New endowment fund started to help homeless shelter's long-term needs
EAU CLAIRE—The Eau Claire Community Foundation (ECCF) has announced the creation of an endowment fund to help address the city's only emergency night-by-night homeless shelter's long-term needs.
Sojourner House, operated by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of La Crosse, will be the ongoing recipient of a share of this fund which ECCF plans to grow through a conservative long-term investment approach aimed at growth.
'By investing in a conservative long-term approach, we're able to take those returns [and] build the fund while also distributing a share to a designated agency, which in this case is Sojourner House,' said ECCF President and CEO Wesley Escondo.
As the fund grows through donations and investing those donations, the amount within the share given to the shelter should grow.
'If we're shooting for very safe six to eight percent returns on the fund, and we're only granting four percent, there's going to be natural growth intended to make sure that the fund is still around 50 years from now and at a higher fund balance,' Escondo said.
The percentage of return will currently be entrusted to Catholic Charities which operates the shelter, but Escondo said 'if, for some reason, Sojourner House were to cease to exist for any reason, this fund could still exist to support a similar organization doing similar work, so it truly is perpetual and that is something very specific to Eau Claire and to the Chippewa Valley.'
In addition to the endowment fund, ECCF also awarded Sojourner House a $100,000 grant. This, along with donations from other community organizations and municipalities, closed this year's funding shortfall which had been pushing Sojourner House toward temporarily shutting down for the summer.
'Eau Claire Community Foundation has really helped us work through this funding gap we found ourselves in for this summer,' said Rob Grover, the advancement director for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of La Crosse. 'They brought up the idea of establishing an endowment. We thought that was a wonderful way of trying to engage the community even more. We take in lots of funds through donations and we think this could be another vehicle.'
To contribute to the endowment fund, visit tinyurl.com/3eyddr83 or contact the Eau Claire Community Foundation.
Information and ways to donate to the Sojourner House can be found at cclse.org/the-sojourner-house.
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