Reformed Theological Seminary

Reformed Theological Seminary

Reformed Theological Seminary was founded in 1966 in Jackson, Mississippi, with founding benefactor Elliot Belcher establishing its flagship Belcher Campus. Under Chancellor and CEO J. Ligon Duncan III and a board that includes C Spire CEO V. Hu Meena as Vice Chairman, the institution has grown to seven campuses while quietly expanding a diversified endowment pool. The endowment's investment strategy spans an unusually broad set of asset classes for a seminary fund. It participates in early-stage venture, growth equity, buyouts, distressed debt, mezzanine financing, natural resources, and secondaries, alongside a fund-of-funds program. The real-estate footprint itself constitutes a material asset base — the institution owns commercial properties across its Jackson, Orlando, Charlotte, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas campuses. Ground holdings provide durable, directly held assets that complement the financial portfolio's more aggressive private-market exposures. Total endowment assets are estimated at $80 million (Altss estimate), with the Board of Trustees — chaired by Richard L. Ridgway and with William M. Mounger II serving as Treasurer — overseeing allocation decisions. The seminary maintains professional network ties through the Association of Theological Schools, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Washington Theological Consortium, and the Carolina Theological Consortium — networks that may indirectly support deal-sourcing and co-investor introductions. A related entity, the RTS Foundation Inc, manages the institution's philanthropic structures separately from the endowment. The endowment's structural distinction lies in its multi-manager, multi-strategy posture for an institution of its size. Where peer seminaries concentrate portfolios in public equities and fixed income, RTS has built an allocation model that integrates co-investments, fund commitments, venture-stage exposures, and hard assets. This approach places institutional governance demands on the Board of Trustees that are atypical for a theological school, requiring the board to function as an investment committee overseeing manager selection across private and public markets.