Often, when we discuss endowment balances, we are discussing details of how they are increasing.  Endowment balances grow through generous donations, fundraisers, our Matching Program and positive market earnings.   However, sometimes endowment balances do decrease.  There are three reasons your MidwayUSA Foundation endowment balance may decrease.

1. You received a cash grant.  Cash grants are paid directly from your endowment balance, at the team, agency, and donor designated level.
2. Market performance results in a loss.  Our endowments are invested in a diversified portfolio that includes the stock market. As we all know, the stock market has ups and downs.  Just like your 401K, our endowments can experience gains AND losses.
3. Foundation Forever Endowment allocation. Our Forever Endowment ensures we’ll be here for years and years to come and we remove just a quarter of a percent (.25%) each quarter.  You can read more about the Foundation Forever Endowment here.

The good news is that many of our teams, nearly 900 to be exact, and some of our agency and donor designated endowments will be receiving cash grants soon.  This is cash put directly in the hands of team leaders and program directors that can be used to cover the many expenses youth shooting programs incur. Unfortunately, the bad news is that the fourth quarter of 2018 was a poor one for the stock market and we experienced a loss that resulted in a decrease across all endowment balances.  Endowments now reflect that loss, and if you visit your designated page on our website, you’ll see that your endowment has decreased. Back to the good news.  We are now 6 weeks into 2019 and the stock market has gone up over 6%!  We have a strong Chief Investment Officer in Goldman Sachs and a Board of Directors very much involved in making sure they are putting our endowments in the best possible position.  As always, if you have questions about your endowment and would like a statement that shows details of your balance, you can request that by emailing our finance department:  finance@midwayusafoundation.org.

As always, we offer many ways to assist you in growing your endowment to help offset times when we may experience a loss.  There are free fundraising products to use for your community fundraisers, which can also offer your team instant cash for current expenses. Online donations are another great option!  Your program can receive donations right through our website.  And finally, our unique matching program increases every donation.