Covenant College Foundation

Covenant College Foundation

The Covenant College Foundation was established in 2010 as the planned-giving arm of Covenant College, a private Christian liberal arts college on Lookout Mountain, Georgia, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America. Marc Erickson leads the foundation as Executive Director while also serving as Vice President for Development at the college itself, creating an integrated fundraising and asset-management function uncommon for an institution of this scale. D. Michael Kramer, a Director at Covenant Logistics Group, serves as Treasurer and Trustee, reflecting the deep historical ties between the college, the foundation, and the transportation company's leadership. The foundation's corpus originates from donor-advised contributions, estate-planning vehicles, and real estate gifts directed toward the college's mission. Investment posture is deliberately conservative and mission-aligned. The foundation holds physical real estate directly on Lookout Mountain, including the Apollo Road mixed-use property at 1 and 3 Apollo Road, the Brow Wood residential properties, and additional residential rental units. These properties generate income for the college while serving as a long-duration store of value — the foundation does not operate as a diversified endowment in the Yale model sense. There is no evidence of venture capital commitments, fund-of-funds exposure, or external GP relationships. Philanthropic allocations flow to student scholarships, faculty salaries, athletic programs, and building projects at Covenant College, with the foundation acting as a conduit and custodian rather than a discretionary investment manager. The geographic footprint is entirely concentrated on Lookout Mountain, Georgia. The foundation discloses no professional staff count beyond its named leadership, and the estimated $17 million in assets (Altss estimate) places it among smaller institutional allocators nationally. Marc Erickson maintains professional affiliations with the Chattanooga Estate Planning Council and the National Association of Estate Planners, signaling a focus on planned-giving origination rather than institutional portfolio construction. The foundation maintains no additional offices, club memberships with peer allocators, or adjacent investment vehicles. It does not appear to participate in co-investment syndicates, fund commitments, or manager-selection activity typical of larger endowments. The foundation's structure as a supporting organization legally distinct from the college's endowment creates a specific capital-accumulation vehicle — it can accept gifts of illiquid assets like real estate and hold them indefinitely, while the main endowment likely maintains a more liquid, diversified portfolio. This bifurcation is a genuine organizational differentiator: the foundation handles lumpy, concentrated assets that would challenge a traditional endowment's liquidity and spending-rule constraints. The board-level connection to Covenant Logistics Group through Kramer suggests a pipeline for business-owner philanthropy, though the extent of ongoing contributions from that relationship is not publicly disclosed.