Steps Toward Establishing A Named Endowment In the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service Foundation, North Carolina 4-H Development Fund, or North Carolina Family and Consumer Sciences Foundation

1. Discuss prospects for establishing Named Endowments with all relevant groups.

2. When a prospect has been identified, a member of the Foundation staff should contact the individual prospect and/or Extension Staff member (if appropriate) to explore possibilities.

3. Present the prospect with the opportunity to establish a Named Endowment.

4. Draft an agreement for the Honoree to review.

5. Conduct a reception and agreement signing to kick-off the campaign. Be sure to invite guests to give at the time of the signing invitation.

6. Develop all materials to make asks. The Foundation staff will help draft a letter (see sample), prepare a response form, prepare return envelopes so that a campaign to generate funds in the honorees name(s) can be conducted.

7. The honoree and a committee of his/her choice shall make a list of all individuals, corporations, civic clubs, businesses, and foundations that might support this effort.

8. Gifts will be sent to the Foundation for receipting and acknowledgements.

9. The honoree will be provided a list of donors who contribute so that the honoree can write personal thank you notes in addition to those generated by the Foundation.

10. Updates will be provided to the committee and additional strategies will be employed as necessary.

Ways to Fund a Named Endowment

Please consider one of the following formats for establishing a Named Endowment –

1. Individual makes total contribution to endow.

2. Individual and his/her family make contributions to endow.

3. Friends, family, social contacts, and co-workers are invited to contribute to the endowment. This may be done at a special time in the honorees life (birthday, anniversary, retirement, upon the receipt of a prestigious award) or it may be done simply as a tribute to the person’s contribution in the community.

4. Friends, family, social contacts, and co-worker contribute to the endowment. The honoree completes the endowment after gifts are received from others.

5. Corporations or businesses may match the honorees gifts to help reach endowment status.

Procedures for Utilizing Income from Endowment Funds

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service Foundation, the North Carolina 4-H Development Fund, the North Carolina Family and Consumer Sciences Foundation, and the Landscapes of Opportunity Foundation administer endowment funds under the auspices of the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation, Inc. (Tax ID # 56-6049304)

The annual accounting and investment income management processes follow:

1) In December of each year, the annual audit is provided to the Foundation staff. An audit report is prepared and sent to each endowment holder and to each building to endowment account.

The audit report provides balances as of June 30 of the previous and current year. It also documents gifts, investment income, expenditures and transfers to (from) other accounts.

This report documents the value of the investment income that has been placed in the spending account attached to the endowment. It will also reflect any carry-over that has not been expended from previous years’ investment income.

2) Once the endowment holder receives the report, he/she can take one of the following actions --

a) prepare a budget on how the investment income (spending account) should be expended. The Foundation staff will either write a check to the program being funded or may transfer the funds to an account on campus (in the case of scholarships or programmatic efforts).

b) request in writing that the funds be rolled back into principal account so that the funds can continue to grow. This is often requested when the entity does not need the resources for the current year program or when the entity wishes to grow the principal to a higher level than the minimum endowment level.

3) The Foundation staff will respond to the endowment holder’s request and the action will be completed.

If you have questions, please contact a member of the NC Cooperative Extension Service Foundation staff.