Gifts & Financial Support

Small churches have great blessings

What’s great about small churches? Lots, says the Rev. Ellie Johns-Kelley, Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation. Small churches have strengths, she says, and those can be celebrated year-round, and especially during seasons of stewardship emphasis.

Everyone is a philanthropist

Dr. Aimée Laramore remembers when, while working for a nonprofit, she received her first six-figure gift for the organization.

Be ready to receive planned gifts with policies, procedures

In 2020, 28% of all charitable gifts went to religious institutions, said the Rev. Ellie Johns-Kelley, the Presbyterian Foundation’s Ministry Relations Officer for the Allegheny and Chesapeake Region. Only 8% of Americans gave bequests to a church.

Stewardship is a discipline and a covenant

What happens when we rethink our paradigms of stewardship? Do we give out of obedience, or out of abundance? Do we tithe out of obligation, or do we share out of gratitude? These were just a few of questions that Dr. Deborah Rexrode, associate for stewardship for the Presbytery of the James, posed to her workshop attendees in the session that she led entitled “Giving as a Spiritual Discipline” at the 2021 Stewardship Kaleidoscope conference Sept. 14.

Planned giving is the opportunity of a lifetime

Talking about death is difficult. Yet planned giving, especially in congregational contexts, can clarify what’s important to us and how that can benefit others long after we’re gone.

Endowment workshop lays out the principles that guide the gifts

Church leaders often say they want their church to have an endowment. And while that’s good, churches need to be prepared to dig a little deeper and answer some core questions as they establish an endowment, says Olanda Carr Jr., Senior Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation.