Workshops Available to Your Church
Fundraising Strategies for Local Churches
Prospect Capability Matrix: Who can give how much?
- As times change, community needs change
- New ministries may be requested of the church by the community
- New ministries may seem appropriate to the church’s leadership
- Funding may be hard to come by until a new ministry is proven
- Endowment can provide the start-up funds until a project is funded from regular operations budget
2. Support Additional Staff Persons
- A new staff person in music, youth, education or spiritual journeying may be needed
- Endowment Earnings can be used until the project can come on line in the regular operations budget
3. Help in Times of Trouble
- When the roof blows off, the furnace erupts, the disaster strikes
- Endowment funds may be used for capital emergencies
- Endowment funds can be used to match raised funds
4. Matching Funds for Special Projects
- Endowment might match congregation dollars 1 for 3, or 1 for 4.
- Encourages local giving with "challenge" grants to specific projects.
- Enhances local giving; stretches the raised dollar, gives the donor a more "value" for the donated dollar.
5. Extraordinary Capital or Program Needs
- Endowment provides the impetus and start-up
- Endowment helps congregation find new directions
- Endowment gives new programs a chance to prove efficacy and worth
1. Call a Charge/Church Conference: Why? Charge Conference is "all of us." Endowment should be done by, with and for "all of us" Adopt a resolution to start an Endowment Fund. A simple motion will do. Initiate an "ad hoc" committee whose "job description" is to: a) Have an all-church dialogue on Endowment and b) Draft an Endowment Document, tailor it to the church’s needs, wants, values, and bring it back to the Charge Conference for approval and implementation.
2. Do the All-Church Dialogue and Report to Charge/Church Conference In this dialogue, have every committee, every group in the church, discuss the following: "What is Endowment? How does Endowment work? Why do we need an Endowment? Why should we have an Endowment? What would we ever do with the money?"
3. Have every committee or group report their conversations to the Charge or Church Conference
4. Draft the Endowment Document (called an Endowment Resolution); distribute drafts of the document to the church members for review as these are written and revised. As successive drafts are done, share these with leadership and with those in the pews. Allow everybody to have input; everyone gives their ideas. Answer ALL questions, no matter in what spirit, or how complicated. Counsel with people who have questions, new ideas, or problems with the concepts involved. Help people on their spiritual journey of stewardship and how it relates to endowment. Understand Endowment is a tool for education at this time. Make the most out of it. Make sure that everyone in the church comes to the point where they can accept the establishment of the endowment fund.
5. Bring the Final Draft of the Endowment Document to the Charge/Church Conference. Bring it in the form of a motion to adopt the document. Make sure BEFORE the Charge Conference that there will be unanimity. Do the homework necessary to accomplish this beforehand. Do not attempt to ride this through on a "majority vote" to the exclusion or in the face of opposition by some. Answer any last-minute questions. Ask for unanimous vote in favor
6. At the Charge Conference you'll also hear/read the Report of the All-Church Dialogue. Enjoy the diversity of points of view expressed. Understand that not every viewpoint is going to be represented in the document; see to it that key leadership does a good job of interpreting the document and its purpose.
7. Vote the Endowment Document In. A unanimous vote is preferred. It means participation and "buy-in" from the church members. Remember, the church members themselves, including you, will ultimately be your source of gifts to grow the Endowment Fund; you don’t need any dissention, ill will or bad feelings. Think of it this way: "Which travels faster? Good news, or bad news?" So make sure that in the creation of the Endowment Document that everyone's questions and hesitations are fully addressed. Help individuals do understand the great opportunities this means for the church.
8. Appoint the First Endowment Committee. What kinds of people should be on an Endowment Committee? Some of the skills that can be helpful are: legal, accounting, business, investing, estate planning, fund raising, advertising and marketing. Let them go to work. What are they supposed to do? Remember, the Endowment Committee mambers have six items in their job descriptions.
- Accept and appropriate gifts into the endowment fund
- Invest the money in the endowment fund
- Keep detailed and accurate records
- Report on the endowment fund's investment performance and its financial activity throughout the year
- Market the endowment fund to the rest of the church's members, on a regular basis. Remember: "Marketing" means starting witht eneeds, wants and values of the congregation members and telling them about the benefits of giving to the endowment. Remember: "Benefits" are what the endowment fund does for the donor, whereas the "features" are the various aspects of the endowment itself and what it can do. So don't sell the features as hard as you show the benefits to the donor.
- Notify the Ad Board of amounts ready for distribution and make recommendations as to projects that would most appropriately use endowment fund distributions.
- Preamble – Who is Doing What
- Purpose of the Endowment Fund
- What Goes Into the Endowment Fund
- Principal Not to be Expended
- Endowment Committee; Structure; Reportability
- Powers of the Endowment Committee
- Fiscal agent for Endowment Fund
- Accept and acknowledge undesignated gifts
- Review any gifts with restrictions; make recommendations
- Invest the monies of the Endowment Fund
- Maintain Records of Gifts
- Maintain Records of Investments
- Report to the church the Endowment Fund’s activity
- Promote and Advertise the Endowment Fund
- How Recommendations are Made for Use of Endowment Earnings
- What to Do with Undistributed Earnings
- Restrictions on Use of Endowment Earnings
- Annual Audit of Endowment Fund
- Amendability of Endowment Fund Document
Yes, it Can be Mis-Used...
