WGF Grant Q&A

Each year, the Women’s Giving Fund makes a high impact grant to support Summit County women and children. Park City Community Foundation’s Investment and Finance Committee sets the amount available. Read on to learn more about how the grant amount is determined.

Determining the Annual Grant Amount

1.  How is the annual WGF grant amount determined?
The Investment and Finance Committee of Park City Community Foundation determines the size of the annual Women’s Giving Fund grant.

The Women’s Giving Fund is an endowed fund, with a value of $1.22 million as of 12/31/15. The long term goals are to grow the principal (also known as the corpus) over time, keeping pace with inflation, and to grant out a portion of the fund’s returns each year for one or more high impact grants.

As with other endowment funds, there is an inherent conflict in the short term desire to maximize grants and the long term desire to assure that the principal is protected and grows responsibly. With the fund having a short history, and given the challenging investment landscape over the past year, the committee decided to reduce the size of the grant this year from $30,000 (in 2015) to $25,000 (in 2016), and to slightly invade the principal this year to fund a portion of the 2016 grant. The committee believes this represents prudent management of the fund, and balances the short term and long term issues. This may not be the same decision the committee would make year after year, but the committee feels comfortable with this level for the 2016 grant.

In addition to the grant, Park City Community Foundation earns a support fee of 2% of average assets to cover the costs of administering the grant program, events, and other administration and program tasks associated with the Women’s Giving Fund.

2. How much is available for the 2016 WGF grant? 
In 2016, $25,000 is available for the Women’s Giving Fund grant.

3. How will the grant amount evolve in future years?
Longer term, our investment strategy is to grow the fund and to pay out a portion of our returns annually in one or more high impact grants. However, our first promise is to our donors. Their gifts are forever, and the endowment is managed with that priority in mind. Assuming normal investment returns, we expect the principal and the grant amount to grow over the longer term.

4.  Is there any way we can grow the WGF grant amount so it becomes larger over time?
Given normalized investment returns, the committee expects the principal and the grant amount to grow over the longer term, hopefully at rates that exceed inflation.

In addition, the fund can grow by future contributions, whether they are from new or existing members. In the past year, the fund has benefitted from several women joining and many others making additional contributions. Future gifts have the ability to make the fund and the grant amount significantly larger over time.