ACFR Endowment Fund

Thanks to the generosity of M. Farooq Kathwari, member of our Board of Distinguished Advisors, ACFR was able to create an Endowment Fund this past Fall. Kathwari wished to honor Ambassador Robert B. Oakley, his old friend and BDA colleague, and provided a contribution of $25,000 to that end. Kathwari and Oakley have long worked together on issues regarding the Kashmir conflict and other South Asia issues, and both have been staunch supporters of ACFR in many ways. In part, Kathwari was also responding to a challenge set by ACFR President David Carder, who had set as one of the goals of the final year of his tenure the creation of an investment fund.

In light of the Kathwari donation, Carder created an Endowment Fund Committee of the Board of Directors under the leadership of attorney Doug Brown of Nashville. The committee produced a resolution agreed to by the Board’s Executive Committee and certified by Secretary Nancy Hamlin of Rochester on September 11, 2006. This resolution provides for the operation and management of the Fund and contains two important provisions. First, it stipulates that no principal of the Fund shall be used for ACFR’s operating purposes. Second, for the first three years, all income earned in the Fund shall be reinvested in the Fund balance. For the period beginning on September 1, 2009, though August 31, 2011, “the maximum amount of income distributed in any one year cannot be greater than five percent of the Endowment Fund balance as determined on the first day of the Fund’s applicable fiscal year.” These provisions represent ACFR’s intention to handle the Fund and its income in a most conservative and highly responsible manner.

The Purpose of the Endowment Fund The intention of the Fund is eventually to permit ACFR to attain the interest income necessary to relieve the organization of dependence on foundation grants. At present, such grants represent approximately a quarter of the annual income ACFR needs to function. Pursuing and “landing” them has become increasingly difficult as ACFR moves into its twelfth year of operations and the grantmakers change their priorities. Continued reliance on grant funding also endangers the substantive independence of ACFR’s Speakers Program. The realities of the foundation world are such that there is a temptation to “sell” portions of the Program (by addressing certain topics at the expense of others) in return for grand funding. This temptation increases as funders willing to permit the unrestricted use of funds for programming become more scarce.

Endowment Fund Chair In November, the Endowment Fund and Executive Committees followed David Carder’s lead in securing the agreement of ACFR Immediate Past President Bob Donaldson to serve as Chair of the Fund. Donaldson has remained active in our work and brings to the position the stature and wealth of fundraising experience he acquired as a college president. At the same time, the Board leadership directed the creation of a new flagship booklet for ACFR that includes information on the Endowment Fund. By the time they read this, Committee members will have received copies, along with an announcement of the creation of the Fund. We hope you will agree that it is a welcome promotional device for ACFR.

The Fund is Already Growing/But the AGC Remains Crucial As if all the good work noted above were not achievement enough, the ACFR Endowment Fund has already begun to grow! In December, Herb Sklenar, member of the Birmingham Committee and our Board of Distinguished Advisors, made a $10,000 donation to the Fund. Also in December, David and Patricia Carder made a contribution in the same amount in honor of ACFR Executive Director Ken Jensen. On the occasion, the Carders noted that “throughout ACFR’s twelve-year journey, Ken has ‘manned the tiller’ in exceptional fashion.” In announcing the Fund, Carder made clear that its creation in no way diminishes the importance of the Annual Giving Campaign. Income from that source remains crucial to ACFR’s annual operations. Given the conservative approach to the management of the Fund outlined above, it will obviously be some time before the Fund begins to provide meaningful income for ACFR. The leadership of ACFR hopes that Committee members will consider the Endowment Fund in their long-range giving plans, and hope that they will agree that the Fund is an important step into the future for ACFR.