¾Gifts to Churches

GRANDgifts are ideal for gifts to your church or chapel, temple or synagogue, denomination headquarters or local associations, Sunday School class or music department.  They are ideal for these 10 reasons:

  1. You may leave small gifts, from $100 to $1,000 per year. 

  2. You may leave gifts over several years, from 10 to 25 years. 

  3. You may have a personal note added to each gift-check, saying something like, "Please use this gift to buy Easter Lilies, in the name of my wife, Melissa White, with love to her church friends who became family". 

  4. You may do this simply, without changing your will, using a trust or placing a burden on your executor.

  5. The cash for your gifts is guaranteed to be there because it's funded with life insurance, even if you pass away prematurely, before paying all premiums.

  6. Your premiums are income tax deductible when following the guidelines of most institutions.  We, as does your institution, always recommend consultation with your personal tax advisor.

  7. Premiums are designed to be affordable, beginning as low as $14 per month.  A cost/benefit analysis for, as an example, a 40-year old female arranging gifts of $1,000 per year for 10 years to her church for its Christmas foreign mission's offering shows that her total gift-checks paid out will be $10,000.  If she lives and pays all premiums until the policy is paid-up in five years, her total premiums paid in will be $3,414.  Her gifts paid out will exceed her premiums paid in by $6,789.  If she passes away during the five-year premium payment period, the policy will be instantly paid-up, no more premiums will be due, and her full $1,000 gift checks will be distributed each year for the next 10 years as planned, delivered at Christmas as she directed.

  8. No agent will be in your home because the idea is simple, the policy is small ($15,000 maximum), and the procedure to apply is uncomplicated.  Instead, the preferred way of conducting business is by phone, mail or email for the GRANDgift Planning Center in Austin, TX--a process you initiate with an inquiry. For more information, click here.

  9. Equitable Life & Casualty Insurance Company created the program, underwrites the policy, and mails your gift-checks to your church with the same care and sensitivity you would use, if you were still here, writing them yourself. For more information on Equitable, click here.

  10. You may become a small part of a large strategy of Gift-Source Diversification for your church.  Particularly for privately funded institutions, future financial soundness is a function of gifts to their endowment, foundation or reserve funds.  Historically, these gifts have come from major donors.  By relying on planned gifts from smaller donors to augment gifts from major donors, an institution is less vulnerable to a significant fiscal setback in the event of a reversal in the next oil, real estate, or dot.com boom.

A gift suggestion: gifts in the name of someone else. ¾Whether funding gifts of $100 or $1,000, few gifts would be as meaningful to your loved one as having his or her name published by the organization that has meant so much to them, and to you--now among new donors, and later, year after year, among legacy donors.  ¾In many cases, few gifts would bring as much pleasure as seeing their name published if it means encouraging others to give.  ¾And--most importantly--few acts of generosity would touch the lives of so many, for so long, as providing funds to help assure the future of the organization.

You may find the following examples of interest if one of these departments or activities has impacted your life, you hope it will influence the lives of others, and you wish to continue your support with gifts designated for you churches:

l Youth Camp for fees, food, bedding, equipment or counselors

l VCB for materials, refreshments, transportation, day care

l Annual Missions Offerings for both U.S. and international missions

l Annual Flowers for Lilies at Easter, poinsettias at Christmas 

l K-12 School for scholarships, books or band trips

l And its Food Bank ¾ Day Care ¾ Mother's Day Out ¾ Hospital Ministry ¾ Music Ministry ¾ Youth Ministry ¾ Singles' Ministry ¾ Young-Married Ministry ¾ Nursery Ministry ¾ Adult Ministry ¾ Senior Ministry ¾ Counseling Ministry ¾ Hospice Care ¾ Grief Ministry ¾ Library ¾ Transportation Ministry ¾ Facilities Maintenance ¾ Pastor Retreat/Vacation ¾ Seminary ¾ Starter Church(es)

For more information about GRANDgifts,click here.  For more information about Equitable, click here.

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