Immanuel's Endowment
Please watch the brief video below about Immanuel's Endowment.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about Immanuel's Endowment
The Immanuel Endowment is a perpetual fund whose purpose is to help provide a stable financial foundation for the continuation of Immanuel’s work as the church looks ahead to the future. It was established by the Session on March 8, 1999.
The Endowment allows Immanuel’s family of faith the opportunity to make lifetime gifts and legacy gifts (particularly through bequests in wills and trusts, but in other ways, too) to ensure that Immanuel’s work will continue in perpetuity. We give so both current and future generations will benefit.
No, it is completely separate.
At the time the Endowment was set up a Planned Giving Committee (now called the Endowment Committee) was established which manages the Endowment. The Committee consists of one (1) liaison from the Session, and at least four (4) members-at-large elected to two –year terms by the congregation at the Congregational Meeting held each calendar year in May. An outside investment firm manages the fund with oversight from the Endowment Committee.
The investment philosophy seeks to provide real (after inflation) total returns from invested assets, to preserve the purchasing power of contributions, and to generate a current income stream to support objectives while assuming a prudent level of investment risk.
All gifts are welcome. There is no minimum gift amount.
The Session has approved a Gift Acceptance Policy which outlines the criteria used to determine if the gift is acceptable
IPC does not accept gifts that are inconsistent with its mission, purposes or priorities or are judged too difficult to administer.
A Gift Acceptance Committee consisting of the Pastor, and a representative from Finance Committee, Stewardship Committee, Endowment Committee and the Session will review all non-marketable gifts. The Session has the final say on what will be accepted.
Yes. There are two types of gifts-- restricted and unrestricted. Gifts for specific programs and purposes (restricted) may be accepted provided they are consistent with IPC’s mission, purposes and priorities. Both restricted and unrestricted gifts will be distributed in accordance with the Endowment Spending Policy.
No, it is not immediately available. The Endowment has a Principal Fund and a Spendable Fund. Initial deposits or additional deposits to the Endowment must be in the Principal Fund for a full calendar year before they can be considered part of the monies available for distribution to the Spendable Fund.
The current annual Spending Rate of the Principal Fund is 4.0%. Within thirty (30) days after the end of the calendar year, a transfer from the Endowment Principal Fund to the Spendable Fund is made. Those funds become the annual distribution.
As part of the prudent management of the Endowment, the Endowment Committee will monitor the Endowment Market Value to determine whether a distribution can be made from the Endowment that year.
The Session has the final word on how the annual distribution from the Endowment will be used.
Each year a Special Projects Committee made up of a representative from the Finance Committee, the Stewardship Committee and the Endowment Committee is appointed by the Session. In January, the Committee sends out RFPs (Request for Proposals) to IPC committees, the congregation, the confirmation class and beyond. The Committee then reviews the proposals and recommends to the Session the projects to be funded.
Immanuel is a 501(c) (3) organization. Gifts to the Endowment are taxed in accordance with the rates governing charitable contributions. Since tax laws change, you will need to consult with your tax advisor.
Yes you can. All contributions to the Endowment are held is strictest confidence by Immanuel’s Business Administrator (who will be receiving the contribution), and members of the Endowment Committee.
Yes. You many contribute at any time. Click on the Donate Now icon to find our on-line donation form.
You may also write a check with “Endowment Fund” in the memo section and send it to Mary Ann Vaughan, Business Manager, IPC 1125 Savile Lane, McLean VA 22101
Speak to your attorney or estate planner.
Immanuel does not provide personal legal, financial or other professional advice to donors or to prospective donors. Immanuel will not act as a trustee.
In extraordinary circumstances Session may borrow amounts from the unrestricted portion of the Endowment for capital or emergency needs.
Giving is always a personal choice. Giving to the Endowment is like planting the seeds of trees you may never see, but you know they will shade generations to come.
No. It is designed to continue in perpetuity.
Please contact any of the members of the Endowment Committee. We would be delighted to talk with you.
