Funding Our Vision
Garrett enters its next chapter from a position of strength, built over generations and sustained by a community that believes deeply in the value of theological education.
Today, Garrett’s $156 million endowment provides an extraordinary foundation for that work. In FY26, approximately $7 million in endowment support helped fund the Seminary’s educational mission. Together with careful stewardship of operating resources, that enduring power helps Garrett invest where it matters most: in exceptional teaching and learning, meaningful student support, and the people and programs preparing leaders to serve a changing church and world.
That mission is especially visible in Garrett’s commitment to students. In FY26, the Seminary provided more than $3.2 million in financial aid, making a Garrett education accessible to students whose leadership will reach far beyond our campus and across denominations, communities, and contexts.
But an endowment, even a strong one, cannot do everything. Much of it is designated for specific purposes, which makes unrestricted philanthropy particularly powerful. These gifts give Garrett the flexibility to respond to emerging opportunities, invest in areas of greatest need, strengthen the student experience, and pursue promising ideas that cannot always be anticipated years in advance. Over the past three fiscal years, unrestricted gifts have provided roughly 10% of annual operating expenses on average, a meaningful contribution to the work happening at Garrett every day.
Led by Faith, Building from Strength
At Homecoming this November, Garrett will publicly unveil the plans to deepen and expand our current mission. A bold comprehensive campaign will strengthen our commitment to leadership formation, invest in the communities our graduates serve, and give the seminary institutional flexibility we need to meet challenges and seize opportunities we cannot yet see.
Each of us inherits the legacy of those who came before. Now, it is our turn to nurture those who accept the call to ministry, planting seeds that future generations will tend.
We’re thrilled to share the vision that will guide this campaign. And we hope that you will join us Nov. 12 - 14, and be among the first people to see what we are becoming.
Faithful generosity bears abundant fruit. Join us at God’s table, and let us eat together.
This is the work for which leaders have been trained.
Rev. James Clark III ’07 brings a theological perspective to how churches manage their property. It’s a wisdom he brings to his role on Garrett’s board of trustees as we shape the seminary’s future.

