Establish a Fund or Scholarship

One of the JSCC Foundation’s most successful recent efforts has been to develop endowed scholarships to provide perpetual financial assistance to James Sprunt Community College’s students.

The establishment of a perpetual restricted fund creates the endowed scholarship.  The corpus of this fund is invested, and normally only the interest from these investments is used to provide the scholarships to deserving students.  The JSCC Foundation follows North Carolina’s UPMIFA regulations/guidelines.

The JSCC Foundation recommends starting an endowed scholarship with a minimum of $15,000, but $20,000 is recommended due to the increasing costs of tuition and fees. Endowed scholarship can be established with contributions or through estate gifts.  The JSCC Foundation’s Executive Director and staff will work with individuals or their attorneys, financial planners, and CPAs to develop endowment agreements.  The starting amount of the endowment depends on the desired size of the scholarship awarded each semester or year.

The JSCC Foundation also provides a “Build an Endowment” program that allows donors to contribute over a designated time to build an endowment. This program often works well for developing memorial endowments or endowments that are supported by an event, a group of people, or an organization.   With this option, the scholarship is not awarded from the endowment fund until the endowment corpus reaches a pre-determined total.  With the “Build an Endowment” program, donors may choose to also award an annual scholarship (with an annual contribution) at any amount over $200, until their endowment fund matures.  This allows the scholarship award to get started to assist students immediately, and to get the scholarship publicized to generate further support to reach the endowment goal.

All JSCC Foundation mature endowed scholarships are awarded as follows unless specified in the endowment agreement: up to 90% of the annual interest earned is made available to provide scholarships.  The remaining 10% of the annual interest earned is re-invested into the principal as a safeguard against corpus erosion due to inflation.  This approach guarantees the perpetuity of the scholarship. Annual reports of the funds and announcements of scholarship awards will be distributed to donor representatives of the endowment funds.

Once the endowment is established, it will not be cancelled.  Funds can be added to the endowed scholarship fund and an individual or organization can establish multiple endowments.

The JSCC Foundation’s Finance Committee oversees the investment management agreement with an investment management firm, and investment and spending policies. The JSCC Foundation Board follows NC UPMIFA guidelines for endowments.  The JSCC Foundation reserves the right to adjust endowment spending policies to meet current investment earnings.

If a scholarship or an endowment is developed and designated for a specific purpose, the JSCC Foundation reserves the right to re-purpose the use of the funds in the future, if needed for extenuating circumstances.  For example, if the fund is designated for a specific curriculum program that ceases to exist, the Foundation Board can re-purpose the fund to a similar use/or program at the college that closely matches the donor’s initial intended use.