Marjorie Fox marjoriefox1968@gmail.com
Jim Magee jmagee@jmageelawfirm.com
Suzie Bissell suzannebissell@gmail.com
Kathryn Mackensen kathrynmackensen@gmail.com
Doug Hale drayhale@gmail.com
The SPC is now accepting Request for Proposals and Applications for 2024 grants. Members, friends, and committees of Immanuel, as well as ad hoc groups with a connection to Immanuel, may apply.
The deadline for applications is Friday, March 1, 2024 at 5:00 pm. I have attached the RFP and the Application. Please feel free to contact sgregory100@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Click here for APPLICATION: 2024 SPC Application
Click here for Request for Proposals: 2024 SPC Request for Proposals Jan 26 2024
Learn about Immanuel's Endowment
Grant Recipients
2021 Grant Recipients
ArtStream’s ($2,500) two Virginia-based Inclusive Theatre Companies feature 30 people with Intellectual and Developmental disabilities (IDDs) – including Autism - performing in original musical productions. The actors, along with volunteer peer mentors and a professional production team, decide on a theme, improvise scenes and characters, and develop a script, songs, and choreography. Your generous sponsorship contributed to the production expenses for a Drive-In Theatre performance that bought the ArtStream community together to celebrate our actors’ achievements on the big screen!
Chesterbrook Residences, Inc. ($1,000). CRI owns and operates Chesterbrook Residences, a mixed-income assisted living facility in Falls Church. IPC is a member of CRI, as are Lewinsville Presbyterian Church and Temple Rodef Shalom. The residents of Chesterbrook faced very difficult restrictions during the COVID pandemic and need new activities that can help return their lives to normalcy. Cultivating flowers and other plants is rewarding in its own right and is just such an activity. CRI will use the 2021 grant to purchase raised planter boxes, a potting table, and other gardening equipment, which will be placed in the open air court yard of the Chesterbrook building for all residents to use.
Five Talents ($2,500) empowers the global church to minister to communities living in extreme poverty. We seek to transform their lives through economic empowerment and we work in remote and vulnerable communities in the most fragile regions of the world in Africa, Asia and South America. This $2,500 grant will purchase two cell phones and two laptops for our program coordinators in Burundi, a country in East Africa. New laptops will enable field staff to keep better and more secure records of funds, track data from Community Savings Groups, and write reports - which are important to accurately evaluate the program. Right now, our partners often use pen and paper for these tasks. The cell phones will give staff access to an app for conducting baseline surveys of new Savings Groups rather than relying on handwritten surveys. This grant will strategically equip our partners and greatly improve communications so that this program continues to grow.
Langley Residential Support Services ($2,500) believes that everyone deserves the chance to live a rich, full life. LRSS is a community nonprofit that has been providing residential and life-enhancing care programs for adults with developmental disabilities in Fairfax County for more than three and a half decades. What volunteers from Immanuel Presbyterian Church helped start in 1983 continues to thrive in 2021 with renewed operating support. The generous IPC Endowment Fund grant will help LRSS residents and community support program participants in their everyday activities and guide them into more independent living—from learning to cook and housekeeping to managing personal finances and personal well-being and engaging in wider community activities, such as a workplace, book club, or church.
Pathways Internship Fair ($1,500). The Harraseeket Foundation, which supports Immanuel’s Pathways program (see ipcpathways.org), will host an internship fair for high school and college students as well as potential mentors for these students. The fair will focus in particular on potential interns for the Pathways Internship Fund. The Pathways Internship Fund was seeded by a 2020 grant from the Immanuel endowment, and provides financial support to economically disadvantaged high school students. See harraseeketfoundation.org/pathways-fund/. Fair attendees will participate in discussions with intern employers and those with internship experience. Employers will be invited to interview candidates during the fair.
