Joe was considered to be your average church member in terms of financial assets but everyone knew that Joe loved his church. A few months after Joe died, the church learned that not only had Joe remembered his church in his will, but he was uncommonly generous. He gave the church an outright $500,000 and a few pieces of property; the total gift was about $650,000. Joe did restrict how the church could use the money – to pay for building maintenance and improvements.

In response to this gift, the church assembled a dozen leaders to discern the appropriate action. Over several months I worked with this group and we worked through the steps in this blog. The original church building was about 50 years old. A new worship center was built about 20 years ago but only cosmetic changes (paint & carpet) had been made to the original buildings since it was built. People had been making their own list for years but prioritizing that was tough. An early decision was made that we’d spend about half of it now and save the other half of the gift for future needs. That decision enabled us to focus on the high priority needs that also had significant savings on energy savings and/or visual impact.

The church spent $100,000 on retrofitting eight old bathrooms and another $125,000 on new windows. Guests and members had long criticized the condition of the bathrooms and how unappealing they were – the completely gutted and refurbished bathrooms are no longer a hindrance. The new windows improved the look of the building but also saved money every year. A few other improvements were made but the church still had over $300,000 to be used in subsequent years for new HVAC equipment, carpet, etc.

There isn’t a memorial plaque to Joe at the church; he wouldn’t have wanted that. His beloved church looks so much better and that is what would have pleased him the most. The church budget wasn’t stretched, the buildings look better than before, new people find the building attractive and clean, and members saw an example of how one person can help his church in his will. Joe was a great role model in death.

Lead On!

Steve

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It costs me about $750 a year to run my two websites: www.churchbestpractices.org and www.financeforchurches.org
I used to charge for my materials but I’ve decided to give away my materials for free and rely on your generosity.

Many of you have downloaded the manuals and templates I’ve written and that gives me great joy – that you are using something of mine to help you and your ministry. That is wonderful. Some of you have even come back to my sites repeatedly to get more documents. That tells me you found the first downloads useful enough to warrant repeat visits. That is outstanding!

Now for the ask – if you have found my material useful, please make a gift of $100 or $50 or $25 or multiples of any of those amounts. You can buy a “gift card” in the store of www.churchbestpractices.org and that will help cover my costs.

I want to continue providing useful products but $750 a year out of my pocket is tough on my finances. And I’m willing to put up more products if you tell me what you need – send an email. Let me know how I can keep helping.

Thank you for your patronage of my sites and thank you – in advance – for your generosity. 

God is Love; Love is Generosity; God is Generosity. Let’s be more like God and be generous throughout our lives.

Steve

Mrs. Dawson was in her 90s when she died. She left her church and a local university each 40% of her $4.5 million estate (which was invested 100% in Coca Cola stock and was worth double that just a few years before – there’s a lesson in fund management there). As the church administrator, I went to her house with the minister for senior adults to see if there was anything related to the early days of the church (her father-in-law was the founding pastor). We secured a few books and her beautiful flapper wedding dress! The remainder of her estate was left to a medical school in Iowa.

A few months later I got a phone from someone in the development office of that medical school. She was looking at a check for about $900,000 and said there was nothing in the school’s records about her attending the school. I laughed and said that we all wondered if they knew of any connection. I told her that according to the will, the gift was completely unrestricted and the school could spend it any way they wanted (I think she silently shouted for joy). I also said that to the best of our collective church knowledge, she had not lived in Iowa but that we believed her brother had attended the med school sometime in the 1920s or 1930s, about 70 years before her death. We talked for a few more minutes and then hung up.

Mrs. Dawson’s will was written in the 1980s but she remembered the kindness half a century before of a distant medical school toward her brother and she wanted to express her appreciation. They were exceedingly happy to get an almost $1 million gift with no restrictions. It took a long time for this gift to “mature” but it continues to make a lot of people very happy. By the way, the church used its $1.8 million on scholarships for college kids (so did the university).

Lead On!

