Foundation Purpose and Policy

The purpose of the Centennial Foundation is to receive, protect, invest and administer certain gifts entrusted to it that are intended to extend the Christian outreach of the Centennial United Methodist Church beyond the basic budgets and programs of the local congregation.

The gifted assets entrusted to it the Foundation shall protect, invest and administer those assets as a fiduciary in accordance with the direction and wishes of donors and in accord with the terms and polices applicable to the endowments it handles.

Primary Responsibilities

Gifts and Memorials to Centennial United Methodist Church (CUMC)

In cooperation with the pastors of CUMC, the Foundation will administer memorials and gifts by receiving and acknowledging such gifts. We wil provide safekeeping of these gifts until disbursed and will use best efforts to disburse funds to full the donor’s wishes. These gifts may be invested by the Foundation, but no interest will accrue to them and the initial amount of the gift will be preserved for the intended use

Gifts to the Current Year Scholarships

Gifts made to current year Scholarships will be received, acknowledge, recorded and safely kept as above gifts. At year end, they will be added to the available earning for the endowment for the annual scholarship awards.

Endowed Funds

Serparate financial accounts will be maintained for each of the endowments sub accounts. The principal funds will be pooled for investment purposes. Up to 5% of the payouts from the endowment can be distributed following the purpose and policy of the endowment on a yearly basis. Payouts will not reduce the endowed capital. This page is not an exhaustive set of all of the foundations rules and policies.

Guidelines for selecting projects to be funded

A project must, in an identifiable way, operate for the religious, charitable, benevolent and educational purposes of the CUMC.

No project or activity will be supported by the CUMC endowment which should reasonably be covered in the church operating budget or capital project.

Projects or activities covered under the church operating budget or capital project may be eligible for partial funding, if, due to error, omission or overrun, such project, facility or activity will be seriously impaired or limited in effectiveness if CUMC endowment funding is not used to correct the error, omission or overrun.

Any project must be above and beyond that normally covered by local, conference, national or international United Methodist Church activity.

No project should be funded where the identifiable support from the CUMC endowment and all other sources is not considered sufficient to assure timely and full completion.

Projects to aid narrow or special causes or those without long term relevance will not be supported.

Priority will be given to projects and activities designed to reduce the causes of societal and religious ills rather than addressing symptoms.

Enhancement of church facilities to attract, serve and/or positively influence extension of the Christian outreach may be considered worthy projects.

Priority will be given to projects that benefit the majority of the congregation and the community at large.

Projects that have short term benefits must have significant offsetting attributes.

All projects and activities must be acceptable to the Administrative Board or Board of Trustees of the Centennial United Methodist Church.