Our Knights Templar Educational Foundation — What can we do to improve it?
Happy Tuesday! Hope you enjoy a taco or two. Well, last week’s message about the Holy Land Pilgrimage garnered some attention. I want to remind folks that for every issue or opportunity we face, there are places where it is not an issue at all, and in fact, if everyone were as good at it, we wouldn’t be talking about issues or opportunities. But even where things are going well, they can always be improved. In the business world, they call that Continuous Improvement.
Today, I’d like to look at our other less-appreciated charity, the Knights Templar Educational Foundation (KTEdF). It was established in 1922, and a $1.00 assessment for nine years began in 1924. That $1.00 assessment would be about $18.16 today, by the way. The KTEdF started as a source for student loans, but has since become a provider of scholarships and grants, nearly $40 million since its inception 100 years ago. That’s a bigger footprint than the Holy Land Pilgrimage, but still a long way from the impact of the KTEF.
One of the challenges is that we have almost 1/3 of all Grand Commanderies (including the non-US jurisdictions) that have so little funds that they can give small, if any, grants or scholarships each year. With a four-year college education averaging $150,000 (public) to $225,000 (private), a scholarship of $500 or $1000 is enough to cover a few textbooks, and while helpful, certainly does not make a major impact. In Maryland, where I currently serve as Division chairman, we had a total income of just over $23,000 on our funds, and set aside 80%, or just over $18,000, to allocate for scholarships. Having just completed our review, we are awarding almost all of that, with two large awards for the top scoring applicants and lesser awards to the third through fifth place applicants. Maryland had nine packages submitted this year, down from 14 last year, but of much higher quality. How many other jurisdictions are making these kinds of awards? Certainly not the ones with less than $25,000 in their accounts.
Maryland was lucky early on to have some strong donors and, from what I can tell, better than average results of loan repayments, although there were a few loans still out there until about 10 years ago. We have a fund large enough to manage on our own, with a good independent advisor, and generate enough for $16000 or more in funds for award every year. However, we haven’t had a lot of success in getting new money contributed to the Educational Foundation. I have been talking to folks, but haven’t quite cracked the safe (yet!). Ideas? Please share them!
Now, I do think we need to take some steps to “help” Grand Commanderies out there get their Educational Foundation funds beefed up. No one likes assessments, but maybe it is time, after 100 years of not doing anything as a Grand Encampment, to have one to help encourage smaller KTEdF divisions (what Grand Commanderies are called under the Foundation) to be less small and to get the rest of us in the habit of regular donations. A $5.00 assessment for nine years would put more than $2 million into the Educational Foundation (allocated to each division based on membership, of course). Perhaps (and I can hear the wailing now) we need to rethink the KTEF planned giving site and use it to encourage broader planned giving to support the KTEdF, Holy Land Pilgrimage, and the Grand Encampment itself as well.
We keep talking about the need for promoting our good works and the value of being a Knight Templar. Programs like the Holy Land Pilgrimage and the Knights Templar Educational Foundation are as important as the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, and we need to build the awareness and support for all three. Individuals have different passions, and some folks who might not be big donors for the Eye Foundation may have a passion for education of the next generation or for the enrichment of pastors’ experience. That is why we must support all of our charities with fervor and zeal, because one never knows how one act of charity might result in a miraculous act, or even a new Knight or Companion of the Temple.