wfn.org | Foundation Celebrates Bicentennial with a "Hip, Hip, Hooray!"

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

23-April-1999 
99161 
 
    Foundation Celebrates Bicentennial 
    with a "Hip, Hip, Hooray!" 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
PHILADELPHIA - For the Rev. William R. Phillippe, portraying the founding 
father of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation was a fitting way to 
commemorate two centuries of stewardship, philanthropy and the charitable 
vision of Elias Boudinot. 
 
    It was Boudinot who echoed John Calvin's call to be good Christian 
stewards when in 1799 he established what is now the Presbyterian 
Foundation. With a choir of Foundation representatives, offbeat acting and 
even a cameo by Benjamin Franklin, more than 200 Foundation staff, guests 
and trustees past and present gathered here on April 16 to celebrate the 
corporation's 200th birthday and its proud history of  "serving the Church 
in all its work." 
 
    "Boudinot didn't care just about the students at Princeton, he cared 
about the widows in Philadelphia," Phillippe said. "And about the clergy 
that had no pensions, and the Native American Indians. He cared about all 
varieties of people." 
 
    Phillippe, a retired pastor who starred as Boudinot in a humorous 
musical sketch celebrating the Foundation's early history, added: "He 
(Boudinot) took his Calvinism seriously, by going out and making the world 
more like the humane place that Calvin told us it should be."  Phillippe 
co-authored the sketch with retired "Presbyterian Survey" editor Vic 
Jameson. 
 
    On March 28, 1799, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania approved a request 
from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to form a corporation 
with "benevolent and pious purposes" that would oversee bequests, 
endowments and gifts that benefit the church and its ministries. 
 
    From that day on, the Foundation has served as guardian of church 
charities and a solicitor of permanent funds. Boudinot, an attorney and 
businessman who was the trustees' first president, established the 
Foundation's first permanent fund, a bequest that still provides pastors 
with bibles. 
 
    Although the Foundation started off slowly, it now has about $1.8 
billion in assets and employs more than 140 people. It is one of the 
largest and most innovative church-related philanthropies in the nation, a 
distinction that has captured national recognition in publications such as 
"The Wall Street Journal" and "The Chronicle of Philanthropy." 
 
    The beneficiaries are as diverse as the donors themselves. They span 
the globe, providing financial support for causes ranging from improving 
local church pews to funding General Assembly programs. 
 
    "Hip, hip, hooray!," cried board chair John R. Evans of Austin, Texas, 
rousing the men and women who attended the trustees' spring board meeting 
here. 
 
    Now history is poised to write a new chapter, an installment that will 
describe a changing organization, one with new ways of raising funds - 
including the for-profit New Covenant Trust Company, which manages assets 
and performs a range of financial services; a federally regulated 
mutual-fund company; and an insurance subsidiary. 
 
    "The patina of history has not yet even begun to form on some of our 
most recent actions, especially (those) related to our emerging corporate 
structure," Evans said. "But (this) is a pivotal moment as God leads us 
into the future - even as God's hand can be seen in shaping our first 200 
years of  history." 
 
    History has been kind to the Foundation - especially recent history. In 
the past six years, Foundation assets have increased from $1.02 billion to 
$1.75 billion, Evans said. Last year the Foundation processed gifts and 
deposits in excess of $161 million. This was $20 million more than 1997 
figures, an increase of 14 percent. 
 
    The Foundation increased the volume of new gifts, endowments and life 
income plan funds supporting Presbyterian mission and ministry to $63 
million last year - an increase of $10 million, or 19 percent, from the 
previous record level of 1997. The denomination's Wills Emphasis program 
has brought more than $500 million in bequests to Presbyterian 
congregations in recent years. 
 
    Foundation staff members, former trustees and past church officers 
donned colonial costumes and powdered wigs to commemorate the bicentennial 
celebration. Other Presbyterian notables joined Phillippe, a former interim 
Executive Director of the General Assembly Council, in acting out the 
origins of the Foundation - with some "small (factual) liberties." 
 
    A young Boudinot, the fourth man of the same name in direct descent, 
supposedly sought insight from an elderly and somewhat absent-mind Benjamin 
Franklin. 
 
    "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," said the mindless Franklin, played 
by former General Assembly stated clerk the Rev. James E. Andrews. 
 
    Trustees say the Foundation's growth from a modest beginning to become 
one of the most successful financial-service institutions in organized 
religion is the result of sound fiduciary responsibility, improved client 
services, new programs and a strong commitment to donors' instructions. 
 
    Trustee Georgette Huie of San Francisco, who in 1997 became only the 
second woman to chair the Foundation's board, said integrity, commitment to 
mission and to the gospel of Jesus Christ has allowed the Foundation to 
prosper while serving humanity and serving the church. 
 
    "I feel so blessed to be part of this great heritage, one which I hope 
will always hold people and the church (together)," Huie said, speaking in 
place of Helen Walton of Bentonville, Ark., the Foundation's first woman 
board chair and, as co-founder of Wal-Mart with her late husband, Sam, is a 
major philanthropist herself.  Walton, who is recovering from injuries 
sustained in an automobile accident earlier this year, was unable to 
attend. 
 
    "Images of leaders or of women and men. Leaders of color, people of 
courage, caring, integrity and commitment. We are part of that heritage 
now," Huie said.  "Let us ensure that it always continues." 
 
    "The Greater Overbrook String Band," with some members wearing sequined 
police and sailor uniforms, got the evening started with renditions of 
"Four Leaf Clover" and "When the Saints Go Marching In." 
 
    "It was great fun," said Peggy Nelson, a Foundation trustee from 1989 
to 1996. "It was well done, and we've had a great time. I think we learned 
a lot, too." 

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