Synod of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba ($2,500). In keeping with Immanuel's outreach mission as motivated by Mathew 25, this donation to the Synod in Cuba will provide much-needed support to the Presbyterian churches in Cuba as they face a "perfect storm" of COVID, U.S. sanctions, and inflation resulting from the Cuban government's transitioning to a single currency. As in the U.S., the churches have had to close due to COVID; their collections are down; their expenses, including salaries and utilities, are up due to inflation; and their parishioners are facing shortages of food, medicines and basic consumption items due both to inflation and the U.S. embargo.
The grant from the IPC Endowment Fund will contribute to a special appeal by the Cuba Partners Network (CPN, an organization of the PC(USA)) supporting partnerships between U.S. member churches and the Presbyterian-Reformed Church of Cuba (IPRC) The grant will be commingled with other funds raised by CPN and disbursed to the Synod in Cuba for its use in supporting the most pressing needs of its member churches and their parishioners.
The Yellow Door Foundation ($4,011) was founded in May, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia and provides free long-term lodging for the families of immunocompromised pediatric patients being treated at UVA Children’s Hospital. To date, we have welcomed 48 families, and provided close to 3,200 free room nights. The average age of our patients is just over 7 years, the average length of stay 63 days, and the average distance from Charlottesville a family must come for treatment is 120 miles. Each family gets their own one-, two- or three-bedroom apartment for the duration of treatment. All apartments are specifically outfitted for the special needs of our cancer and transplant patients, with the goal of ensuring best outcomes.
Thanks to a very generous grant, we were able to get our fifth apartment earlier this year. Immanuel is part of a collaborative effort, with other partners, to totally renovate and furnish the apartment to immunocompromised standards. We welcomed our first family, a leukemia patient, her parents and sister, April 1.
In addition, Immanuel’s grant has provided help as we replace items in our DREAMER apartment, after three years of service to families! The Dreamer upgrades will be completed by April 30.
2020 Grant Recipients
“Divinity Within Wellness” Retreat ($1,950). Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. This retreat will guide us in growing our ability to work with our own minds, bodies, and spirits as a foundation for extending non-judgement, compassion, and love to ourselves and others. Led by IPC's youth and young adult leaders, it will invite youth and young adults to engage with inter-generational speakers, spiritual practices, wellbeing techniques, positive psychology, and scientifically proven mindfulness practices to reflect on what it means, scientifically and spiritually, to truly love ourselves so that we can better embody the love of Christ in the world.
The Harraseeket Foundation’s Pathways Fund ($2,350). Harraseeket supports the IPC Pathways vocation exploration program for Immanuel youth and young adults. The Pathways Fund will award grants to Northern Virginia low income, at-risk high school students to encourage them to take unpaid internships that inform their vocation choices and to support career guidance programs for these students. Harraseeket is partnering with Communities in Schools of NOVA for selection of students and administration of grants.
Chesterbrook Residences, Inc. ($1,000). CRI owns and operates Chesterbrook Residences, a mixed-income assisted living facility in Falls Church. IPC is a member of CRI, as are Lewinsville Presbyterian Church and Temple Rodef Shalom. CRI will use the 2020 grant to help undertake an in-depth survey of Chesterbrook residents to identify measures to improve their quality of life. The grant will serve as seed money to help defray the cost of the project.
Memory Café for Seniors ($3,000). IPC’s Healthcare Navigation Team has received a grant to start a Memory Café at Immanuel. Memory Cafés engage those who are afflicted with memory loss (dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, etc.) and their caregivers by offering fellowship and a variety of activities: crafts, games, education, etc., along with refreshments. Immanuel's Memory Café will be open to Immanuel members and to the community.
Artstream and Immanuel’s Children ($600). IPC’s Children's Ministry Team has received a grant that will enable Immanuel’s children to stage a theatrical production with the performers of ArtStream, a local theater company for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The show will be open to the church and the community for a $10 minimum suggested donation per person. All proceeds will benefit ArtStream.
Allyship Workshop ($1,700). Funding from the endowment will enable IPC’s Spirituality and Learning Committee to bring Allyship Training to thirty members of our congregation as IPC’s next step in our education about dismantling racism. Allyship is "an active way of life that calls us to serve as bridge-builders: empathizing with those who are marginalized, engaging those who feel apathetic, and creating community with those who are disconnected.” Our Saturday day long workshop will equip participants with the framework, skills, and tools necessary to advance social justice in our everyday lives.
