Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

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?”

In those moments, you may feel excited and grateful, followed by a rush of questions from the potential donor that you may not be ready to answer. Does the church have an endowment or another option for long term funds? How does the church handle gifts with specific instructions for how they are used? What is the process for accepting gifts beyond cash and checks, such as stocks or real estate? Is there a written policy that guides how the church accepts different kinds of gifts?

Whether your church is receiving its first endowment gift or has had an endowment for years, having a thoughtful structure ready will help you make the giving experience easy for you and the giver and help to encourage more gifts.

Begin with Purpose: What Is This Gift For?

Every endowment gift raises a simple but important question: What is this gift for and how will it be used?

Some donors come with very clear intentions. They want their gift to support music ministry, or fund scholarships for young people to attend camp, or establish a permanent position for outreach ministry in the neighborhood. These are restricted gifts, and the donor’s wishes define how the funds may be used, now and into the future.

Other donors give without restriction, leaving it up to the church to use the funds in ways that best serve its mission. Unrestricted gifts offer the greatest flexibility, but they still require clarity from the church about how those funds will be used.

It can be helpful to reflect on a few key questions before a gift is received. What is the vision and purpose of our endowment? How do we use incoming gifts to support the mission of the endowment? What kinds of gifts are we prepared to accept, and which might require more expertise or help to accept, such as art, real estate or stocks? A church with clear answers to these questions is far better positioned to receive a gift well and to communicate with donors in a way that builds trust.

If your church has not created or recently revisited the vision and purpose of your endowment, you might find this post on creating a vision and purpose for your endowment helpful.

Clarify Who Is Responsible

When a gift arrives, someone needs to be ready to receive it graciously and competently. That means having clear answers to some basic governance questions before the conversation with a donor ever happens.

Who has the authority to accept a gift on behalf of the church? This may be the vestry, or it may be shared or delegated to a dedicated endowment committee or a finance committee. Whatever structure your church uses, the important thing is that roles are defined and that the people in those roles understand their responsibilities. When it is unclear who’s responsible for accepting gifts, even a generous and well-intentioned gift can create conflict or confusion.

Have a Gift Acceptance Policy

A gift acceptance policy is a document that guides your church in deciding how to receive, evaluate, and steward endowment gifts. It spells out what types of gifts your church can accept, who is involved in the acceptance of gifts, the conditions under which gifts may be accepted, and how gifts will be used.

Why does this matter? Consider a few scenarios. A donor wants to give stock. Does your church have a brokerage account to receive it? A donor wants to leave real estate to the church in their will. Is your church prepared to evaluate whether to accept it? A donor gives a restricted gift, and ten years later the ministry it was designated for no longer exists. What happens then?

A gift acceptance policy gives your church a framework so that you are not starting from scratch each time someone gives a gift. It also signals to donors that your church takes stewardship seriously, which builds the trust that endowment giving requires.

Document Donor Intent

When a donor makes a restricted gift, their intentions should be captured in writing. This protects everyone: the donor, whose wishes deserve to be honored; the church, which needs clear guidance on how the funds may be used; and future leaders, who were not part of the original conversation and need a record to rely on.

A gift intention form is a simple but important tool. It captures the donor’s name, the purpose of the gift, any restrictions on its use, and the form of the contribution. It also helps the donor and the church come to a clear understanding before the gift is finalized.

For unrestricted gifts, documentation is still important. Keeping clear records of how funds are used helps future committees understand the history of the endowment which helps them to make good decisions moving forward.

Prepare Your Congregation

Endowment giving doesn’t happen in a vacuum. People give to churches they trust, and they trust churches that communicate openly about how gifts are used. If your congregation does not know your endowment exists or what happens when they give a gift or the different ways they can give, you are missing an opportunity to invite new and recurring donors.

Think about how you talk about the endowment in your parish life. Do members know who to contact if they are thinking about a legacy gift? Do they hear stories about how the endowment has made ministry and programs at your church possible?

When churches speak clearly and consistently about endowment giving, they make it easier for members to say yes to giving. And when a donor does come forward, your church is ready to receive the gift well.