St. Marguerite School in Tooele creates an endowment

Friday, Dec. 18, 2015

TOOELE — A “Journey to Forever and Always” is the goal of St. Marguerite Catholic School as it enters its fourth and newest phase of growth and development, according to Principal Lorena Needham.

The St. Marguerite Parish Council of Catholic Women is teaming up with the school to spearhead the formation of an endowment to help fund the school into the future. The endowment will be combined with all other endowments for parishes and schools in the Diocese of Salt Lake City into the Catholic Foundation of Utah to allow for maximum growth and return for its member schools and parishes.

An endowment is a financial gift to a nonprofit organization designed to grow by being invested in stocks and bonds. In this case, interest gained from the entire endowment is distributed once a year to the member institutions.

Several current and ongoing fundraising efforts are being initiated in St. Marguerite Parish to raise money for the endowment, and parishioners are being taught how to incorporate giving to the endowment into their estate planning. 

St. Marguerite School has gone through three phases of growth, Needham said: The first was from 1978 to 2007, when the parish preschool opened; the second, from 2008 to 2011, was the building and opening of the main school for grades pre-K through eighth. The third phase was from 2011 to the present, “growing the enrollment to fill each grade – and now we are building Phase Four, our ‘Journey to Forever and Always,’ a phrase coined by Ms. Jennifer Carroll, executive director of the Catholic Foundation of Utah,” Needham said. “We are doing this to prepare for the financial future of St. Marguerite Catholic School so that our pilgrimage toward ‘Forever and Always’ may be linked to all of the many ways in which our school can bring the glory of God to our families, our parish, our community, our children and our world as they learn, pray, grow and become strong in spirit.” 

Donations for the St. Marguerite Catholic School Endowment may be sent to the Catholic Foundation of Utah, 27 C Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84103.