Where Should I Donate?
There are choices in how you give to PLC - toward which campaign and/or into which fund. To ensure your donations are being used in the manner you intend, please be informed about our different funds so you can decide where to donate your money. From five dollar donations to our crowdfunding campaign, to creating your own endowment with a very large donation, we have a fund and a use for all donation amounts. Please consider giving.
This fund, named after a PLC founder, Bill Douglas, has supported PLC students for many years. Donations into this fund add to the principal investment total. Better known as the "Douglas," this fund is an endowment and is restricted in use, and therefore, PLC is allowed to allocate approximately 4% of the principal investment amount each year in student scholarships. The benefit to donating to this fund is that funds are renewed each year through investment dividends. Currently, PLC has access to just over $16K each year in usable funds. Though 4% of your donation may not amount to much, the addition of your donation to the grand total will, over time, be more sustainable. The only "downside" of donating to this fund, is that PLC students do not directly benefit from the full amount of your donation in the short term. We are hoping to increase this endowment with an additional $2.25 million dollars to be able to Double the First-Year Scholarship year after year. Most Torchbearer donations ($25K +) are funneled into the Douglas fund to help increase our principal. This is a great destination fund for one-time, large donations to PLC - your gift will kick off sizable dividends for many years to come.
The Dr. Larry Allen Endowment supports PLC signature experiences. We believe in providing transformational experiences for our students including immersive global travel, wilderness leadership courses and supporting life changing student opportunities. This fund is an endowment and as it grows so does the distributable amount each year. With an increase in distribution, we can provide financial assistance for PLC students who may otherwise may not be able to participate in lifechanging experiences.
This fund, familiarly called, the "PLC Gift Fund," is defined as unrestricted and therefore, money donated to this fund can be used for program operating needs as well as student scholarships. Operating needs include Experiential Weekends, First-Year Orietation, Second-Year Re-Orientation, the Third Year Retreat, the Senior BBQ, Parents Lecture, Taste of PLC, PLC Selection Interviews, etc. This is a very important fund to keep replenished as we need to fund these events year after year. This is not an endowment and therefore, any funds spent from this fund are not automatically replenished. Though we do have a small operating account funded by the university, this fund is critical in covering more than 60% of operating expenses of PLC each year. Monthly donations are a great way to replenish this fund if you are planning to sign up for monthly giving.
If you wish to make a donation of at least $25K at one time or over the course of a five-year payment plan, you can if you wish, create your own endowment of which you get to name and indicate how the money is used. Your gift is permanently invested by the University of Colorado Foundation, generating interest that is used for the purpose you choose to support—PLC merit, students staff, enrichment or other targeted scholarships, programming events, and much more. The definition of an endowment fund by CU Advancement is as follows, "Endowments are gifts that keep on giving, and serve as a reliable long-term funding source that supports a designated purpose or program at CU in perpetuity. The principal amount of an endowed fund is permanently invested by the University of Colorado Foundation in its Long Term Investment Pool (LTIP), generating interest income that is then used to fund the purpose or program designated by the donor." More information can be found on the CU Advancement FAQ page.