Planned Giving Pop Quiz

Situation: You’re wrapping up your FY 14 Budget meeting with your Parish Finance Committee and someone walks in and hands you a check from Mary Smith made out to the parish for $530,000

Would you and your Finance Committee be able to find a way to spend this money this coming year? Yes _____ No ______

Here’s another Question?

If ‘Mary Smith’ or ‘Jane Doe’ each gave gifts from their estates to their Church of nearly or more than a half million dollars without being formally asked to do so? How much could you add to your annual Stewardship program if you actually started asking your loyal parishioners for gifts from their estates????

Why is Planned Giving Important?

• It’s part of a Disciples Response to Stewardship as a Way of Life

• ‘An educational program designed to promote planned giving can be a tool to help parishioners seeking to deepen their stewardship commitment to the Church.

USCCB Pastoral Letter on Stewardship-A Disciples Response

Purpose of a Planned Giving Program

To provide structure and protection of the donor intent for gifts made in gratitude and trust of the long-term effectiveness of your parish ministries.

“Helping people complete their stewardship by making faithful decisions about the accumulation that God has allowed them to keep”

Creating a Positive Climate for Giving

Don Joiner

Benefits of a Planned Giving Program

Making a Planned Gift to the Church can help your parishoners:

-Continue to support the ministries of the parish that mean the most to them..for future generations

-Reduce or Avoid Capital Gains taxes

-Protect and potentially increase the size of their estate for their heirs

-Increase their existing income (e.g. CGA)

You don’t have to be ‘wealthy’ to do this!

“My estate will never be large enough to be able to build libraries, but it may be large enough to buy some books for a library”

-Minnesota Schoolteacher

What are the ‘Steps’

It all begins with LEADERSHIP- A commitment to Success in your Stewardship Program

-Your pastor fully supports a Planned Giving program in the parish

-Speaks to the importance of planned giving as part of a stewardship commitment to Church

-Leads by his example

-Helps recruit lay leaders for the program

-Speaks at Heritage Society events

What are the ‘Steps’

Step 1: Establish a Parish/School Endowment Fund with the Catholic Community Foundation

Step 2: Get started with a “Will Survey” or a “Search Letter/Flyer” to identify members who have already left your parish an estate gift

Step 3: Recruit a person to ‘Champion’ your Planned Giving/Endowment Program who would also serve on your Stewardship Committee

What are the ‘Steps’

Step 4: Recruit a Planned Giving/Endowment Committee as a subcommittee of Stewardship

Step 5: Set goals for Parish Planned Giving Endowment efforts as part of your strategic plan (what could we accomplish with a $2.0 million endowment that returned $100,000 a year!)

Step 6: Develop a 3-5 year action plan to educate and engage parishioners in supporting Endowment Funds and joining Heritage Society

What are the ‘Steps’

Step 7: Establish a “Heritage or Legacy” Society to formally honor those who have named Church in their estate plan or left gift to Endowment

Step 8: Add a link to the Catholic Community Foundation’s planned giving web content on your parish’s website: http://www.ccf-mn.org/Tools_For_Parishes

Step 9: Develop ways to track and record parishioners intent to leave the Church a gift from their state

What are the ‘Steps’

Step 10: Conduct an annual special event (e.g. Endowment Sunday) to recognize the Parish ‘Heritage Society’ members and welcome new members each year

How do I get started?

The chapter on Planned Giving in the Stewardship Toolkit can help you with the Basics:

-A sample Will Survey Letter for your Pastor to send out to parish

-A sample ‘Search Flyer’ to survey parishioners who have made planned gifts and inviting them to an initial ‘Heritage Society’ event

-Some steps for building a marketing/education program

-A sample ‘Letter of Intent’ to document future estate gifts from parishioners

Where can I get other good ideas?

Look to others who have demonstrated ‘best practices’ in this area of Stewardship

-St. Odilia Shoreview

-Basilica of St. Mary’s Minneapolis

-St Therese Deephaven

-St. John the Baptist New Brighton

-Our Lady of Grace Edina

-St. Peter’s Richfield

Suggested Resources for Endowment and Planned Giving in Churches

Creative Giving-Understanding Planned Giving and Endowments in Church

Michael Reeves, Rob Fairly, Sanford Coon

(Discipleship Resources 2005)

Creating a Climate for Giving

Don Joiner

(Discipleship Resources 2001)