Whether you’re trying to buy, build, or modernize your meeting house, Friends Meeting House Fund is here to make your vision a reality.
A Friends Meeting House Fund loan can help cover these items your meeting’s wish list:
- Accessibility upgrades
- Building additions
- Energy efficiency upgrades
- Mechanical systems
- Remodeling
- Roof repair
Quaker meetings can apply for a loan from the Friends Meeting House Fund for renovating, constructing, or purchasing a meeting house. Meetings can secure a loan for adding on to other structures on meeting house property, including conserving, protecting, restoring, or enhancing the immediate environment of those structures.
In 2017, we adopted a new, more sustainable solution to better serve Quaker meetings and keep the cost of running the Fund low by creating a partnership with Everence Association, Inc. (Everence®).
From Matt Gehman, Vice President of Lending at Everence®:
“Since its founding in 1945, Everence has been committed to helping people integrate their faith and finances. Through its loan program, Everence offers Meetings flexible loan solutions including mortgage loans, lines of credit, and construction loans. Everence’s Meeting loans are funded by its high-impact annuity program, which aligns the priorities of likeminded believers from the faith community who desire to help grow the faith community and its ministries through their investments.”
Our partnership with Everence® means we are still able to provide an important and valuable service to Friends while having access to a larger resource pool that will enable us to serve even more Quaker meetings. In our new model, Friends Meeting House Fund will help meetings acquire the loans they need, while Everence® administers the loans.
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5 Reasons to Get a Loan from the Friends Meeting House Fund & Everence Instead of a Traditional Bank
- Part of FMHF’s mission is to help Meetings integrate their Quaker faith and finances. Commercial Banks are for-profit business organizations; they do not use Quaker values in their business operations.
- FMHF undertakes a stewardship process that encourages Meetings to consider their Quaker values when making financial decisions. Commercial banks review the creditworthiness of Quaker meetings against their own financial criteria, guided by those of the banking industry, for creditworthiness.
- FMHF Board Members are a group of professionals who can help Meetings understand and guide them through the process of preparing for, applying for and securing a loan to buy, renovate, or add on to meeting houses or other structures on meeting house property. Commercial banks place the burden solely on your meeting in preparing for, applying for and securing a mortgage loan.
- FMHF has entered into an agreement with Everence Association, Inc. (Everence), a member-owned, faith-based financial services organization founded by the Mennonites and other Anabaptist peace churches, to provide mortgage loans to Meetings. Thanks to its unique tax status as a fraternal benefit society, Everence can offer highly competitive rates for mortgages. For-profit corporations, like commercial banks, are taxed as such and have lesser flexibility in setting mortgage rates.
- As a faith-based organization, Everence has more flexibility in loan workouts than do commercial banks. Everence also offers confidential budget and debt counseling services for mortgage holders. In addition, FMHF Board Members can offer confidential budget and with debt counseling services to Meetings. As for-profit organizations answerable to shareholders, Commercial banks have less flexibility concerning loan workouts and generally to not offer confidential budget and loan counseling services to mortgage holders.