- When Stewardship Education is Neglected. People forget; new people come in; people come to new understandings in their spiritual and stewardship journey. The task of stewardship education is one that is never "finished." Additionally, arguably the most difficult problem that western culture Christians have to face today is wrestling with their view of and use of money and possessions. If the endowment fund is used as an excuse not to tithe one's cash flow, this must be challenged. Good stewardhip education then goes one step further: it promotes the care-taking, the stewardship of capital assets as well as that of cash flow.
- When Spiritual Growth in Stewardship is not Emphasized. People grow at different rates, and come to new understandings at different times in their lives. This is the spiritual journey of stewardship. But it is a sometimes painful and arduous route because of all the emphasis placed in today's culture on spending, acquiring, possessing. The expression "He who dies with the most toys wins" is most telling. If this emphasis is not continually countered with the biblical messages of loving, giving, helping, selflessness, then it might be the case that "endowment" is used as an excuse not to give now from one's cash flow.
- When "economic" or "political" concerns upstage Spiritual Concerns. A political concern that can overshadow spiritual concerns can be seen in this example: The First United Methodist Church receives a bequest of $30,000. There are lots of things around the church that need to be fixed. Rather than raising the funds from the members from current cash flow to fix the things that need fixing, the temptation may be to use the bequest. That would "spare" the congregation members from having to "do the right thing."
But if the congregation doesn't put that money into the endowment fund, there chances are very good that the friends, associates and relatives of the deceased donor will come to understand that the decisional pattern of the church's leaders is to ese every cent given them for current operations and problems. They will come to understand that the church's leaders do not know how to save and invest for the future. The likelihood of another bequest coming to this church is slimmer as a result.
An economic concern that might derail good endowment use might be this: First United Methodist Church's pastor has a counseling session with a donor who wants to give a bequest of $30,000 to the church. But she is concerned that the church not have any control over her money directly, so she wants to put it into a scholarship fund for certain types of students that she can specify in a letter of instruction to the church.
"What's the problem," you might say? It seems like a legitimate educational concern? Yes, but look at this: the church can never really have the use of those funds. The donor is going to use the church's financial status and volunteer people in order to administer her legacy to someone else, and do it for free! Why? Because she doesn't trust the church of the future to use her dollars as she sees fit.
"What's wrong with that," you may ask. "It's her money, isn't it?" Yes, it is her money. But if her design is to help the church, then she needs to be counseled to do that in ways that are truly helpful, not usurious to the church. If her intent is to clearly bypass the church, then she might be counseled to use a bank trust department or other trust institution to administer her gift to society. She has an economic (and very likely a theological) problem. If others follow her example the church won't have an endowment fund that it can use; it will have a series of scholarship funds that benefit everybody BUT the church.
A more helpful approach would be for the local church member to come to the church leaders and discuss openly and completely their desire to benefit the church by stewarding some of their capital assets (their estate) through the church's endowment fund. That donor can ask what the feeling of the leadership is about the most appropriate ways to truly help the church. Most likely an undesignated gift to the endowment fund will do the most long-term good. It builds the endowment fund up, while leaving the decisions about the uses of distribution to the leaders of the church in future years. The conditions under which the gift's earnings will be used are most liekly going to be quite different than the conditions under which the church of today accepts that gift.
No, the Endowment Fund is Unlikely to be Mis-Used...
- When Endowment and Operations are Interpreted Correctly. Operations and Endowment are separated just as are Cash Flow and Capital Assets. the operations of the church should be funded from the cash flow of its members. The endowment fund can be funded from the gifts of capital assets of its members. The endowment fund should not be used for ongoing, regularly budgeted program or operations needs of the church. To do so robs the church's members of the opportunity to properly steward their cash flow. They have a similar opportunity to steward their capital assets (their estates) when they are no longer with us by leaving these to the endowment fund, not to current church operations and program.
This must be continually lifted up to the church members through sermons, worship celebration moments, mailings, study and discusion throughout the church as planned by the Endowment Committee and carried out by the pastor, key leaders and other volunteers of the church
- When Stewardship Education is Vital, Frequent, Deep. The Stewardship Committee, once the Endowment Fund is in place, now takes on a new aspect to their work. They will now complement the Endowment Committee's work. The Stewardship Committee will emphasize the stewarding of capital assets, while the Endowment Committee promotes the use of the endowment fund as a vehicle for the reception and use of gifts of capital assets. The two committees must work in tandem. But it doesn't mean more work for the Stewardship people, it means they have a fuller opportunity to teach and instruct in the stewardship area. Their work is, in a sense, made more complete by the presence of the Endowment Fund.
