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Marie McCormick and Randall S. Ross check presentation photo

Friends of the Rouge Create Endowment

Friends of the Rouge recently established the Friends of the Rouge Endowment Fund with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:
Marie McCormick, Executive Director
313-792-9627, mmccormick@therouge.org

September 26, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Download PDF of PRESS RELEASE HERE

Friends of the Rouge Create Endowment Fund with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Dearborn, Mich. – Friends of the Rouge recently established the Friends of the Rouge Endowment Fund with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. The Fund will provide perpetual support for the organization’s mission to promote the restoration and stewardship of the Rouge River ecosystem for the purpose of improving the quality of life for the people, plants, and animals of the watershed.

More than 200 organizations have chosen to build endowment funds with the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. These funds generate a predictable stream of income for a nonprofit organization, leaving assets invested to grow in perpetuity. They offer the flexibility to meet the nonprofit’s immediate needs while ensuring assets are always preserved for the group’s long-term mission. The Community Foundation protects the fund’s assets from being spent for any other purpose.

“Friends of the Rouge has been performing restoration and stewardship work for more than 30 years,” said Mariam Noland, president, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. “By establishing an endowment fund, they are ensuring that their work to educate the public about the importance of the watershed will continue for generations to come.”

“Friends of the Rouge recognized the need to generate sustainable income and provide additional giving opportunities to its members and supporters” stated Friends of the Rouge board president, Michael Darga, “The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is known as the leader in endowments in the region and we look forward to working with the CFSEM to continue and extend our mission.”

If you would like to make a secure online contribution to the Friends of the Rouge Endowment Fund, please visit our Leave a Legacy page at https://therouge.org/leave-a-legacy/. The Fund can also accept gifts of all kinds, including cash, bequests, stock, real estate, life insurance, and retirement assets. Friends of the Rouge is also participating in the Community Foundation’s Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) program. CGAs allow donors to receive lifetime income and at the same time makes a charitable gift to participating charities.

Marie McCormick and Randall S. Ross check presentation photo

Photo caption: Marie McCormick, Friends of the Rouge Executive Director, presents endowment establishment funds to Randall S. Ross, Associate Director of Donor Engagement, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

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Friends of the Rouge (FOTR) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1986 to raise awareness about the need to clean up the Rouge River in southeast Michigan. Their mission is to promote restoration and stewardship of the Rouge River ecosystem through education, citizen involvement and other collaborative efforts, for the purpose of improving the quality of life for the people, plants, and animals of the watershed.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is a full-service philanthropic organization leading the way to positive change in our region. As a permanent community endowment built by gifts from thousands of individuals and organizations, the Foundation supports a wide variety of activities benefiting education, arts and culture, health, human services, community development, and civic affairs. Since its inception, the Foundation has distributed nearly $941 million through more than 61,000 grants to nonprofit organizations throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Washtenaw, St. Clair, and Livingston counties. For more information, please visit www.cfsem.org.