Make the best choice for your church’s future. Only the Mid-Atlantic United Methodist Foundation knows and understands churches here in the mid-Atlantic.
Investment Performance
Make the Best Choice for Your Church’s Future
It’s easy to find an investment advisor, but today’s church really needs a “fiduciary advisor” – an advisor that is legally obligated to act in the church’s best interest not the investment firm’s. The Mid-Atlantic United Methodist Foundation was the first faith-based foundation to earn certification from the Center for Fiduciary Excellence. We exist to help churches thrive.
It’s About the Process Not the Product
Well before your money is invested, we work together to identify and understand your church’s investment timeline, priorities and risk tolerance. Some churches are saving for capital improvements. Others are ready to build an endowment. Still others have specific ministry programs they are working to fund. We work with you before, during and after investments come through the door – we head down the path together to reach the financial goals that will secure your church’s bright future.
Only the Mid-Atlantic United Methodist Foundation
- Reinvests fees to provide education and consulting for all conference churches.
- Complies with the goals of socially responsible investing.
- Understands the unique nature of church governance and goals.
- Cultivates generosity within the church.
Once you invest with MAUMF, you have a partner with you every step of the way – so you never have to worry about questions like this again:
- The market just went down – when does our church’s finance committee meet next?
- When were our investment documents last updated?
- Are our investments allocated according to our church’s investment priorities and on a timeline to meet our unique goals?
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FAQs about Mid-Atlantic United Methodist Foundation
The Foundation assists your congregation in meeting its investment and stewardship goals. Pooling the resources and potential of more than 300,000 United Methodists in 1,400 area churches, we provide professional, personalized consultations to enable your church to grow your assets while minimizing risks. Through the Foundation, each of the socially responsible investments is screened to ensure it is in keeping with United Methodist values and principles. In addition, as partners in your stewardship journey, the Foundation will help your church to create a culture of generosity that permeates through every aspect of your congregation’s life.
The bottom line is that the Foundation is the best at what it does –creating opportunities for giving and investment that enables your church to accomplish all God is calling it to do and be.
The Foundation:
- Has investment partners with historically competitive investment returns;
- Shares connectional values and enables affluent churches to assist and grow those churches that might have less;
- Uses money to do ministry, building a better, more just world through socially responsible investing;
- Gives funding to a variety of missions and ministries in the Eastern Pennsylvania, Peninsula Delaware and Baltimore-Washington Conferences;
- Trains churches on best practices in stewardship;
- Shares resources on endowments, trusts and planned giving;
- Provides speakers to inform, inspire, and engage churches in transformative stewardship.
The Foundation will work carefully in consultation with the stakeholders in your congregation to ensure their expertise and gifts are used to benefit the church. However, because of the sometimes sensitive and volatile nature of finances and investments, it is not recommended to have a single person in the pews overseeing these important decisions. We recommend that members provide oversight and work with the Mid Atlantic United Methodist Foundation. In addition, by investing through the Foundation, it allows your church to be connectional, assisting others in the denomination by helping them invest in a vital future as well.
As partners in ministry, the Foundation also offers a number of free services to our local churches, including a number of materials on a variety of stewardship topics that can be instrumental in helping a church set up an endowment or to begin a program of intentional “Planned or Legacy” giving. The Foundation also provides a “no cost” (to the church) gift stock program where a donor can provide the full market value of a stock to his church. Members of client churches may receive discounts to many of the Foundations programs.
Some highlights for the years 2021-22 included:
- Graduated almost 100 pastors at our Financial Leadership Academy (FLA) program committed to financial educational training for pastors and laity. Although they were scheduled to attend in-person training sessions, when the coronavirus pandemic prevented further meeting, the program was shifted to online presentations.
- Graduated eighteen students from the Advanced Financial Academy. Each student worked on a project in their home church, leveraging additional funding beyond the offering plate, to expand their ministry. Graduating students earned a $1,000 grant for their church.
- Hosted webinars to educate pastors and laity on a variety topics, ranging from handling church finances during a pandemic to developing a year-round stewardship plan and best practices when selling a parsonage.
- The distribution of $ millions in ministry funds to our client churches.
- Nine grants were distributed to churches who demonstrated effective use of their Financial Leadership Academy training.
- MAUMF continues to be one of the fastest growing United Methodist Foundations in the US.
- Investment process continues to place us in the top 10% of United Methodist Church SRI investment managers.
Our investment partners at Fulton Financial Advisors manage all funds held by the Foundation and our clients. A dedicated team of financial experts works together to manage the strategic and tactical allocation of funds. Fund managers are selected with a goal of maximizing returns while managing risk in different investment sectors. The Fulton team stays in contact with Foundation staff and the Investment Committee with regular updates of fund and manager performance.
Morningstar reports for each of the managers currently working for FFA with funds invested on behalf of the Foundation can be viewed here.
