Planned Giving Basics: Recognizing the Gift in Front of You

Through the Faith-Based lens

The signal to watch in a parish is the envelope giver who has used the same amount for years without missing a Sunday, exactly this module's loyalty-over-wealth finding, and a faith community already has natural language for raising the subject: the tithe as spiritual practice extends easily to what someone would want their support to continue after they are gone. A parishioner mentioning a will or an estate to clergy is common in pastoral conversation, which means the referral discipline this module teaches, thank warmly, say nothing about tax or terms, matters as much for a priest as for a development officer. The bequest, arriving with no dinner and no thanks the donor will see, fits a tradition that already understands giving as an act between the giver and something larger than themselves.