The Beginnings of an Endowment
The Marietta First UMC campus has stood proudly at the corner of Whitlock Avenue for over 60 years. Their thriving ministries include a preschool, a young adult ministry and many storied Sunday School and Bible Study classes which are the backbone of Marietta First’s membership.
One of their oldest running Sunday School classes, the John Strother Class, has been active for almost fifty years. The 200 person class has seen many of its members through early adulthood and marriage, into raising children and now into retirement. These long-time members felt the impact of the church in their lives in tremendous ways and wanted to leave an impression on the church’s legacy.
The class included prominent members of the community who were committed to the church’s future. One member of the class, an owner of a CPA firm, understood the impact of long-term investments and encouraged his peers to join him in creating a lasting endowment. After much consideration, they established the endowment in 2012, with many of their Sunday School class members serving on the Endowment Committee. Their members understood the financials of the church and how planned giving often worked among their congregation. They saw the growing need for capital improvements to their aging facility and realized an endowment fund could fill that gap.
With this goal in mind, the endowment was created and the congregation was soon able to use four percent of its capital gains annually for upkeep and maintenance of the facility’s grounds (no small task at a sixty year old campus). And their endowment fund contributions across the campus are noticeable with a new outdoor sound system, a boiler and even a custom-built organ, all purchased from the endowment’s invested funds.
With a Permanent Endowment Fund established and a clear goal in mind for its use, the fund has been able to grow under the watch of the Georgia United Methodist Foundation and investment direction of Wespath Financial Institute, ensuring its continued use for generations to come.
If your church is interested in starting an endowment fund or would like to learn more about the process, please email us today. We encourage you to invite Foundation staff to your church in 2026! Your mission is our purpose!
Look out for the rest of the story in our part two article, focusing on Marietta First’s Evergreen Legacy Society and how they have continued to grow the endowment.
