Maynard Klingbeil, formerly of Onida, South Dakota, had named the Dakotas United Methodist Foundation as the beneficiary of his life insurance policy. What a tremendously generous gift! Maynard farmed all his life so the Foundation Board thought it appropriate to use Maynard’s gift to plant some seeds in our churches by offering what is called the Klingbeil Grants.
The Klingbeil Grants are for any Dakotas United Methodist church that sets up a new account with the Foundation. I go into the details in the video and give some examples. The reason this is important is that there are lot of small or medium-sized churches $200,000+ in the bank that feel poor. Why is that? Part of the reason I think they feel poor is because that money is usually invested poorly. It’s in a CD or a savings account or a money market account which is earning next to nothing. While they may like the security of a consistent rate of return, these crappy returns make them feel like there will never be enough money.
A good example of this is back in 2015 we had a small church in a town of about 200 people invite Sheri Meister to meet with them. Sheri said that the meeting was going really poorly like they thought Sheri was trying to steal their money. The church was focusing on their security. Then someone on the committee spoke up and said, “Are these investment returns for real? Wow! Can individuals invest with the Foundation?” This church invested their $75,000 CD with the Foundation. After 3 years, the $75,000 had grown to $88,000 so the church added another $10,000 to it. This year, that money had grown to $137,000…so the church added another $30,000 to it. During this time, the church has grown tremendously in their benevolent giving and seems to have a new hope about the future of their ministry.
Useful Links
- Contact the Foundation: info@dakotasumf.org or 605-990-7790
- Investment Account Info: https://www.dakotasumc.org/foundation/what-we-do/investments
- Endowment Info: https://www.dakotasumc.org/foundation/what-we-do/endowments
- Fund Descriptions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/601ne6xt8g5ey0j/Fund%20Descriptions.pdf?dl=0
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