The Endowment Fund
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An endowment fund is an investment fund created to deliver a stable and sustainable source of funding to support ongoing operations, and to provide a financial safety net should the organization ever face a severe financial crisis.
These funds are accumulated primarily through gifts promised in a will or another estate provision. Direct, immediate contributions are particularly welcome to build a strong foundation for the fund.
The links below provide further details about our need for the the North Chapel Endowment Fund, its purpose, and the ways in which anyone can contribute.
Why Do We Need an Endowment?
The North Chapel Endowment Fund will serve two vital purposes. First, the funds will be invested to provide a stable, reliable and growing stream of revenue to support the church and its ongoing activities. The second objective is to provide a safety net that would be accessed only in exceptional circumstances.
What Will the Endowment Achieve?
We envision a secure and sustainable future for North Chapel as an open and welcoming spiritual sanctuary, a loving church community, and a beacon of social action in our broader community. To achieve that vision, we need to create a strong financial foundation through the Endowment Fund.
How Can I Contribute to the Endowment?
Anyone can contribute to the Endowment Fund and become a member of the North Chapel Legacy Society through a provision in your estate or an immediate direct gift.
Click on the link below to learn more about how you can contribute to the Endowment, and to inform us of your commitment.
North Chapel Endowment Fund Legacy Society
Join the Legacy Society
Through generous commitments to the Endowment Fund, members of the Legacy Society enable the North Chapel to continue as the nurturing spiritual home, loving and welcoming community, and compassionate resource for our members and community that it has been for 185 years.
Why North Chapel Needs an Endowment
It all begins with an idea.
Why Are We Launching This Now?
As the past couple of years have confirmed, we live in a volatile and precarious world.
Yet throughout the pandemic, the North Chapel was able to adapt its services, programs and activities to provide care, support and sustenance to its congregation and the broader community.
It wasn’t easy.
In addition to the huge effort required to transform activities, the church was operating under a budget where our operating expenses significantly exceeded revenues. As a small congregation of fewer than 150 members, we face resource constraints that limit our capacity to achieve our ambitious aspirations.
In recent years, as the church’s membership profile has changed, so too has our financial situation: revenue from pledges has declined as a large proportion of membership has entered retirement; rental income dropped following the departure of the nursery school; and fundraising revenue has slowed as the capacity of our membership to continue high energy events such as the annual fair and the book sale has decreased.
The North Chapel Endowment Fund will serve two vital purposes.
First, the funds will be invested to provide a stable, reliable and growing stream of revenue to support the church and its ongoing activities. Our $500,000 initial target would generate an extra $25,000 a year to supplement our annual budget revenue.
The second objective is to provide a safety net that could be accessed only in exceptional circumstances—an unpredictable financial crisis, a serious legal challenge, or a catastrophic external event like the Covid pandemic. These funds could help ensure that North Chapel survived an emergency like the one that forced the church to sell the parsonage and close its doors during the Great Depression.
What the Endowment Fund Will Achieve
It all begins with an idea.
We envision a future North Chapel that has the secure and sustainable resources needed to continue its 185-year heritage as an open and welcoming spiritual sanctuary, a loving church community, and a beacon of social action in our broader community. To achieve that vision, we need to create a strong financial foundation through the Endowment Fund.
The recommended size for any nonprofit’s endowment fund is at least twice the annual budget. For North Chapel, that is approximately $500,000 – the target set for this initiative. We hope to raise this amount either in current gifts to the fund or in commitments to name North Chapel in the estate plans of our donors.
The Endowment Fund
Ensuring That the Many Wonderful Aspects of North Chapel Remain Healthy Long into the Future
A Loving Spiritual Sanctuary
The North Universalist Chapel Society offers a liberal spiritual philosophy that accepts that truth and meaning can be found in all faiths.
Sunday worship services combine music, poetry, meditative silence and inspiring reflection, and call us to lead our lives with wisdom and compassion.
Adaptability has allowed us to deliver these services online during the pandemic.
Our Meditation Chapel offers a space for meditative and contemplative practices, either individually or in scheduled sessions throughout the week.
Spiritual Exploration activities allow children them develop an ethical foundation for a lifelong search for truth and meaning.
Welcoming Fellowship
North Chapel is a welcoming community that aims to make all feel safe, respected and comfortable in being themselves.
Members and guests find connection in a variety of social, educational and spiritual forums that build relationships based on acceptance, love and support. A few examples:
The Sunday Coffee Hour is a time for connection and discussion after the service.
The Amazing Grays share thoughts and feelings about getting older.
The Church Choir is a fun-loving group whose music fills the church each Sunday.
Circle Dinners provide convivial conversation over good food.
The Divorce Support Group offers a forum for sharing and providing mutual support.
A Beacon of Social Action
Members have long put their faith into action by helping to make our community – and the world – more just, fair and sustainable.
In recent years, North Chapel has helped give birth to the Change the World Kids, Woodstock Affordable Housing, Sustainable Woodstock and Bookstock.
Nationally and internationally, North Chapel has offered direct post-hurricane support and has sponsored six Cambodian orphans.
Our commitment to Strengthening Families, Building Community has resulted in the creation of a dozen programs aimed primarily at helping the most disadvantaged families and children in our community.
How to Contribute
It all begins with an idea.
It’s easy for anyone to contribute to the North Chapel Endowment Fund and become a member of the North Chapel Legacy Society
Longer Term Endowment Gifts
For many people, the easiest way to give to the Endowment Fund is through a bequest.
You don’t have to be wealthy to leave a legacy: Anyone can make a simple gift naming the North Chapel in your will or trust. It can be defined as a specific amount, a percentage of the estate, or a residual. If you have an existing will or trust, we can provide simple language to add North Chapel as a beneficiary. If you don’t yet have a will, it’s surprisingly easy to do, and we can help.
You also can contribute by making North Chapel the beneficiary of all or part of your retirement account’s residual balance. Be aware that if you leave your IRA or 401(k) balance to family or friends, they will need to pay both income and capital gains tax on that gift. Since North Chapel is tax exempt, this asset can be an extremely efficient charitable gift.
A similar approach is to make a gift of your life insurance policy. By designating the North Chapel as the policy’s owner and beneficiary, the church will receive the full face value of the policy on your death. Meanwhile, you can claim both the current value of the policy and all future premium payments as tax deductions.
Finally, some financial instruments can be designed to let you make a gift of assets such as stocks, bonds or mutual funds in exchange for a regular stream of income that you would receive during your lifetime. One such option is the Charitable Gift Annuity, an instrument that offers a tax deduction for a gift of $25,000 or more, and then provides guaranteed lifetime income to you or a nominated recipient. We can help you set up such an agreement through the Vermont Community Foundation.
Immediate and Direct Endowment Gifts
The simplest short-term way to contribute is to make a gift of cash or appreciated securities directly into the Endowment Fund.
We also can arrange to receive direct contributions of other assets, such as real estate or personal property. Such gifts protect the donor from capital gains and income tax otherwise due, while providing a charitable tax deduction.
Another option is to make a gift of your retirement fund distributions.
If you are aged 70 and 1/2 or older, you must take a required minimum distribution (RMD) from your IRA or similar plan, which is taxed at your ordinary income rate. By gifting annually from these required RMDs to the Endowment Fund, you can avoid paying tax on a distribution of up to $100,000, while also making a valuable charitable contribution to our church.
For More Information
We can provide support and guidance on any of these tools or other financial instruments. While all such decisions should involve your financial advisor, we would be happy to answer your questions and connect you with support and advice from experts at our church and at the Vermont Community Foundation. For more information, simply contact Chris Bartlett at cbartlett@hbs.edu .
Once You Have Made Your Commitment…
Once you have made your commitment, we would like to honor you as a member of the North Chapel Legacy Society. Click on the button below to complete and submit the form confirming your legacy commitment.
The North Chapel Legacy Society
It all begins with an idea.
In Deepest Gratitude to the Members of the North Chapel Legacy Society
In their commitment to the Endowment Fund, either with a direct contribution or through a longer-term provision in their will or estate plan, these generous donors are helping to establish a fund that will not only generate a stream of revenue to support ongoing budget expenses but will ensure that in times of future challenge, the North Chapel can maintain its much-loved services, programs and community outreach.
Through their generous commitments to the Endowment Fund, the North Chapel Legacy enables the North Chapel to continue as a nurturing spiritual home, a loving and welcoming community, a compassionate resource for our members, and the invaluable resource for our community that it has been for 185 years.
North Chapel Legacy Society
Donna & John Atwood - in Memory of Leah
Barbara & Chris Bartlett
Nancy Bebo
Mary Blanton
The Byrne Foundation
Anne Dean
Bill Forster
Matt Friedman & Gayle Smith
Jenny Gelfan
Clara Gimenez
Gretchen Hall & David Sa’adah
Susan Inui & Don Ransom
Peggy Kannenstine
Chris Lloyd & Vassie Sinopoulos
Joanna & Norwood Long
Denise Lyons & Michael Stoner
John Mathews
Jack Nelson
Moira Notargiacomo
David Parker
Lynn Peterson
Peter Rousmaniere
Wendy Smith
Mary Jeanne Taylor
Wayne Thompson
Frances Uptegrove
Richard Waddell
Judy Williamson
Ann and Peter Wynia