St. Matthew's Foundation

St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church Foundation, Inc.

The Foundation is a religious and charitable corporation established to solicit, hold, manage, invest and expend endowment funds and other gifts, grants and bequests for the maintenance and benefit of St. Matthew's and its religious, charitable, or related programs and activities.

The St. Matthew's Foundation Board of Directors are:  Joyce Biehn, Sue Bisswurm. Scott Falk, Tod Kirtley (treasurer), Gordon Moehling, Thad Murrah (council representative to the Board), Sean Rutter, ane Sandstrom, Bob Storm (secretary), and Mark Young (president).

Grants are considered by the Foundation pursuant to requests from the St. Matthew's Church Council. In 2009, at the church council’s request, the Foundation provided $17,325 to the Benevolence Ministry of St. Matthew’s. Funds were distributed to Reformation Lutheran Church, Tosa Interfaith,
Conference fees, and Youth Scholarships.

The Foundation’s balance as of Dec. 31, 2009, was approximately $847,000. There were contributions totaling $30 this past year. The Foundation provided a loan of approximately $145,000 to St. Matthew’s in September to pay off the existing mortgage loan. The loan is to be paid back at the rate of 5%, which is beneficial to both the church and the Foundation.

Over the course of the past year the Foundation has been working on developing and implementing a new investment policy. Previously, the investment practice restricted investments to CDs and money market accounts. The Board researched how other churches and non-profit organizations invested their funds and, after careful consideration, concluded that the Foundation would benefit from a more diversified approach. The goal of the new investment policy is to allocate approximately 40% of the fund in equities, 50% in fixed income, and 10% in cash. The implementation of this policy has just begun in the new year.

Contact the Church Office for further information about Foundation bequests.