Building the Awareness Program

How People Give

Within the Church, as in other institutions, people make charitable gifts at three levels: to annual appeals, to capital campaigns, and through planned or deferred gifts. Translated into “Church language,” this becomes ordinary, extraordinary, and ultimate giving.

Ordinary Giving

Parishes count on regular, ongoing, and reliable annual gifts, and hope that they will increase from year to year. The parish annual giving campaign is often called the “Every-Member Canvass,” “Annual Appeal,” or, more recently, the “Stewardship Canvass.” Annual gifts are given in response to an awareness that good work is being done, and they are typically given from a family’s income. In making annual gifts, people often want to know exactly how the parish is using the money.

Extraordinary Giving

Capital gifts are usually given in response to a special campaign, in which a parish presents its “Case,” which has been developed carefully, often through a long range planning process and a feasibility study. Specific projects are identified in the Case, such as building a new parish hall or endowing a scholarship fund.

Capital campaigns are time-restricted, with a definite beginning and end, and have a well-publicized dollar goal. Gifts to a capital campaign are given with clear understanding of how the money will be used. They often are made as pledges, to be paid in annual installments, seldom over more than five years, and may be made from income or appreciated securities.

Ultimate Giving

A planned gift is the ultimate form of Christian witness. It may be the largest gift one makes to the Church and is often a once-in-a-lifetime gift.

Typically, the planned gift donor has contributed time and money to the church regularly and for a long time. Planned gifts are given in response to an affection and concern for the Church, and in support of its work. But in addition to the questions donors ask about how money will be used when they make annual and special gifts, potential planned gift donors ask a third question. Since planned gifts are almost always made from assets, they wonder, “Will my money be safe?”

These concepts of how people give are summarized in the following chart:

Type:	Annual Gift	Capital Gift	Planned Gift
Amount:	x	10x	100x
Source	Income	Income or Assets	Assets
Question:	What are you doing with the $$?	What will you do with the $$$?	Will my assets be safe?

For a gift planning program to be successful it must communicate through the structure that a donor’s assets will be safe and their wishes will be honored. But in the end, love of God, family and community are the true motivating reasons why anyone would make a planned gift.

Why People Give

Motivation

As Christians we begin and end our lives in faith, and during our lifetime demonstrate our faith as active members of the Christian community through our involvement in a parish. We celebrate, grow, struggle, and mourn in our community of faith. In that context, there could be no better place to consider our own mortality and the legacy we would like to leave at the end of our lives. Bequests and other planned gifts, which enable the institutional Church to expand its ministry, are really the ultimate demonstration of our stewardship commitment.

The task at hand is to encourage Christians to enter into a dialogue about ultimate stewardship—how to make decisions about what to do with all that God has given us to use. In other words, our stewardship symbolizes a deep desire to respond in gratitude for God’s grace in our lives. Created in the image of God, we are engaged on a lifelong spiritual quest to be as generous as God has been to us. The institutional Church’s need for financial resources must always be set in the context of authentic exploration of our Christian response and witness.

Engaging the People and Spreading the Word

The initial—and ongoing—task is communication. Parishioners must understand the opportunity each of them has to leave a legacy of faith and resources, simply by making plans so that their property will benefit the people and institutions they love. With the structure to receive gifts in place (Structure section), the parish should prepare to articulate its vision of future ministry that could be supported by bequests and other planned gifts (its “Case”).

The plan should include long-range and more immediate goals, as well as a variety of specific projects at several financial levels. It might be segmented to reflect work that could be done in, say, six months, one year, or three years, and so on. To emphasize the importance of ultimate stewardship gifts to the parish, memorial gifts and bequests that are already benefiting the community should be publicized, with appropriate recognition to the donor families and a description of work that has been accomplished as a result of the gifts.

The fledgling program is bound to grow, but will require ongoing nourishment - reminders to parishioners that it is in place and of its value to the future of the parish.

Among effective ways to do this:

Announce the Gift Planning Program (sample letter)
Publish, on a regular basis, general information about planned giving, as a way of introducing the concept to unenlightened parishioners. Include articles by or about respected parish members and the planned gifts they have made. (sample article)
Celebrate the lives of parishioners who make ultimate gifts.
Conduct tours of memorials in the church.
Plan bi-monthly reminders about the need to write wills.
Forum to Discuss Christian Witness at Life's End (sample program)
Present a Wills Awareness Workshop (sample program)
Present a Wills Writing Program (sample program)
Hold an Annual Program that focuses on planning for life’s end, such as (sample program):
Christian witness at death,
spiritual aspects of medical directives,
euthanasia,
funeral plans,
and burial options.
Create a Legacy Society (sample program)
Begin a year-round stewardship program (program ideas)

Awareness Program Activity and Audiences

*This chart summarizes activities with appropriate audiences.

"All Members" identifies activities directed to all members of the parish.

"Selected Segment" might be a demographic group, e.g., those parishioners age 55 or over.

"Higher Potential" segment would be a very small group of parishioners with significant financial capacity.

All awareness raising plans must reflect our belief in eternal life, gratitude for generosity and some inspirational invitation to join the communion of saints who have built our parishes.

Adapted from Funding Future Ministry from the Episcopal Church Foundation and A Manual for Stewardship Development Programs in the Congregations by TENS