The church Trustees have a major part to play in helping the Endowment Fund be properly used. They are the people who supervise the Endowment Committee, and who make the decisions on which moneys will be turned over to the endowment. Consequently they must be continauly ready, psychologically and theologically speaking, to make the case to the congregation that Aunt Matild's bequest properly belongs to the endowment. Any wavering on the part of the Trustees would signal to other members a lack of resolve and purpose for the endowment among the key leaders of the church. That would most likely result in a decreased probability of future gifts.
The Finance Committee of the local church has a big part to play here. They are mostly concerned with the week-to-week financial situation of the church. However, in the way they do their reporting, and in the way they discuss among themselves the churches needs, both present and future, they evince to the church members a perspective that can be helpful to the ongoing stewardship education process. The Finance Committee cannot allow itself to wish that Aunt Matilda's bequest should go to their problematic bottom line. They must understand that bequests properly belong to the endowment fund.
- When Individual Members are Growing Spiritually. If members are growing in their stewardship journey, and if that journey is helpfully informed at significant points along the way by the pastor, the teachers, the key leaders of the church, then a personwill gro into the understanding that:. Gifts to the church are important, for the person's growth and for the church's ability to accomplish Christ's mission on earth.. Gifts of one's estate are important to affirm one's complete dedication to the cause of Christ in the world, to which one will leave a portion of one's estate.. Gifts to the endowment fund prepare the church for its mission in the future and also allow one to participate in the accomplishment of that mission long into the future after the person is no longer here.
- When Endowment is Given its Rightful Place. Very simply put, this means an equal emphasis on cash flow for operations and capital assets for endowment. The lifting up of the congregation's responsibility to fund today's operations, and to use their estates to grow a fund from which future projects and and assistance to the church's mission will come.
Good Stewardship
Stewardship of Cash Flow should be regularly taught, preached, counseled, and made part of an individual’s spiritual journey. Stewardship of capital assets should be regularly taught, preached, counseled, and made part of an individual’s spiritual journey. The Finance Committee, the Board of Trustees, the Administrative Board, and the Endowment Committee should be trained in Stewardship principles.
Separation of Cash Flow from Capital Assets
Cash flow is our everyday income and out-go, for personal and institutional operations: food, clothing, housing – and mission, evangelism, education, pastor’s salary and other budgetary needs. Capital Assets is that which is distilled from or purchased with the cash flow; such as investments, retirement funds, property and, in the church, buildings, grounds, endowment, and other long-term investment savings and funds
Continuous Education in Stewardship of All We Have. All members, especially the leadership, should be regularly and persistently educated in the fact that all any human being has comes from God. Our responsibility is to use everything we have for God’s work in the world.
Jesus and John Wesley have many resourceful sayings on this. Check the sermons and journals of Wesley, and see particularly Matthew and Mark passages where Jesus' parables and principles on stewardship are presented.
Regular, Persistent, Consistent Advertising of Endowment Fund. The Endowment Committee is responsible to do this. See the Marketing Grid available on this website. Endowment Committee members should be advertising the fund regularly through every communications medium available in the church. Every quarter, every month, something, even the bulletin and the newsletter should carry something about the endowment. At other times more elaborate advertising is appropriate. Consistence and Persistence is a MUST here
Regular Reporting of Endowment Fund Status and Use can be done through the church bulletin, the newsletter, and through special mailings. The congregation members should know every month or every quarter just what gifts have come in, just what the balance of the fund is, where it is invested, what its returns are. This is not for the leadership alone. This information must be published so that every congregation member knows these things.
WILL BUILDING ENDOWMENT HURT OPERATIONS FUND RAISING?
No, it Opens New Avenues of Giving. We can give with our estates, after life. We can get our missional objectives accomplished through the church. We can keep our church pledge going long after we are deceased
No, it Gives Opportunities to Emphasize Stewardship of Capital Assets. This furthers the Stewardship Education effort. It promotes, even provokes, the raising of important questions. These questions help people grow spiritually with regard to their relationship to money and possessions.
No, when Endowment is Properly Reported, Advertised. People know the truth; the full situation. People therefore will own the situation and consider it their own. People will respond as they can because they know. People will trust that all is being kept well and securely. People will trust the leadership of the church because they are making themselves regularly reportable to the church members
No, when Endowment Education is Regular and Frequent. The Endowment Committee and the Stewardship Committee need to work in tandem to create a "wholistic" approach to the stewardship of everything that any of us have . The stewardship education of the church needs to focus, in part, on the long-term property, the capital assets, that are held by congregation members, since even that belongs to God.
These stewardship emphases need to be regular and frequent. Money and possessions is one of the most difficult issues contemporary Christians face. So pastor, key leadership, teachers, counselors, and others in the church need to be constantly working on these stewardship themes. A full program of stewardship education should be worked out in advance of each year with program objectives, programmatic components that will accomplish these objectives carefully spelled out, and firm standards of performance.
No, when Estate Gifts are seen to Increase Level of Endowment. People see others doing it. People see growth in the Endowment Fund. People come to learn that while cash gifts can be helpful, they are really expected to give from their estate. Raise expectations that "this is the way we do things" at this church. Give parishioners the knowledge that there are a variety of gift vehicles they can use to meet their own needs and circumstances.
