Our first and foremost hope is that every SWTU member and his or her family are staying healthy. With the COVID challenges in mind, we wish you a safe holiday season. 2021, we hope, will bring a return to normal as soon as possible.

While Chapter income is down, so are expenses. For now SWTU is in excellent financial shape. We have enough reserves to fund our programs when they resume and help our partners with worthwhile restoration projects next year. Let’s look a bit further down the road.

With a donation to our Endowment Fund, you can help SWTU improve and expand our conservation work in the coming years.

Two years ago the Chapter set up a legally sound and professionally managed Endowment Fund with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. Its purpose is to invest our funds to secure principal and generate reliable income. Under the terms of the endowment, this annual income must support the restoration of trout streams in our area. Many of our generous members have wanted to support the Chapter’s conservation work in the future and for the life of the Chapter; the Endowment Fund provides the means to do so. Donations to the Endowment Fund become part of the principal that generates annual returns.

Thanks to the sound management of the Natural Resources Foundation and your generosity, the Fund is working exactly as planned. It has grown each year and, despite the unsettled economy of 2020, will probably do so this year. The annual distribution already supports our trout stream restorations.

Please consider making a donation to our endowment fund this year. You can do so by mailing a check to SWTU, P.O. Box 45555, Madison, WI 53744. Please make your check payable to the Natural Resources Foundation of WI and put SWTU on the memo line. If you want to make a donation in another form, such as appreciated securities or a direct donation from your IRA, please contact Tom Parker at Tparker23@charter.net. Donations can also be made online at WisConservation.org/Donate. (Enter Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited where asked to enter an endowment fund name.)

As COVID 19 caused us and SWTU to cancel so many plans and reminded us of how transitory much of our lives are, many of us have looked for more permanent, perpetual ways of helping the people we love and the causes we believe in. SWTU’s Endowment Fund is a way to support our trout conservation work for generations.

Thanks for considering this request and take care.

Best wishes,

The Officers and Board of SWTU