Endowment News

The Endowment Committee is happy to announce that grants to six applicants for the church year 2022-2023 were approved by the Board of Trustees at the June meeting. Here is the LINK to our Endowment webpage with the list of new grants.

• Building & Grounds: $15,000 for repairs and improvements expenses expected over the course of this year
• Worship Arts: $7,000 for Choir Section Leaders expense (with the remaining cost of that program coming from the Music Fund)
• Garden Team: $1,380 for plants, tools and mulch to support various UCE gardens and the Cahill vegetable garden (which supports food pantries)
• Immigrant Solidarity (Refugee Support Team): $5,950 for rent and other expenses for 4 months for an Afghan refugee family in great need of support
• REAL/Prison Ministry: $7,500 for READI For Re-Entry, a program to support Chicago-area incarcerated men reentering society. Our grant will be used to pay interns serving as peer-to-peer mentors.
• Food and Shelter Team: $1,450 to cover cost of purchased meals for the two fall Soup Kitchens held at UCE

The next application deadline is October 31.  If your team would like to submit an application, be sure to be in touch with Endowment early for guidance.

As of the new church year effective July 1, your elected Endowment Trustees are Bill Hartgering and Susan Comstock (co-chairs), and Jessica Wingader. Additional Committee members are Jane Kenamore, Margaret Schatz and Bob Seyfried. We expect to have a very busy year working with the Board of Trustees and the congregation on the suggestions expected from the Endowment Task Force.

Many thanks to Jim Clark, who is stepping down from the Committee in September after 10 years of service. We’d also like to acknowledge the service of Will Van Dyke, Barbara Butz and Tom Hempfling who all stepped down from the Committee in June.  They all contributed wise counsel and tremendous energy as they helped guide the Endowment Committee from its modest beginnings to the much larger fund and more structured approach we have today.

For more information on Endowment, go to our webpage under the Giving tab on the UCE website, or email us at endowment@ucevanston.org