25 years later, 130,000 students have benefited from the Church’s Perpetual Education Fund loans

When President Gordon B. Hinckley announced the creation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Perpetual Education Fund during the April 2001 general conference, he said the plan was “inspired by the Lord.”

He also called it a “bold initiative.”

“But we believe in the need for it and in the success that it will enjoy,” he said. “Where there is widespread poverty among our people, we must do all we can to help them to lift themselves, to establish their lives upon a foundation of self-reliance that can come of training. Education is the key to opportunity.”

Now 25 years later, the Perpetual Education Fund has helped 130,000 Latter-day Saint students outside the U.S. and Canada with financial aid for education.

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