Children’s Books for Share ($400). Bill Pratt, a long-time volunteer at Share of McLean, is purchasing 50 children’s books in Spanish to give to clients of Share. Although Share receives donations of children’s books, most are in English, which many clients find difficult to read. During the coronavirus pandemic, Share is only accepting food and personal hygiene items; however, as soon he can, Bill will deliver children’s favorites such as Dr. Seuss, Jack and the Beanstalk, and a book of traditional Latin American tales, Beunas Noches Luna.
IPC Earth Day Native Tree Giveaway ($1,000). To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the spring season, Immanuel will be conducting a native tree give-away. Native Virginia trees were chosen because these species serve as the basis for local ecosystems. Planting a tree sets the framework for future ecosystems and future generations. This tree give-away seeks to honor God’s creation, Earth, and our collaborative responsibility to care. To reserve your tree for pick up on May 9th, click here.
Students Helping Honduras ($5,543). In 2012, SHH opened the Bilingual School in Villa Soleada, Honduras, with 48 students from a previous riverbed shanty slum. By this summer, the Bilingual School population has grown to 276, with the oldest students graduating from middle school. SHH is in the process of building a high school building for their ongoing education, but lacked funding for related bathrooms and wash stations. SHH's experience shows that students, and girls especially, are less likely to miss school if they have access to bathrooms. Immanuel's contribution means improved hygiene, sanitation, and health for SHH's Bilingual School students and a much better educational program.
IPC’s Community Garden ($618). Sam Bennett and Boy Scout Troop #128 will be automating our garden so it is watered and fertilized based on soil moisture and the weather. This will conserve water and should dramatically increase the crop yield. The control system of the project will be built from a microcomputer, called a Raspberry Pi, run by solar power, using weather data and an in-ground moisture sensor. If there is a high chance of rain in the forecast or the soil is sufficiently moist, the control system will not activate the watering system. If there is no rain in the forecast and the soil is dry, the watering system will be turned on. Every 10 days or so the control system will apply liquid Miracle Grow fertilizer.
2022 Grant Recipients
Arlington Presbyterian Church ($3,600) sold their land to Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, tore down their building, and helped create Gilliam Place, a 173-unit affordable housing apartment community on Columbia Pike and Lincoln St., the site of APC’s previous building. It’s here, in the ecosystem of Gilliam Place, that APC lives out the ways of faith together. APC is dedicated to supporting their Gilliam Place neighbors. One way they show that support is through accessible programming. A strong interest in taking music lessons was discovered at a community event.
Professional music lessons in Arlington can range from $40-$60 for half an hour. This cost creates an inequitable barrier for the residents of Gilliam Place and South Arlington. To provide equity, agency, and access to professional music lessons, APC provides half hour music lessons to residents for a reduced or free cost, based on their individual needs. Residents have access to professional teachers who live and work in the Arlington area. The program fosters stability and a weekly creative outlet. Students build confidence as music that once seemed impossible becomes playable. The weekly lessons also foster community, as neighbors and families bond over their new art. The $3,600 grant from the IPC Endowment will allow three Gilliam Place residents to receive a full scholarship for 34 weeks of lessons.
EduTutorVA ($3,000) was created by six retired Virginia educators and legislators to fill two pressing needs due to the pandemic: helping students in Title I schools catch up to grade level standards and creating enthusiasm for teaching within the young and diverse population of Northern Virginia. From three schools and a handful of tutors in 2020, we are now 50+ tutors in eight schools, each tutor working with two to four students in fundamental math and literacy skills.
