Twenty four students from Iowa’s Grinnell College attended last December’s Urbana 06 Student Missions Convention in St. Louis MO. Post-Urbana testimonies indicate that the speakers and workshops rattled the students’ complacency, burst their misconceptions about missions, challenged them to seek God and Jesus wholeheartedly, and encouraged them to live a more active life of ministry.

Urbana is designed to encourage that kind of response. To make sure that future Grinnell students have exposure to similar challenges, campus staff worker Timothy Lin has been working on developing an endowment fund for Urbana scholarships. “I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of starting some sort of endowment because it has such lasting impact, regardless of who is staffing the chapter,” he says.

Last summer he met with a donor and pitched her on his endowment idea. She was excited about it and decided to pledge $25,000, to be used as a matching gift.

“A $50,000 endowment would allow us to give about $6,000 in Urbana scholarship aid, enough for thirty $200 scholarships,” Timothy says. “Every three years, when Urbana arrives, we can tap into the interest earned on the scholarship fund and use that to assist Grinnell students going to Urbana. The concept is simple, but the results are eternal.”

As Timothy worked with the donor and with Gary Kopan, InterVarsity’s Director of Planned Giving, there was an unexpected development. Unaware of Timothy’s vision for an endowment fund, the parents of a former Grinnell student called Gary to say they also are interested in developing a permanent Urbana fund for future Grinnell students. Gary connected these donors with Timothy. The result was an $8,000 contribution to the match that was part of the gift from the first donor. That makes only $17,000 to go to ensure that Grinnell students will be able to attend Urbana 09 and Urbanas beyond.

To contribute to the Grinnell fund for Urbana Scholarship, or for more information on endowment funds and other creative giving opportunities, contact Gary Kopan at 608-443-3685.

^{photo: Grinnell students at Urbana 06 in St. Louis}