Case Study: Are You Ready for a Five-Figure Gift?

One of the benefits of doing the work I do is that people want to tell me stories. The good, the bad, and the ugly. They want to share tales of generosity and, sometimes, they share when someone has missed the mark.
 
This is that tale.
 
What I am about to tell you is (mostly) true. The names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. Cue: duh, duh from Law & Order. Or, maybe this is more like The Twilight Zone. You choose.
 
The story starts when a friend stops me after worship and says, “You won’t believe what I’ve been through.” She then goes on to tell me that her father recently passed away and designated a five-figure gift to his small home church.
 
The Good Daughter wanted to fulfill her father’s wishes and called the church for instructions on how best to make a gift. She left a message for the pastor and explained the nature of the call. A week went by…no response. Good Daughter calls again and leaves another message. This time the pastor calls back.
 
The pastor says, “I don’t know what to do. Here’s the phone number of our Treasurer.”
 
Let me stop the story right here and point out a few of things. The pastor, of course, should have…
 
1. Returned the first call promptly.
2. Expressed gratitude for the incoming gift.
3. Offered to find the best method for accepting such a check.
4. Set up a time for the Good Daughter to meet with him to talk about her father and the father’s wishes for the gift and the needs of the church.
 
5. If the pastor couldn’t do #’s 1-4, he definitely should have called the Treasurer to let her know that a call was coming from the Good Daughter. (This last sentence, my friends, is called “foreshadowing.”)
 
The Good Daughter was given a phone number for the Treasurer. Call #1 went to Voice Mail. The Good Daughter didn’t leave a message. Since the Treasurer’s phone was set only to receive calls from people on her call list, the Treasurer thought it was a spam call. Days went by.
 
Call #2 repeats Call #1. More days went by.
 
Finally, on Call #3, the Good Daughter leaves a message. Hooray! A connection was made between the Good Daughter and the Treasurer. A plan was in place.
 
Not wanting to put such a large gift in the mail (sorry, USPS…it’s risky), and perhaps to feel close to her father, the Good Daughter set up an appointment to hand-deliver the check – a two-hour round-trip for the Good Daughter. The Treasurer was there to accept it (no pastor in sight), and the Treasurer was sweet enough to say,
 
“Thank you so much. This gift will make a big difference to the church.”
 
That was weeks ago.
 
That was the last time the Good Daughter heard anything about the gift.
No thank you letter.
No call from the pastor thanking her and giving thanks for the legacy of her father.
No way to know how the gift was going to be used.
 
By this point the Good Daughter, who was and continues to be responsible for her father’s entire estate, is dog-tired from giving away a five-figure gift. What should have been a joyous experience during her grief has now been rendered tedious and exhausting.
 
As the Good Daughter said, “There’s no excuse.”
 
Of course, this would never happen in your church.
 
However, if this has got you thinking… “Hmmmm…what would we do in this situation?”, it might be time to have a sit down with your church administrator and Treasurer to set up a process of accepting legacy gifts of any size.
 
My guess is that you were never taught this in seminary or in non-profit school. Now you know. Think of this imaginary situation and list out steps that can make a donor’s heart sing. And maybe, it could spur even more generosity to your church.
 
No one ever, ever wants to send a donor to a place of frustration and anger as they try to give a donation. Get a legacy acceptance process in place so that Rod Serling never says this about your church’s ability to accept a gift: “The next stop, The Twilight Zone.”
 
Photo credit: Hans @ pixabay.com

Cesie Delve Scheuermann (pronounced “CC Delv Sherman,” yes, really) is a Stewardship Consultant for the OR-ID Annual Conference. She is also a Senior Ministry Strategist with Horizons Stewardship. For 25 years, while working as a volunteer and part-time consultant, she has helped raise over three million dollars for numerous churches and non-profit organizations. And, just because, check out the Pet Gala and the 18 dogs that walked the red carpet. Ruff work!

You can reach Cesie at inspiringgenerosity@gmail.com, at CesieScheuermann.com, or at cesieds@horizons.net. Want to schedule a meeting? She’s got you covered!
 
Schedule a meeting now.
 
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