Key points:
- At a time when many U.S. colleges struggle to survive, United Methodist-related Greensboro College credits two church institutions with putting it on firmer financial footing.
- Wespath now manages its endownment, and Wesleyan Impact Partners has refinanced its debt.
- Leaders say the collaboration, the first of its kind, could be a model for United Methodist higher education across the U.S.
Faced with the lingering financial drag of the pandemic, Lawrence Czarda needed a new banking solution for the small United Methodist-related college he has led for nearly 16 years.
But he was uncertain what the right alternative could be.
“Very simply stated, small private liberal arts colleges do not fit the credit profile of commercial banks,” said Czarda, the president of Greensboro College in Greensboro, North Carolina. “We just don’t. Our cash flow is different. It’s very cyclical.”
That conundrum ultimately led Czarda to reach out to two United Methodist-related institutions — Wespath Institutional Investments and Wesleyan Impact Partners — that he credits with helping Greensboro College chart a more sustainable path.
Working together, the three institutions have forged a first-of-its-kind collaboration that their leaders hope can offer lessons for United Methodist higher education.
Wespath Institutional Investments, a subsidiary of The United Methodist Church’s retirement benefits agency, now has management of Greensboro College’s endowment — growing the school’s assets in line with United Methodist values.
Wesleyan Impact Partners, a nonprofit that provides banking services for churches and other ministries nationwide, refinanced the college’s senior debt — offering more affordable terms than what a commercial lender would provide.
Now about eight months into working with Wespath and Wesleyan Impact Partners, Czarda has high hopes for the partnership going forward.
“We are the first college that has its endowment managed by a Methodist-oriented institution that’s not-for-profit, and our debt held by a Methodist institution, again focused on not-for-profits,” Czarda said.
He and his board, he said, “think this is a model that is going to be widespread and common in five years.”
Johara Farhadieh — Wespath’s chief investment officer and head of its institutional investments subsidiary — said the three institutions’ experience is “a reminder of what we can achieve together when we move as one.”
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“By aligning around mission and pooling our expertise, we turned a challenge into an opportunity,” she said. “I believe when institutions join forces with values-aligned partners, they unlock solutions that protect missions and create long-term stability. That’s a blueprint we are definitely excited to bring to other faith-based colleges.”
There’s no question that faith-based and other small, private colleges in the U.S. have faced strong economic headwinds in recent years. Their hardships include drops in enrollment, reduced revenue from tuition and mounting debt resulting from what observers are calling “a demographic cliff” — the result of Americans having fewer babies starting with the Great Recession. The COVID pandemic has only added to schools’ financial woes.
Since March 2020, more than 40 nonprofit, four-year institutions have shuttered or announced closures. These include the 2024 closure of Birmingham-Southern College, a United Methodist-related school in Alabama that counted pastors, conference leaders and at least one bishop among its alumni.
While it didn’t close, Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tennessee, also made a big change — deciding it could better sustain its future by joining the public University of Tennessee System in 2021.
Unlike state universities, private colleges receive no direct public funding, and that can make for more precarious finances.
“We do not receive a single dollar from any public entity,” Czarda said. “If a student qualifies for state or federal financial aid, they can choose voluntarily to use it to come to our college. That’s unlike state systems where if you choose to go to a public institution, there is a direct payment from the state treasury directly to the institution that the family and the student probably doesn’t even know about.”
In North Carolina, he said, the state directly pays a public university up to about $14,000 per student. In contrast, an individual student can qualify for a maximum of about $7,500 in publicly funded financial aid, and a school like Greensboro College will only receive that amount if the student enrolls there.
Nevertheless, small liberal arts colleges continue to draw students who prefer smaller class sizes and more contact with their professors than they would get at a big state university. That was Czarda’s experience. Unlike his sisters who went to Rutgers University, Czarda opted for Bridgewater College in Virginia’s Central Shenandoah Valley. “That was the environment I needed,” he said.
United Methodist-related schools also have served as a pipeline for pastors and active lay church members across the U.S.
At this point, The United Methodist Church maintains connections with 104 United Methodist-related schools, colleges and universities nationwide.
Greensboro College proudly claims its United Methodist identity with a United Methodist chaplain on campus and United Methodist lay people and clergy, including a district superintendent, on its board. Czarda himself is a member of West Market Street United Methodist Church, a downtown congregation founded by the same Methodist circuit rider, Peter Doub, who led the establishment of Greensboro College in 1838.
With those deep church roots in mind, Czarda has been an active leader in the North American Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges and Universities — called NAAMSCU for short.
It was at a NAAMSCU event where Czarda first connected with Joe Halwax, Wespath’s senior managing director for institutional investment service. Wespath is a frequent sponsor of NAAMSCU events.
Halwax said that he and Czarda first talked about connectionalism — the United Methodist term for the network that binds churches, denominational structures and other entities like colleges and hospitals together in shared ministry and mission.
Halwax said Czarda and Greensboro’s board were looking at their finances broadly and seeking different partners within the connection.
“We were able to really convey to Dr. Czarda the role Wespath should play in the sense that we touch everybody,” Halwax said. “We touch every legacy participant, every conference and every clergy and lay person in our retirement and benefit plans. And our institutional team, which I’m fortunate to manage, we have a calling to serve every legacy Methodist nonprofit organization — whether it’s hospitals, whether it’s colleges, whether it’s the foundations, whether it’s children's homes.”
Wespath manages about $27 billion in investments overall. Of that total, the agency manages about $6 billion in institutional assets for about 160 nonprofits including eight higher education organizations.
Greensboro College is now among those institutional investors.
However, Wespath does not provide banking services. That’s why Halwax connected Czarda with Wesleyan Impact Partners, which does provide loans and other services.
Wesleyan Impact Partners, an official United Methodist ministry partner, works with churches and other ministries across the Wesleyan faith traditions. Over the years, the nonprofit has made thousands of loans to churches across the United States. It also provides grants to various innovative ministries including providing the Locke Innovative Leader Awards to lay and clergy whose ministry has a positive effect on the Wesleyan ecosystem.
Chris Miller, chief lending officer for Wesleyan Impact Partners, said college lending is a new frontier for his nonprofit.
“It’s an opportunity, because, similar to churches, especially smaller liberal arts colleges might not be the most desired banking partners for traditional banks, as there have been mergers and acquisitions in the for-profit banking world,” Miller said. “So, it’s an opportunity where it can still be a good loan for us and we can provide a better outcome for the school itself.”
Wesleyan Impact Partners hopes to work with more colleges, but Miller stressed that the nonprofit would need to evaluate each school’s financial situation on a case-by-case basis.
Still, all involved cite Greensboro College’s experience as an example of how connectionalism can strengthen ministry.
The Rev. Tamara K. Gieselman, director of education for the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, would like to see similar partnerships multiply.
Gieselman works closely with schools affiliated with the denomination. She is also the executive secretary of the University Senate, the body that evaluates whether United Methodist-related schools maintain required educational standards.
“Wespath is forging relationships that are valuable to the United Methodist denomination and to our United Methodist-related schools, colleges and universities,” she said. “The net must be widened so that all who are connected to United Methodist-related higher education contribute to the greater good.”
Czarda said there have been more small liberal arts colleges than the market can bear, and the closures happening now are part of a necessary pruning. Nevertheless, he also said such institutions do provide a service both to the church and the wider community.
“I believe the small, private liberal arts college still has a real place in the American ecosystem of higher ed,” he said. “I believe that those who continue will be stronger.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
