Mission Endowment Fund

 A core value of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church is that our mission and ministry is not just about what happens inside our walls. Mission and ministry happens whenever and wherever God’s people impact the lives of those around us. We do that in the work of the congregation in many and various ways. We also do that in our lives, each serving as faithful disciples of Jesus.

And we do that when we support the work of other organizations that meet human needs around us, and across the world!

Years ago Our Savior’s established its “Mission Endowment Fund.” The Fund receives gifts, including undesignated bequests, and places them in the ELCA Pooled Trust, a professionally managed investment vehicle. The proceeds from the Fund are distributed each year, with well over half of the distribution reaching outside the congregation, through community organizations and ministries of the ELCA.

Essentially gifts to the Fund are held in perpetuity, but through the earnings of the Fund, these gifts continue to touch lives for years to come! The Fund is a way of proclaiming a legacy of generosity and grace grounded in God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.

Since its inception over twenty years ago, the Fund has distributed over $240,000. All the work of the Fund is separate from the regular operation budget of the congregation, and is directed by a special committee elected by the congregation.  The committee oversees the fund, and recommends distribution, but the congregation gives final approval.

For 2023 the fund distribution in early 2024 included:

• Care and Share Food Pantry   $750
• Clothes Closet – Our Savior’s/La Crosse   $750
• La Crosse Warming Center   $2000
• New Horizons   $1000
• St Claire Health Mission   $1000
• St Claire Health Mission Rotary Mobile Clinic   $600
• Sleep in Heavenly Peace   $1000
• Sleep in Heavenly Peace build support   $250
• Sugar Creek Bible Camp   $2000
• Sugar Creek Campership Fund at Our Savior’s/West Salem   $1000
• ELCA World Hunger   $2000
• La Crosse Area Synod Children’s Ministry Video Project   $700
• Our Savior’s Capital Improvements   $ 6000

Distributions typically take place in early February after approval at the annual meeting.  December.  The 2023 distribution totaled $18,800.

How can you make a gift to make a difference in our world? The Mission Endowment Fund accepts a variety of gifts.
• Cash – memorializing or honoring someone with a gift of cash, or just a gift “to the glory of God!”
• Bequests – remembering the Fund in estate planning.
• Insurance – naming the Fund as the beneficiary of an insurance policy.
• Real Estate/Personal Property – giving gifts of property.
• Securities – a gift of stock or other securities to the Fund.
• Life Income Agreements – making a gift while maintaining income.

For more information on the Mission Endowment Fund, and how you can be a part of this work, contact Pastor Jon at Our Savior’s.

Or…if you’d prefer to be anonymous to the congregation…you can learn more about how a particular gift can accomplish your purpose and yet work for you in your situation by contacting Cynthia Halverson, Regional Gift Planner for the ELCA Foundation, at cynthia.halverson@elca.org or 773-380-2572. Cynthia’s work is confidential.  She charges no fee and sells no product – she just helps you figure out what directions to consider with your charitable giving.

As always, consult your attorney or accountant for tax implications and to make sure your giving is the way you want it to be!

But why? Why do all this?

• To express the gratitude, love and appreciation toward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the work of Jesus accomplished, over many years past and many years to come, through this congregation.
• To memorialize loved ones with greater permanence than with a one-time gift.
• To recognize a special event such as an anniversary, with a significant and lasting gift.
• To expand the ministry of the church.
• To contribute to the benevolent opportunities in the life of the congregation, while at the same time taking advantage of available tax benefits.

We invite your support of this ministry through new gifts to the Mission Endowment Fund. Working together we make a big difference year after year!

For more information on the Mission Endowment Fund, contact the church office, or one of the pastors.