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Wednesday, August 7, 2024

 

                   PLANNED GIVING – CAN YOU HANDLE A LARGE GIFT?

 

            Last week I talked about planned giving. This week, I want to talk about why some people aren’t willing to give large gifts to churches: they may believe that their church couldn’t handle a very large gift. Why?


            Sometimes their impression is that the church functions in a way that a person may function when they are living paycheck to paycheck. It may seem to the potential giver that the church is always struggling to pay its bills, and wouldn’t know what to do if they suddenly had a larger amount of money.

            There’s a perception, warranted or not, that there is no one with investment expertise nor is there anything set up to handle large sums of cash. The potential giver sees “regular” members of the church in the meetings and no outside specialists.

            With members of committees changing regularly, and pastor changes, they see priorities of the church changing. The potential giver may be worried that there will be no control or oversight after they’re gone.

            Whether these beliefs are right or wrong, the church needs to face them head on.

            First, acknowledge the issues.


            Put an investment policy in place for large gifts.

            Set up an infrastructure to ensure that donor’s wishes are honored.

            Have the leadership sit down together and answer the question: if someone came up to us tomorrow and say they have a $250,000 gift and ask what we do with it, what’s our answer? Prepare a “wish list” of things that the church could invest in or spend on that would further the work of God in the community.


            Discuss how you would invest and manage the funds.

            How do you record and retain the wishes of the donor.

            Then communicate this information and your plans so prospective donors understand.

            Over the next couple of blogs, I’ll talk about some of these concerns in more detail.

            If you wish more information on anything you’ve been reading about, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com or susanranous@unyumc.org.  I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.

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