The 2022 Endowment grant award will go directly to paying our college tutors $25-$30 an hour. Most of our students are education majors at GMU or NOVA, and this experience allows them early on to hone their teaching skills. Besides the hands-on teaching strategies and assessment tools in education. Next year we have plans to expand in our current counties of Fairfax, Alexandria, and Arlington as well as to initiate the program in Prince William and Spotsylvania counties. Thanks to your generosity, EduTutorVA is making a significant difference in the lives and futures of our children and aspiring educators.
Immanuel Presbyterian Church’s Green Team ($2,600) has newly certified the Church as an Earth Care Congregation in the PC(USA) and we are excited to continue the Earth Care certification process in 2022! Our initial survey of Immanuel’s environmental impact has identified that education is our largest growth opportunity. Therefore, with the grant from the Endowment we intend to develop educational events, outreach opportunities with the community and invest in sustainable worship elements and practices.
The team will engage in projects such as the twice-a-year VDOT highway clean-up, planting native plants, hosting an Earth Care Sunday, and connecting with other green teams in our interfaith network.
Langley Residential Support Services ($2,500) carries out a people-centered mission of serving adults with developmental disabilities, their families, and our communities by providing quality, comprehensive residential and community support services that will enable these individuals to live valued, productive lives.
LRSS began as a grassroots volunteer effort in 1983 when volunteers from Immanuel Presbyterian Church joined with two other McLean faith communities to help open the first group home in 1985 where young people with developmental disabilities were supported in their daily needs and activities while living as independently as possible. Today, that mission and work of keeping people happy, healthy, and thriving continue through the generosity of the IPC Endowment’s grant program. Thank you for keeping our operations strong with renewed funding in 2022 that makes it possible to work with 49 residents and community support participants across five LRSS group homes and 22 individual households in Fairfax County.
Students Helping Honduras ($5,000) is working to build 1,000 schools across Honduras with the goal of alleviating poverty and gang violence through education and youth empowerment. We are currently working on constructing a new school in La Lima, Honduras. Rural Mixta Buen Samaritano is a school that was destroyed by Hurricanes Eta and Iota in November 2020.
With the generous grant from Immanuel’s Endowment, we will be able to fund the roof and electricity for three new classrooms at this school. This will give the 80 students enrolled the opportunity to continue their education in a safe and productive learning environment.
Books are so important at every age and stage of life! However, economically challenged areas do not have equitable access to books at home, and school library selections can be limited.
Thanks to the Immanuel Endowment, we are purchasing $1,000 of books for Westlawn’s social workers to gift to students to keep at their homes. We are also purchasing $1,000 of the books on Westlawn’s librarians’ wish list for the Westlawn
2023 Grant Recipients
The Kenya Education Fund’s ($5000) mission is to provide disadvantaged students in Kenya and their schools with support and educational resources for them to improve their communities and break the poverty cycle. Recent data indicate that only 24% of the Kenyan population overall completes high school, yet 91% of the young people in KEF’s program successfully complete their high school exams and transition to higher education or employment.
The grant will fund one full, four-year secondary school and one year of college scholarship for one student chosen by the KEF. Click here to learn more!
Music at Gilliam Place ($3,600) Â
Professional music lessons in Arlington can range from $40-$60 for half an hour. This cost creates an inequitable barrier for the residents of Gilliam Place & South Arlington. To provide equity, agency, and access to professional music lessons, we provide music lessons to residents for a reduced or free cost. The program fosters stability and a weekly creative outlet. Students build confidence as music that once seemed impossible becomes playable. The lessons also foster community, as neighbors and families bond over their new art.
This grant from the Endowment will allow three Gilliam Place residents to receive a full scholarship for 34 weeks of lessons.
Harraseeket Foundation ($3,500) is a Virginia nonprofit that supports community “Pathways” mentoring and work experience programs at Immanuel & other NOVA communities. One Pathways program focuses on internships for underserved students unable to access internships because of poor information & connections who can’t afford to take unpaid internships. Harraseeket addresses these inequities with:
-stipends to pay the interns if employers don’t pay;
-mentors to coach the interns; and
-a directory of employers willing to employ them.
Thanks to the Endowment grant, up to seven underserved students will receive stipends to allow them to take unpaid internships. Learn more about us here.
PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT, ZAMBIA ($3450) furthers IPC's international mission to promote health and women's rights through the training of a remarkable Zambian woman as a medical doctor.
The grant supports the education of Chitalu Namugala, RN of Zambia. Chitalu has completed her nurse-midwifery degree, the subject of the 2017 grant. She has practiced as a Nurse-Midwife in the University Hospital in Lusaka. She is now enrolled in Medical
School in Zambia. She plans to practice medicine as an OBGYN physician in Zambia.
Click here to learn more.
ONE THOUSAND SCHOOLS ($2500), formerly Students Helping Honduras, is working to build 1,000 schools across Honduras with the goal of alleviating poverty and gang violence through education and youth empowerment. We are currently working on constructing a new school in La Lima, Honduras. Centro Educativo Básico Oswaldo López Arellano is a school that was destroyed by Hurricanes Eta and lota in November 2020. With the generous grant from Immanuel's Endowment, we will be able to fund the roof for the new three-classroom school. This will give the 400 students enrolled the opportunity to continue their education in a safe and productive learning environment.
Click here to learn more.
LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES ($2500)
This grant from the Endowment will be used to make an in-kind donation to LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES National Capital Area (LSSNCA) to help support five Ukrainian refugee families resettling in the NOVA area. We hope to make our new neighbors feel welcome by providing much-needed items for their apartments as a physical act of widening the welcome to the table and extending the grace that we receive from God out into the world. The five families include children:Â baby twins; one baby; two toddlers; three school age girls; and a school age boy.
FALLS CHURCH-MCLEAN CHILDREN"S CENTER ($2500) provides a comprehensive, high-quality, early-childhood program designed to give all young children, regardless of their family’s economic resources, a strong foundation on which to build the rest of their lives.
We are appreciative of the recent grant award towards new playground equipment. This grant allows our students to gain active play and tactile experiences outside to continue to develop and strengthen their social-emotional, physical, language, and cognitive skills. The estimated completion is in the spring of 2024. Once the project is complete we will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony and look forward to individuals from Immanuel joining us at the celebration!
EduTutorVA ($2,000) was created in 2020 by six retired Virginia educators and legislators to fill two pressing needs due to the pandemic: helping students in Title I schools catch up to grade level standards and helping young and diverse college students in NoVA become enthusiastic about a career in education. From three schools and a handful of tutors, we now have 100 tutors who are tutoring 200 students in ten schools in Northern Virginia.
This year we added a Tutor Coach to our model which gives each school an experienced teacher to mentor and support their tutors. The Endowment's generous grant will help pay for one of these coaches which will insure our tutoring is of high quality and effectiveness. Click hereto learn more.
FIVE TALENTS ($1,500) seeks to transform lives through economic empowerment. We work in remote and vulnerable communities in the most fragile regions of Africa, Asia and South America. Five Talents partners with the global church to minister to these communities by teaching literacy, numeracy and business skills so that men and women living in extreme poverty are able to find sustainable pathways out of it.
This grant will help us continue to grow our program in Myanmar, a place that continues to grapple with the impacts of the global pandemic and political unrest across the country. Immanuel’s support will help us establish self-sustainable Savings Groups across five to six regions in the country. This would mean the 120-200 group members and their households will have a safe place to mobilize their resources and the training to learn the most sustainable way to apply them so they can provide for their family and help their community. Because the average number of people in a household in this region is five, this grant could potentially impact the lives of as many as 800 women, men, and children.Â
Click here to learn more.
ARTSTREAM's ($1375) two Virginia-based theatre companies feature 30 actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities performing in original musical productions. The actors, along with volunteer peer mentors and a professional production team, decide on a theme, improvise scenes and characters, and develop a script, songs, and choreography. Your generous sponsorship covered the cost of American Sign Language interpretation at an onstage performance to make our show accessible to people with hearing loss, as well as captioning for the video productions that premiered online and are now available on our website for all to enjoy. Click here to learn more.