Churches celebrate milestones in many ways—new ministries, baptisms, confirmations, and anniversaries. But what about the legacy of generosity that sustains the church through generations? That's where Legacy Sunday comes in.
Endowment gifts may come to your church in different ways. A longtime member may include your church in their will, or family may reach out after a loved one passes and wants to donate stock. Someone might pull you aside after a service and ask, “If I wanted to leave a legacy gift to the church, how would that work?”
My wife and I opened a Donor Advised Fund this year and it has changed our relationship with charitable giving.
My first question when our financial advisors recommended that we use a Donor Advised Fund was: What is a Donor Advised Fund?
In short, a Donor Advised Fund is an account that you open with a charitable foundation (including the Episcopal Church Foundation!*) to manage your giving. You give to the Donor Advised Fund when it makes sense for you to do so, usually for tax reasons, and then you “advise” the foundation when you want to disburse some or all of those funds to a charitable organization like your parish church. Donor Advised Funds are especially helpful if your income varies from year-to-year but you want to offer consistent support to your church – we should all want to give generously and consistently to our churches! – and to the other organizations you care about.
I noticed something after my first stewardship campaign as a rector: Many of my parishioners were making their gifts through stock transfers, distributions from retirement accounts, or grants from donor advised funds and family foundations. They weren’t just writing checks from their bank accounts like I was.
At first, this all seemed curious but unimportant. Who cares how someone makes a gift so long as they make it? Yet, I soon came to realize that understanding our parishioners’ structures of giving made me a much more effective fundraiser and, frankly, a much more effective pastor too.
Strategic giving shifts philanthropy from casual or reactive charity into a deliberate tool for creating meaningful, systemic solutions and lasting benefits, employing strategies to ensure each contribution advances a specific mission or goal.
Last week, Dail St. Claire, President and CEO of the Episcopal Church Foundation, led an insightful discussion on "Strategic Giving: Philanthropy or Impact Investment for Social Change" at the Parrish Museum in Water Mill, NY. She was joined by leading philanthropists Jean Shafiroff, author of “Successful Philanthropy, How to Make a Life by What You Give," along with Patricia Silverstein, Francie Heller, and Charna Boquette.
2025 could be a great time for you to maximize your charitable giving through a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) before new limits on charitable deductions go into effect in 2026.[1] Bundling multiple years of charitable gifts into one 2025 DAF deposit can help you maximize your deduction benefits and position you to sustain your annual charitable commitments through grants from your DAF in the years to come.
As we turn toward the end of the year, let’s consider how setting up a DAF with the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) can help you achieve your charitable giving goals for 2025 and beyond. Here’s some of the top benefits you can receive by setting up an ECF DAF in 2025:
A Church Too Small for an Endowment? Think Again!
Do leaders at your small church think an endowment is out of reach? Not so! At ECF, we know from our work with hundreds of Episcopal organizations that church size and endowment size are not necessarily related. Plenty of churches with small congregations can have a well-managed endowment to provide extra annual revenue and improve future financial stability. Yet some small churches see real and imagined impediments that limit their ambition to establish and sustain an endowment. Let’s look directly at some of these (mis)perceptions to inspire you to see beyond them.
Reflections from a Sabbatical Road Trip
Earlier this month, I took a short sabbatical road trip with my six-year-old son— a journey that took us from our home in Michigan through Ontario and into Quebec, with stops in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Along the way, we immersed ourselves in one of our favorite pastimes: hockey. We caught NHL games in all three cities, visited the Hockey Hall of Fame, and sang along to Stompin’ Tom Connor’s The Hockey Song more times than I can count.
The importance of legacy is firmly rooted in the minds and hearts of the parishioners of All Saints Episcopal Church in Tarpon Springs, FL. I interviewed The Reverend Janet Tunnell, the rector, James Rissler, chair of the Funding our Future committee, and Ellen Lightner, chair of the Perpetual Light Legacy Society, to learn how creating a legacy society helped and is continuing to help All Saints grow the church’s endowment for the future.
Believe it or not, it’s that time of year again. It’s time to start planning to encourage your donors to make gift before the end of the year! We hope that you have been encouraging giving throughout the year. Even so, many donors discover, due to summer vacations and various other reasons that they have fallen behind on their pledges. The last few months of the year are a great time to send giving statements to your donors as gentle reminders of their previous commitments and to remind them about additional ways to give.
Most people prefer not talking about death. Consequently, most people die without a written will. So what happens then?
If you don’t have a will the state has already written one for you. And guess how the state will distribute your assets after you die? Lawyers are first in line, of course. Then taxes, creditors, and finally loved ones. Nothing goes to charity.
Also, your survivors get to pay the maximum in estate and inheritance taxes.
With a will you control applicable taxes, you determine what charities you want to be part of your legacy. You release your family from unnecessary turmoil and delay in settling your estate.
I have been privileged to hear many personal stories about the deep commitment people feel toward their parish. I remember a young woman recounting when she became a single parent and how her parish rallied around her providing on-going emotional support, as well as sometimes buying diapers and assisting with baby-sitting her daughter. To this woman, her parish literally became her support network and extended family.
In every workshop I do on legacy giving from one’s estate, there is one I phrase I say consistently: “When someone makes a planned gift of any kind to their parish, that person raises their congregation to the level of family in their estate plans”. Such a gift demonstrates that someone believes so strongly in the mission and ministry of his/her parish, that they would elevate them to the same status as one of their children or grandchildren for the eventual distribution of their worldly goods. Such a gift is not a simple token but demonstrates tremendous passion and conviction for the future ministry of the parish.
When someone makes this choice -- whether a bequest, remaining IRA balance, insurance policy or residuum of a Charitable Remainder Trust or Gift Annuity – that person offers a testimony: “I want to support my parish’s future ministry and to continue to participate in the mission which became so vital during my lifetime.”
Gifts and memorials from departed church members are not a popular topic that gets discussed in our congregations. As a society and as individuals we have an aversion to discussing and planning for our own death and those of our loved ones. However, given the demographics of our congregations, much of our clergy’s time is spent doing frequent funerals. Also as individuals we are often unprepared and are making major decisions during our bereavement or illness which is not optimal. Not only do we miss the presence and talents of our departed members but also their financial contributions which helps to maintain the ministry of our churches.
We do need to reintroduce the topic of Gifts and Memorials for the church leadership and congregation, a few ideas to consider include:
Building a Legacy for Future Ministry
In the August Vital Practices Digest, we offer five resources related to planned giving. As always, our fifth resource suggests a way to strengthen your practice of year-round stewardship.
It’s easy and free to connect with these resources for your congregation. Subscribe to ECF Vital Practices and receive Vestry Papers and this Vital Practices Digest in your inbox each month.
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