Our Relationship with Holy Trinity Church
There are two essential ways the Holy Trinity Episcopal Foundation, Inc. supports Holy Trinity Parish: On one hand, the Foundation serves as a kind of financial depository for larger Parish accounts. For instance, for some time the Foundation held almost $175,000 for the Parish in an investment account. Recently the Vestry approved use of much of those funds to pay for the refurbishing of the Ascension Window. In addition, the Foundation directly funds the Parish budget with an average of about $300,000 each year.
While the Parish must attend to daily operational costs, the Foundation, by its nature, is able to take a more long-term approach to investing and development. Whereas the Parish’s fundraising and development activities are generally aimed at meeting current-year budget issues, the Foundation looks to accumulate larger funds to keep in reserve, generating income from interest that can then be used to fund the annual needs of the Parish.
In addition, the Foundation holds several distinct funds as endowments – money whose income (and in the past decade or so, principle) is dedicated to more specific expenditure such as clergy retirement, scholarships to Camp Weed and for college scholarships.
The Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees, which sets policies and direction which are now carried out by the Executive Director. This Board is intimately connected with the Parish – all Board members are long-time Parish members, and in fact, the Senior Warden and Rector are ex-officio Board members with full voting rights. Harvey Ward, the current Executive Director, is also the current Clerk of the Vestry.
While the Foundation is not directly responsible to the Vestry, as you can see, its governance is entirely dedicated to providing financial support for the Parish.
