Endowments are the bedrock for a successful scholarship program because they provide scholarships to deserving students forever.  In a sense, they make our scholarship program “drought proof”.

     An endowment is established when a donor provides funds generally with two simple restrictions – that only the earnings from the endowment can be used and the scholarships awarded must meet the donor’s criteria.  This ensures that the endowment lives forever to help a particular group of students.  For example, “scholarships are awarded to juniors or seniors participating in women’s basketball and maintaining a grade point average greater than 3.0”.

     Each year we make scholarship awards, according to the donor’s wishes, equal to 5% of the current market value of the endowment.  However, it is our Foundation’s policy to only award scholarships from endowments with a market value of $5,000 or greater.  You can begin with almost any amount, but awards will only be made when this threshold is met.

     We pool all our endowment assets for investment purposes and manage them just like a mutual fund.  Over time, investment returns exceed spending so your endowment, and the scholarships awarded, will grow and hopefully keep pace with inflation.

     For more information on the investment of endowed funds or how to establish an endowment, you can call University Advancement at
605-256-5693 or contact Jeff Dittman at 605-256-5246 or E-Mail Jeff.Dittman@.dsu.edu

Chris Giles
Vice President for Administration and University Advancement
Chris.Giles@dsu.edu
Phone: 605-256-5693
Fax: 605-256-5316

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