St. Jerome Endowment Fund

The Endowment Committee assists the parish in development, implementation, and operation of the endowment fund that provides long term financial support to the school. Gifts received for the St. Jerome Endowment Fund are pooled into a common fund and invested perpetually into a separate account that is professionally managed. The performance of the fund is supervised and evaluated on a regular basis. The captial is never spent, only the annual income generated by this fund is used. Thus, a donor to this fund is assured that the gift will continue to be a source of support for St. Jerome school indefinitely.

How to Donate
You can donate to the Endowment Fund by using your member envelope included with your offertory envelopes, mailing a check made payable to St. Jerome Endowment Fund, through stock donations, estate planning, or by using our online giving option.

If you have any questions about making a contribution, please contact one of the following members of the committee: Fr. Grant Thies, Aaron Bindl, Anne Raeder, Dave Smith, or Brian Schroedl.

Donate Now

The Endowment Fund - Today
The St. Jerome Endowment Fund is comprised of three accounts, which include the General Account, the Eichberg Account, and a local Holding (savings) Account. Contributions to the Endowment Fund are accumulated in the Holding Account and periodically a withdrawal is made from this account and sent to Madison Investment Advisors who invest and manage the funds in order to meet the objectives of the Endowment Fund program.

• The General Account is the main account of the fund.
• The George Eichberg Fund is an account specifically designated for the benefit of school children.

These two accounts contribute approximately $140,000 to the operation of St. Jerome School each year. Since the inception of the Endowment Fund in 1984, it has contributed over $3 million to the support of our school.

The Endowment Fund - Tomorrow
The goal of the Endowment Fund is to provide a steady source of funds for the operation of the school. It is our goal and hope that at some point one third of the school budget can be met with funds from the Endowment Fund. The other two thirds of the budget would be met by the school tuition, fundraisers and general contributions. In order to reach the one-third goal of the school budget, the Endowment Fund needs to grow from its present level of about $3 million to a level of about $6 million. As a result, it is very important that members of the parish continue to make regular envelope contributions and other donations to the fund. Currently the Endowment Fund will continue to provide only part of the one-third goal.

We will continue to work toward a full 1/3 of the school budget and ask for your help by:

• encouraging members of St. Jerome Parish to include the Endowment Fund in their wills by allocating a perentage of their estate to the fund.
• encouraging alumni of St. Jerome School to include the Endowment Fund with their list of charitable contributions.
• soliciting memorials to the deceased members of the parish, as well as solicit appreciated stocks and bonds and other assets as a way of avoiding capital gains tax.
• providing an Endowment envelope with the monthly envelope packet to be used for regular donations.

We would like to say thank you to all donors who have made this program a success. By contributing to the Endowment Fund, you have helped put God in the classrooms and continue to make our Catholic school viable.