Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Looking for a way to strengthen your Episcopal faith community’s efforts in Stewardship/Annual Giving, Capital Campaigns and Planned Giving? Look no further than ECF 360, a new, low-cost, self-service subscription site for comprehensive fundraising.

Your subscription provides exclusive access to step-by-step guides and calendars to implement your plans, as well as downloadable templates and much more. A yearly subscription is $99 or you can begin with a monthly subscription at $10/month. Here are a few of the options to which you will have exclusive access:

• Stewardship/Annual Giving Resources Choose from numerous customizable annual campaign options and tools. The Annual Giving resources are a part of Episcopal Stewardship Navigator, a site created by a new collaboration between ECF and the Presbyterian Foundation. The new site includes downloadable templates with letters, spreadsheets and resources for conducting various Annual Giving campaigns, along with resources for successful year-round Stewardship efforts, like narrative budgeting, calendar guidelines, document storage and much more!
• Capital Campaign Resources Guides you through ECF’s time-tested three-stage Discern, Study and Ask method for a small capital campaign. The site’s step-by-step, self-guided process has been used successfully in hundreds of Episcopal parishes and entities across the country. This module helps users determine whether to seek a professional consultant or to use this self-service process and downloadable tools to conduct their capital campaign themselves.
• Planned Giving Resources Gives you direct access to the many tools of ECF’s Planned Giving on Demand toolkit. The Planned Giving tools available in this new site were developed from ECF’s popular online resources for Planned Giving on Demand.

Free Resources on ECF Vital Practices

Not to worry, there still are also numerous high-quality resources available for no charge to help you raise financial resources for your Episcopal parish or organization. They include:

• Annual Stewardship & Giving Links to several online resources, including useful ECF articles, various organizations that help with raising annual gifts, as well as current demographic information and an online giving tool.
• Capital Campaigns & Special Appeals Links to various resources, including numerous sites for creating printed and web-based materials, useful ECF articles, initial guidance for considering a Capital Campaign and the use of a consultant, in addition to customizable template documents and step-by-step guidelines to conduct a Special Appeal for closing budget gaps or other immediate needs.
• Planned Giving & Endowment Resources Links to several online tools including useful ECF resources to guide your leaders to build trust & confidence among constituents, create a lasting program for encouraging legacy gifts and wisely invest assets and gifts received.
• Donor Resources & Tools Links to several online tools and websites to guide donors to create both current and future gifts, become more philanthropic and benefit your parish or Episcopal organization.

These resources, subscription and free, are yet another way the Episcopal Church Foundation lives out its commitment to promote generosity and stewardship and help faith communities raise and manage financial resources

Resources:

• Finance Resource Guide Tools and Resources an ECF Vital Practices tool
• Real Talk About Budgets, Part One by Greg Syler, an ECF Vital Practices blog, January 20, 2022
• Unlikely Abundance by Michael Carney, an ECF Vital Practices blog, January 3, 2022
• Financial Interconnectedness Amidst COVID-19 by Miguel Escobar, Vestry Papers, January 2021