Give a Gift to Juniata College

Juniata College relies on its alumni and friends to provide for its long-term needs. The future of Juniata is dependent upon endowment contributions, funds that will continue to generate income year after year, making sure that educational opportunities and vital programs will remain in place for future generations of Juniata students. Planned gifts can be a wonderful way to help the College increase our endowment.

By choosing to fund an endowed scholarship, professorship, or program, you are demonstrating that you believe in the promise the College embodies. It means you understand how your gift, stewarded over the years and decades to come, can help scores of students to lead lives that have a positive impact on thousands of other people.

Why are we focused on building the endowment?

Simple. To take a line from the world of sports, for years Juniata has essentially competed outside its weight class, competing against schools with double our endowment. We've won recruiting battles, competitions for faculty, and the admiration of many. But anybody knows that underweight competitors can not stick it out for the long haul.

How does endowment help a college?

The endowment provides financial resiliency by investing contributed capital and spending the income in ways that advance our mission. Such resiliency will become ever more critical in the coming years, as Juniata navigates through the changing environment in higher education.

Individuals make gifts to endowment in two ways - they either give to an existing endowment or establish their own.

  • Outright gifts of cash, appreciated securities (stocks, bonds, and the like), planned gifts (through a will, or annuity, for example), or real estate holdings can be used to establish an endowment or to support an existing fund.

Individuals can choose to support or establish scholarships, professorships, or programs. Within those three broad categories, many options exist for those wishing to help Juniata, its faculty, and its students.

Juniata's overall endowment is constituted of money given by alumni, friends of the College, and parents of current and past students that is then invested.

  • The sum of that money, or the principal, is placed in the College's investment portfolio and managed so that it continues to generate income, supporting future generations of students. The College only uses the interest the endowment principal earns, ensuring the principal will continue to work indefinitely.

The College's investment policies are structured to enable Juniata to satisfy donor goals and to generate sufficient interest over time to grow the principal, keeping pace with inflation.

  • A pledge may be accepted for the establishment of a named endowment. The term from the time the first pledge payment is recorded and the time that the final pledge payment is received must not exceed five years.

What Effect Would Endowment Have?

Consider this: internships, study abroad, and student retention programs like InBound are proven to add significant value to a student's experience. Why don't more students take part? They need summer jobs to help offset college costs, and can't afford to lose a week, or a month, or a summer to enrich their lives. Endowing those programs would provide, for instance, stipends to help offset income losses for deserving students so they could take part.

How Does a Gift for Endowment Work?

A gift to the endowment fund is a gift to Juniata's future. This money is the principal in the College's investment portfolio that continues to generate income, supporting future generations of students. Only the interest is used by the College, ensuring that the principal will continue to work indefinitely. The College's investment policies are structured to allow the College to satisfy donor goals and to generate sufficient interest over time to grow the principal, keeping pace with inflation. 

View the amounts required to create an endowment.

The Juniata Endowment Frequently Asked Questions