Quaker Inner-City School endowment Fund (QICSEF)

 

A unique opportunity to help improve the lives of children in urban areas!

 

Why a Quaker Inner-City School Endowment Fund?� QICSEF is based on the fact that having a Friends school in an inner-city environment exerts a strong influence for good;� that inner-city children, surrounded by drugs, violence, crime, ethnic/racial tensions, unemployment and despair, benefit by exposure to the spirit and procedures found in Friends schools and that these Friends schools provide excellent models for inner-city education.

 

Who does QICSEF help?� A group of inner-city Friends schools with a special mission:� to serve a student body that represents a microcosm of their inner-city population.� These schools are well integrated racially, ethnically and economically and they deal directly with the difficult problems associated with densely populated urban areas.� Since they serve a lower than usual economic class, they must keep tuition low, financial aid high, and they cannot expect high levels of giving from their school communities.� It is often difficult for them even to keep their operating budgets in balance and they have little or no endowments.

 

Do schools need endowments?� An endowment is an absolutely critical ingredient in running schools and colleges today.� Without an endowment a school is treading a very fine line between living and dying.� Endowments provide a kind of long-range security which operating funds cannot provide.

����������� Gifts to endowments are enduring contributions.� They yield operating income year after year and, when well managed, income and principal grow as the economy grows.

 

How does QICSEF help?� QICSEF seeks to help these schools build sufficient endowments for long-term financial security by matching funds raised by the schools themselves.� It is much easier for these schools to solicit endowment funds when donors know their contributions will be matched.

If a participating school should be laid down or cease to be a Friends school, that school�s endowment and income will be apportioned among the others.� In this way QICSEF�s and the donors� intended objective � to support Quaker education in integrated inner-city Friends� schools � will be preserved.

 

How are schools selected?� To qualify, a school must:

�        be a Friends school;

�        be an inner-city school, i.e., in an urban area dealing with inner-city problems

�        preferably include Kindergarten through 6th, 8th or 12th grades (since personal values and future success in education are determined in the elementary years);

�        be well integrated; and

�        have a low or nonexistent endowment.

 

What schools are participating?� Five schools have established endowment funds with QICSEF:� Friends School of Atlanta, Georgia; Friends School in Detroit, Michigan; Frankford and Greene Street Friends Schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Friends School of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

How is QICSEF organized?�� QICSEF is a nonprofit, tax-exempt Quaker corporation (exempt from taxation under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986).� Its purpose is to �solicit contributions and bequests to an endowment fund for participating inner-city Friends schools and to distribute the income to these schools.�� Its bylaws require that 3/4 of its 5-15 directors be Friends.� It has no paid employees.

 

How are the funds managed?�� QICSEF Funds are managed by DOMINI Social Funds and The Deburlo Group, whose investments are guided by principles of social responsibility and have been fiscally successful.

����������� These funds include a general fund and a separate fund for each participating school.

����������� Contributions can be made to QICSEF for an individual school�s fund or to the general QICSEF fund.� The general fund is used to match funds raised by the schools themselves.� All contributions are tax deductible.

 

Will you be a donor?� QICSEF is looking for three types of donors:

�        Individuals convinced of the value of inner-city Friends schools who will make modest contributions;

�        foundations, Friends Meetings, etc., to help begin and increase funds available for endowments by somewhat larger amounts; and

�        major donors who will put aside a large sum for matching.

 

All donors are important.� The first and second are essential for QICSEF to qualify as a public charity.

 

All contributions are tax deductible.� Checks made out to QICSEF can be sent to:

����������� QICSEF, Phil Gilbert, Clerk

����������� 152 Crosslands Drive

����������� Kennett Square, PA 19348

����������� [email protected]

 

 

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