The Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) was established in 2001 to help young men and women get a good education and become self-reliant after serving a mission for the Church.
- The program is funded through contributions of Church and friends. It is a revolving resource in which money is loaned to an individual to help pay for advanced education or training. When a student has graduated and is working, he or she then pays back the loan to the fund at a low interest rate.
- The PEF currently helps participants between the ages of 18 and 30 in 31 countries.
- The program is patterned after the Perpetual Emigration Fund, which helped more than 30,000 early Church journey to the Salt Lake Valley from Europe in the mid to late 1800s.