The Endowment
Provision that is meant to last.
Shepherds Only Foundation is a beneficiary of the Shepherds Trust, an endowment established by stewards, for stewards. It is how the help we give today can still be given a generation from now.
In the years of plenty, Joseph did not spend everything Egypt grew. He gathered a portion, stored it carefully and kept it for the years when the fields would fail. When the famine came, there was bread, not only for Egypt but for the household of Israel.
An endowment works on the same wisdom. Instead of spending every resource as it arrives, the capital is kept intact and put to careful use. What it produces is what gets given. The capital itself stays in place, ready to produce again next year, and the year after that.
That is what we mean when we call the Foundation perpetual. It is not built to win a single season. It is built to still be standing when today’s young ministers are old, and to be there for the children they will one day ordain.
How it fits together
From the Shepherds Trust to a minister’s home.
Stewards
Those called to ministry commit resources to the Shepherds Trust. No external bodies are asked to fund it.
The Trust
The Shepherds Trust holds the endowment, protects its capital and invests with prudence for the long term.
The Foundation
SOF, as a beneficiary, receives what the endowment produces and administers it under written policy.
The household
Verified ministers and their families receive provision, care, scholarships and renewal.
Principles of the endowment
Four rules we do not bend.
Every perpetual fund is tempted to borrow from its own future. These commitments are how we resist that temptation.
Protect the capital
The endowment’s principal is preserved. Support is drawn from what the endowment produces, so it can keep producing.
Invest with prudence
Resources are placed with care and with a view to long-term sustainability, never in pursuit of quick or speculative returns.
Give by policy, not pressure
Distributions follow published criteria and verified need. No urgency, personality or connection can override the rules.
Remember the next generation
Every decision weighs today’s ministers against tomorrow’s. Neither is sacrificed for the other.
What the endowment makes possible
Care that reaches the whole household.
Monthly support
Once onboarded, a minister may apply for support once a month for twelve months, within limits the Foundation reviews from time to time.
Children’s education
Scholarships and tuition support, so the children of the manse are not the ones who pay for their parents’ obedience.
Spouse development
Opportunities for ministers’ husbands and wives to grow in skill, confidence and their own sense of calling.
Counselling
Confidential support for the private weight that ministers and their spouses rarely get to set down.
Seminars & retreats
Programmes for individuals and whole families, organised and paid for by the Foundation.
Prayer & the Word
Prayer meetings, weekly articles and digital Christian books that feed the minister who feeds everyone else.
Accountability
An endowment is a trust, in every sense of the word.
How the Foundation’s resources are managed, reviewed and reported is set out in our governance policies. Each year we publish an account of what the endowment has made possible, without ever naming the ministers it served.
Is the endowment there for you?
If you serve in the five-fold ministry and your household is in genuine need, find out how membership works.