Steve

www.churchbestpractices.org – all kinds of FREE church manuals and sample documents
www.financeforchurches.org – 400 plus blogs on every church administration topic you can think of

Mr. Beeson was a generous man. When he died in 1990, he gave money to a seminary in his hometown of Birmingham (Beeson Divinity School), to Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, and to his church. He gave his Birmingham church $20 million and said they could only spend $1 million a year. The church’s foundation was thrilled at the gift and began working on ways to support and expand current ministries inside and outside the church.

Things went well for several years and the money was invested prudently. However, the 1990s were great years for investments and within a decade, the fund was now worth over $40 million even after the church spent $1 million each year. The foundation leaders recognized they had to do something to honor Mr. Beeson’s intent.

Some lawyers were consulted and they agreed to take this to a judge. Upon careful consideration of the church’s requests and the will, the judge altered the fund’s spending policy. The fund was permitted to spend up to 5% of the corpus (at that time just over $2 million per year). The Beeson Fund to this day blesses people in ways that Mr. Beeson could have never imagined. The church is fortunate to have this gift and they work hard to ensure they honor Mr. Beeson’s wishes with the programs they fund.

The proverbial “hand from the grave” constricted the church too much. When you make a will or when you advise someone on a will, ensure the time and purpose restrictions permit some leeway long after you die.

Lead On!

Steve

www.churchbestpractices.org – all kinds of FREE church manuals and sample documents
www.financeforchurches.org – 400 plus blogs on every church administration topic you can think of

Years ago a lady who lived on the outskirts of Atlanta included her church in her will. She left the church her home and two acres. The lady loved flowers and her will’s instructions were that the annual money from the bequest investments was to ensure there were flowers on the communion table every Sunday. Time passed but she didn’t. More time passed and she didn’t. When she died, Atlanta had grown and surrounded her two acres. It sold for $600,000.

A typical foundation’s annual distribution policy is spending up to 5% of the corpus which in this case means the church would have access to $30,000 a year for flowers. Most flower arrangements cost $50 to $75 so this is FAR in excess of what the church could spend. They were stuck and the only person who could resolve this was dead. Actually, there was another person – a judge.

The church petitioned the judge to remove the restrictions imposed by the will. The judge agreed and said that money could be spent in this order of priority:

• First: the church would ensure there were flowers every Sunday on the communion table
• Second: the church could use money from this bequest for the beautification and grounds maintenance around the church
• Finally: the church could use money for any building maintenance and improvements

The proverbial “hand from the grave” constricted the church too much. When you make a will or when you advise someone on a will, ensure the time and purpose restrictions permit some leeway long after you die.

Lead On!

Steve

www.churchbestpractices.org – all kinds of FREE church manuals and sample documents
www.financeforchurches.org – 400 plus blogs on every church administration topic you can think of

My office door was always open and several LOLs (little old ladies) would sit in my office talking with me while I worked. Phyllis had no family except for two basset hounds. She used her church friends to the point where they were tired of helping her. One evening she took sick and was rushed to the hospital where a few friends gathered. In the middle of the night, she dictated and signed a half-page will and her friends said she should put me as the executor. I was notified of this the next day.

I accepted this even though I was no longer at that church; I felt it would be the right thing to help get through a temporary crisis and after a month get a better will naming someone else as the executor. I helped her move out into a retirement community, put the dogs in a kennel for the time being, get medical equipment, etc. After just a few days in her new location, she was again rushed to the hospital and died the next day. My plans were completely upended. I was now The Executor.

I first had to relocate the dogs to a rescue shelter. Then I had to contact various government agencies for death certificate, Social Security payments and death benefit, etc. I had to go to court to be recognized as the official executor (by coincidence a friend was the judge!). And then I had to find an estate liquidator and have an estate and house sale. It took months to do all this.

In the end, Phyllis’ estate netted after expenses about $80,000. Her will stated she wanted to create a named fund at the local Community Foundation with her church’s music ministry as the sole beneficiary of the annual distribution. Her church received about $4,000 the first year and will get more each year as the fund increases in value.

In hindsight I can thank Phyllis for that experience but at the time it was a humongous pain. In the end, she gave a forever gift to her church to the music ministry she loved so much in life.

Lead On!

Steve

www.churchbestpractices.org – all kinds of FREE church manuals and sample documents
www.financeforchurches.org – 400 plus blogs on every church administration topic you can think of