What It Is

Note: For information on applying for a Perpetual Education Fund loan, contact the institute director or CES coordinator in your region.

The Perpetual Education Fund is a revolving fund of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, created under the direction of President Gordon B. Hinckley to benefit young men and women in underprivileged countries. The fund is intended primarily to assist returned missionaries who often face a life of poverty after faithful Church service. Patterned after the Perpetual Emigration Fund that was instrumental in helping more than 30,000 early Church members journey to the Salt Lake Valley, the Perpetual Education Fund will assist today's Church members in their quest for literacy and self-reliance.

Why It Is a Priority

Education is the key to opportunity. Much of the Church's recent growth is in areas of the world where poverty is widespread. Church leaders desire to do everything possible to help members lift themselves through education and establish lives based upon proven principles of self-reliance. The fund will help members receive training in their native countries that is well-suited to long-term employment in those areas.

What It Does and How It Helps

The Perpetual Education Fund is not a welfare effort but an educational opportunity. Funded by contributions from members and friends of the Church, the program will be directed through the oversight of the Church's institute program. The initial scope of this opportunity is measured potentially by the Church's 1,950 institute programs conducted in 321 buildings throughout the world, serving more than 316,000 participants. Institute directors will accept applications and recommend candidates to receive loans. Successful applicant's tuition and/or other expenses will be advanced by the Church directly to the appropriate educational institution as loan proceeds from the Perpetual Education Fund. The fund will be administered through the Church by volunteer leadership and will require minimal administrative expense. It will begin modestly and is anticipated to grow in scope until it benefits a substantial number of individuals.

The Perpetual Education Fund will be a revolving resource, where money is loaned, repaid and then loaned again to assist others in need. Loan recipients will be charged minimal interest and will repay their loans when their education is complete and they have secured gainful employment.

About this fund, President Gordon B. Hinckley has said, "We pray that God will prosper this effort, and that it will bring blessings, rich and wonderful, upon the heads of thousands just as its predecessor organization, the Perpetual Emigration Fund, brought untold blessings upon the lives of those who partook of its opportunities."

Your participation in this important program is invited and would be most appreciated by the thousands of young men and women for whom the doors of opportunity will be opened and whose families, community, and local Church organizations will be blessed.