Did you know that more charitable giving happens in December than in any other time of the year? More than one-third of all charitable giving is done in the last quarter of the year. The majority of that giving happens in the month of December.
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.
In its continuing effort to provide congregations with practical help on financial matters, the Presbyterian Foundation has launched a planned giving module on the Stewardship Navigator.
Faith has always played an important role in the Rev. Dr. Sam Miglarese’s life. He spent most of his life as a Catholic priest, but decided to become Presbyterian and became a teaching elder at First Presbyterian Church in Durham, North Carolina.
Many church leaders fear that emphasizing planned giving can damage the annual stewardship effort or an ongoing capital campaign.
But in fact, the opposite is true, says Karl Mattison, Vice President of Planned Giving Resources for the Presbyterian Foundation.
Leaders of small churches sometimes spend so much time looking back at how things used to be that they don’t appreciate the blessings and assets their church still has, says Olanda Carr Jr., Senior Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation.
In just a little more than a decade, the Presbyterian Church of Okemos, a suburb of Lansing, Michigan, has gone from being a congregation that rarely talked about money to a church where even younger members understand the power of pledges, bequests and endowments to multiply mission and as a means to commit their life a part of a faith community.
A Florida woman who was a lifelong Presbyterian, a savvy investor, and a pioneer for women in the Chicago banking industry, has left a bequest of more than $1 million to the Presbyterian Foundation. The money is being used to establish a fund for scholarships for students attending colleges and universities affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The minister was giving a sermon on “total giving.” When it came time to take up the offering, the plate came to a pew where there was a very small boy. He looked up at the usher and said, “Could you lower the plate?” Thinking that he wanted to see into the plate, the usher held it down a bit. “No,” said the boy, “a little lower, please.” The usher lowered it a bit more. “More; could you just put it on the floor?” the boy asked. The usher was aghast but finally put it on the floor. The boy stepped into it, stood there, and said, “This is what I give to the Lord.” — A Stewardship Scrapbook
