Borrowing from or investing in...
Friends Meeting House Fund
About the Friends Meeting House Fund
A new home for Rochester Friends Meeting, Rochester, New York,
was found in an old industrial building at 84 Scio Street. Once a plumbing
contractor’s office and supply center, it now holds a 32 by 35 foot
meeting room, a 20 by 60 foot community room and kitchen, religious education
classrooms, nursery, library, office space, and a caretaker’s apartment.
The photograph on the top shows the contruction during the conversion of the
building, and the photopraph on the bottom shows the completed meetinghouse.
In 1955, Friends General Conference created a way for Quaker meetings to borrow money to help build, buy or renovate their meeting houses.
Developed by the Advancement Committee of FGC, the Friends Meeting House Fund (FMHF) is based on the simple concept of a mortgage pool. Friends and meeting can lend (with interest) a portion of their savings to the FMHF, thereby creating a large pool of money. That money can be lent to meetings for construction, renovation or purchase, with the loans secured by mortgages held by the Friends Meeting House Fund.
During the 40 years the Fund has been in existence, it has lent or granted over $2,900,000 to more than 170 Quaker meetings in 18 yearly meetings. Inquiries and requests for loans continue to be received from meetings all over North America, indicating healthy growth within the Society of Friends.
The Friends Meeting House Fund is organized as a Pennsylvania non-profit corporation managed by a ten-member Board of Directors appointed by the Central Committee of Friends General Conference. Represented within its membership is experience with architectural practice, property management, fiscal planning, and real estate lending.
Thinking About Buying or Building?
If your meeting is considering renovating its existing space, purchasing a building, or constructing a new meeting house, the Friends Meeting House Fund might be able to help finance your project with a mortgage loan.
We also have a service to offer during the initial stages of planning. The directors of the Fund have developed guidelines and detailed checklists for financial and space planning that can guide you through he process of deciding the right course of action for your meeting.
When an application is under consideration we will also arrange for a consultation visit with your property committee and other interested Friends in the meeting.
If funds are available, and if we are able to help with the financing, the money will be offered with a note, repayable monthly or quarterly with a fixed interest rate (currently 7%) for a term of 15 years or less. There are no prepayment penalties. The Friends Meeting House Fund will hold a mortgage on the property for the duration of the loan.
The original amounts of current loans to 20 meetings range between $9,100 and $200,000. The amount borrowed was determined by the needs of the meeting and the availability of the funds in the Friends Meeting House Fund. Some of the meetings with current loans are Charlotte (NC); Reno (NV); New Haven (CT); Twin Cities (MN); Live Oak (TX); Little Rock (AR); Rochester (NY); and Oread (KS).
Grants for Meetings
The Friends Meeting House Fund maintains a Grant Fund from which, at times, it may offer an outright gift to a Meeting with modest resources that wishes to improve its facilities for worship, First-Day School, or other community activities. Grants are usually within a range of $2,000 to $7,500, and depend, of course, on availability of funds. Meetings in Hominy (OK), New Paltz (NY), Beacon Hill (MA), Las Cruces (NM), and Amesbury (MA) are recent recipients of grants.
Contributions to the Friends Meeting House Fund Grant Program
Grants made by the Friends Meeting House Fund are entirely dependent upon contributions from individuals and meetings. These gifts constitute a very direct way in which those with resources to spare can help nurture small, less well-endowed meetings. Contributions to the Grant Fund are tax deductible.
Thinking About Investing?
The Friends Meeting House Fund (FMHF) issues mortgage pool notes to both individuals and meetings. If you or your meeting is interested in finding out more about either applying for a loan or investing in the fund please contact Ken Miller at the address on top of this page.
