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.
No comments:
Post a Comment