Endowment
The Vanguard endowment provides financial stability that is not impacted by trends of enrollment or annual fund revenues and provides revenue to support the University’s programs, faculty, student scholarships and facility maintenance.
A gift or multi-year pledge starting at $50,000 via gifts of cash, securities or planned gifts can establish a named endowed fund. When donors create endowed funds, or support an existing one, it is an investment that lives on in perpetuity. Invested and managed by Vanguard’s Foundation Board of Directors, the principal grows long-term, and a portion of the annual return provides aid directly to deserving students, facility maintenance, faculty and urgent needs.
To secure Vanguard University’s future for the next 100 years and enhance our capacity to provide the best Christ-centered education to future generations of students, Vanguard continues to strengthen our endowment through Imagine: The Campaign for Vanguard University.
The Imagine campaign has brought a focus to fundraising for the endowment. This, coupled with good investment returns, has grown the endowment from $4.7 million in June 2016 to a peak of $9.8 million in July 2021. Through the next phase of the Imagine campaign, Vanguard is targeting an additional $2.8 million in endowment growth from philanthropic sources toward mission critical needs including scholarship funds, building maintenance and program support.
A more robust endowment will give Vanguard the ability to respond more flexibly and rapidly to needs, allowing the organization to be responsive in a highly competitive market of university institutions. A more robust endowment will reduce the burden of pulling student aid from our operating budget each year. Ultimately, it will remove barriers and help create pathways to a Vanguard education, ensuring all students can access and afford the transformational educational experience for which Vanguard is known.
Interested in establishing a new endowed scholarship or fund?
Contact Us Today
development@vanguard.edu or 714.966.5442
Committed to Eliminating Student Debt
Donn Rediger, partner at Rediger Investments and a key member of Vanguard’s Board of Trustees since 1975, is a dedicated advocate not only for the present student experience, but also for their future and the economy.
Once a student becomes a college grad, he’s going to see to it that his sons and daughters are, likewise, college grads. So, in effect, getting the student himself to get an education and graduate—and then he or she does the same thing for their kids—you’ve, in effect, stopped the line of poverty in that family forever. Well, go on and look at the benefit, not only to the student and to his family, but, my goodness, look at the benefit to the nation.
Donn Rediger
To Rediger, nothing replaces the investment of an education from a Christian university, and nothing makes receiving that more tangible than a healthy endowment.
“Imagine what it would do for the country if every university had the goal of eliminating student debt. These kids are coming out of school graduating at 21, 22, 23, starting into their careers. And they’re not spending the next 20 years paying off that education, but, rather, buying a house, doing all the good things that they want to do, and look what that does for the economy,” he said. “The endowment, no matter how you look at it, is just an enormously beneficial and virtually mandatory thing, for a lot of kids to get the very benefit of their college education.”
When asked what inspires him to personally support Vanguard students, Rediger credits a gracious and generous God. “I am convinced of this thing,” he said. “The Lord didn’t bless us to be a consumer of his blessings. He blessed us to be a conduit of those blessings to help somebody else.”