


When the Lord calls you home, who will carry forward your values, your faith and your commitment to sharing Jesus with the world?

The LCMS can assist you in establishing or adding to an endowment — a legacy of your faith.

Endowments are a special type of charitable gift that extend the spending of a donation out over a very long period of time. The endowment continues to give support year after year to the mission and ministry work you care most about, even after the Lord brings you to your home in heaven.

Endowments can be tailored to fulfill your intentions as a contributor to the mission of the church. They can be an integral part of your Christian estate plan, and a receptacle of gifts out of assets rather than cash flow. They can be a model of Christian stewardship to inspire future generations.

A dear friend of the LCMS, Mr. Allan Ruppar, is one example of those who have used endowments as an opportunity to steward what God has given to them:

 


 

Allan’s Story

Allan Ruppar, founder of The Allan W. and Caroline H. Ruppar Foundation for Lutheran Global Mission.

While doing my estate plan several years ago, I faced the reality of seeing how richly God had blessed me and realized He had loaned to me all I have. I needed to give back.

Around the time I was doing this planning I came across Romans 10:14. Summarized, this verse asks: “If no one tells them, how will they know?” I felt led to use Romans 10:14 as my guide for giving back. Concurrently with my planning, God gave me another gift. Caroline came into my life, and at age 70 we married (me for the first time). Caroline agreed to join in going where I thought God was leading me.

Telling the Gospel to people needs to be a continuing process; thus, I looked for a way to spread out over a long time our support for mission activities. I settled on establishing and building an endowment that could support LCMS global mission activities. I found no endowment fund with the singular focus on LCMS global mission, so we created The Allan W. and Caroline H. Ruppar Foundation for Lutheran Global Mission. It is operating during our lives and is a significant beneficiary of my estate plan.

 


 

MobiusWherever you see this icon, a mobius/infinity image, on our website or our materials, we hope you see it as a symbol of a contribution that continues on. We want you to know that an option exists for setting in place ongoing support through endowment. The LCMS can help you establish a named or family endowment, or you may choose to contribute to an existing endowment that accomplishes your purposes. Look for this symbol in printed and electronic LCMS materials, including the web information pages for:

Endowment is a deeply meaningful option to consider as you contemplate your impact on the world in the name of Jesus, an impact that extends to generations still to come and a legacy of your deeply held beliefs.

One of the best ways to explore the option of endowment is through a personal conversation with one of our LCMS mission advocates (View directory), where we can listen to better understand your special interests and goals, and help craft a solution to accomplish the outcomes you want to see.

 

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The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Inc., including Mission Central (in Mapleton, Iowa), is an IRS registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity.

A contribution designated (restricted) for a specific purpose, when accepted, will be used only to fund expenses related to that purpose. Occasionally, we may receive more in contributions for a particular purpose than can be wisely applied to it in the foreseeable future or the purpose may cease to be feasible. In these situations, the LCMS will make reasonable attempts to contact contributors to apply their contribution toward another aspect of ministry that aligns closely the contributor’s goals and values. If a contributor cannot be contacted, the LCMS will use the gift to meet a similar pressing need that most closely matches the contributor's original intent.

Consistent with Synod Board policy and in recognition of a more challenging economic and philanthropic/fundraising environment due to inflationary pressure, not more than 12.5 percent of any charitable contribution will be allocated to administering gifts and communicating with contributors (compared to a not-more-than ceiling of 10.5 percent the previous fiscal year). Contributions received and accepted by the LCMS are deemed to be in agreement with this statement.

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