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Chicago (ELCA)-FI — The Mission Investment Fund of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will be in the spotlight on CNBC, a financial news channel on cable television, the mornings of March 2 and 5. The Fund will be Terry Bradshaw's "Pick of the Week" and will be the subject of two 60-second segments.
CNBC will broadcast the first segment between 6:30 and 7 a.m. on March 2, during its "Wake Up Call" program with Liz Claman and Brad Goode. The second segment will air between 7 and 7:30 a.m. on March 5, during "Squawk Box" with Mark Haines. All times are Eastern Standard Time.
Bradshaw's Pick of the Week segments highlight companies and organizations "whose achievements reflect the grit and determination required to succeed in extraordinary times." Pick of the Week segments shed light on the positive experiences that occur each day in American business.
"We all want to make wise investments that grow our money. One organization, the Mission Investment Fund of the ELCA, allows investors to increase the value of their resources while helping to build the Lutheran church. Investors get a good return on their funds while doing something worthwhile," Bradshaw said, introducing the segments on CNBC.
"The Mission Investment Fund fulfills Lutheran congregations' needs for capital that would otherwise go unmet," he said.
CNBC staff videotaped interviews with Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer and the Mission Investment Fund's president, the Rev. Arnold Pierson, the Fund's vice president for church relations and communication, and Eva Roby, the Fund's executive vice president for administration, for the segments.
"We are delighted that the Mission Investment Fund of the ELCA has been selected for Terry Bradshaw's Pick of the Week," Roby said later. "Churches have unique financial needs and young congregations in particular have few alternatives when attempting to fund capital projects," she said.
"It is extremely gratifying to be recognized by this well-regarded program for our efforts to provide low-interest loans to ELCA congregations and to provide opportunities for investors to earn interest on their financial resources," Roby said.
The Mission Investment Fund offers investment opportunities to ELCA congregations, their members and ELCA-affiliated institutions such as colleges, universities and social-service agencies. With the invested monies, the Fund makes loans to ELCA mission congregations for purchases of land and construction of initial church units, and to established ELCA congregations for renovating or expanding existing facilities, relocations and purchases of land. Nearly 500 loans are in effect throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
More than one-third of the ELCA's 10,721 congregations, thousands of individual Lutherans and numerous ELCA-affiliated institutions are investors in the Fund.
Information about the Mission Investment Fund — including current interest rates and the full offering of investment opportunities — is available at www.elca.org/mif on the ELCA Web site.