A. Form a Legacy Giving Committee

The size of your congregation will determine how you approach planned giving. One very committed volunteer can accomplish a great deal in a group of 70-100, but a team is always more fun and is an effective way to train others in this kind of fund raising. Larger congregations will need more volunteers who can help identify planned gift donor prospects, visit individuals, develop marketing materials, and find ways to keep senior members involved and feeling appreciated in the life of the congregation. Stewardship of the UU movement is a responsibility to be shared and passed on. Consider including young adults and youth on the Legacy Giving Committee. It will be an education for them and for you.

A Planned Giving Committee May Be Expected To

1. Make the case for gifts to the endowment.
2. Institute a “Legacy Recognition Society” to honor and thank those who have already arranged a gift to the church from their estate.
3. Identify individuals who are likely to complete a planned gift.
4. Visit or make sure people are visited and asked face-to-face for a gift commitment.
5. Thank and recognize all donors.
6. Educate and motivate leadership and general membership toward a theology of abundance and generosity.
7. Publicize and encourage bequests and other planned gifts.
8. Recruit, train, and manage volunteers as needed, and thank them.
9. Plan for and implement gift acceptance guidelines and procedures.
10. Collaborate and cooperate with other fund raising committees.
11. Understand how the UUA Legacy Gifts team can help.
12. Sponsor special seminars and events.

B. Inform and Re-inform Lay and Professional Leadership of the Benefits of Planned Giving

Most people have heard about planned giving in one way or another, but don’t assume they fully understand it or know how it can make a difference in their lives and in the life of your congregation. Consider making a presentation to your governing Board and other key leaders explaining the “win-win” opportunities a Planned Giving program creates.

Tell them how the UUA can help, with resources, advice, and depending on the state you are in, our Charitable Gift Annuity program. This gift arrangement makes payments to one or two people for the rest of their lives. Upon their deaths a significant gift comes to your congregation and/or the Association as a whole. Assets are invested in a socially responsible manner, and held in trust at State Street Global Advisors Trust Company in Boston, Mass.

Also, if your congregation has no endowment fund or no guidelines for an existing fund, we suggest you recommend to the leadership of your congregation to create guidelines now. Please visit www.uua.org/finance/investment/174299.shtml for information about endowment funds. Repeat this exercise periodically. Follow up with handouts and a personal visit to ask for the leadership to make a commitment to provide a gift in their Wills or some other kind of planned gift. When your professional and lay leaders know what Planned Giving has to offer, they can both apply it in their giving and help identify others who might enjoy giving to the future of Unitarian Universalism.

C. Structure Your Program Carefully

Your Planned Giving program should create momentum through marketing. Include short testimonials during Sunday services, place announcements and gift stories in your newsletter and publicize a list of people who already have Unitarian Universalism in their Wills. Write letters, use brochures, make a permanent Legacy display in the church building. Include people of all ages. Create opportunities to recognize and honor your elder members and their service to our UU community. They will feel appreciated for their living history, memories, and experience.

Cultivate your planned giving prospects. Discover what they really like about your UU community, visit them regularly, and find ways for them to get involved. When they give, thank them and recognize their contribution publicly. This may be particularly important for someone who does not get out very often.

D. Identify Your Planned Gift Prospects

Review your lists of current membership and friends of the congregation. Ask a few people who know the congregation well to look over the list and help you identify who is likely to make a charitable bequest of some kind.

Here’s a common profile of a planned gift prospect:

Someone who is over 55; has met his or her family obligations, or is single; is deeply committed to Unitarian Universalism; contributes to your congregation; and has both the means and the inclination to make additional contributions.

That said, everyone is a legacy giving prospect. Simply because someone gives a small amount to the canvass does not mean they have nothing more to give. People on limited incomes may be honored to be asked to make a bequest. Some people may be willing to designate the congregation as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy. Every adult should be encouraged to remember your society, fellowship, or congregation in their wills. Cultivate a culture of legacy giving.

E. Ask for the Gift. Ask for the Gift. Ask for the Gift

Each congregation’s resources for a Planned Giving program will be different; for instance a congregation of 500 members has different resources than does a congregation of 55. Whatever your circumstances, as mentions earlier, the most important things to do are these:

1. Identify at least 10 people you can visit and ask for a planned gift this year.
2. Identify 10 more people you will visit and ask for a planned gift this year or next.
3. Encourage everyone to complete a legal Will and include a gift to our UU future

You may want to create a brochure outlining the purposes of your endowment fund and highlighting ways to support it. Just remember, people give to people and to something they care about deeply. A brochure alone, no matter how well conceived, will not bring in gifts. You will. It is always good practice to make your own contribution before you ask someone else to give. 6. Create a Legacy Recognition Society. Every UU society, fellowship, and congregation should encourage and promote legacy gifts, such as gifts by will, beneficiary designation, or other forms of legacy giving. Find out who in your congregation already has a charitable bequest for the congregation. Invite them to tell you why they have done this, and ask them to be charter members of your congregation’s Legacy Society—a society organized to recognize and thank generous members who have arranged a charitable estate gift that will benefit your congregation. Explain that their generous example is a powerful way to inspire others to do the same.

Ask the charter members if they would be willing to speak with others about why they have provided for the future of the congregation. Would they write something for the newsletter? Do they know others who should be invited to join?

Give the Society a meaningful name. Encourage participation and imagination in naming it. Ask the artists in your congregation to contribute, by writing poems, songs, painting, drawing, whatever they can to make the legacy society as inviting as possible. Have fun with it.

Create a brochure about the Legacy Society and include a mission statement that will inspire others to join. Include suggested language for designating a gift to your congregation. Offer anonymous membership, but do ask people to share some information about their legacy gift.

Publish a list of the Legacy Society members; or start a permanent recognition wall or banner. Identify a group of people who are likely to be interested in providing support after they are gone. Send them formal invitations to join the Society; enclose a reply card for them to return to request more information or to signal that they do have a legacy gift in place. Follow up with a phone call and a personal visit. Enlist the help of others, including Legacy Society members.

Offer special events and programs for Legacy Society members, and create opportunities to say thank you and keep them involved. Find out whether the religious education program would like to get involved, for example by having the children and youth interview Legacy Society members and write biographies of their lives.

F. Prepare to Receive, Record and Administer Gifts

Your program also needs to be able to process and administer gifts. Obtain the services of a broker to receive gifts of securities, mutual funds and the like; some might do this for a reduced fee or gratis. Work out an accounting system for gifts to the endowment. Make sure all contributions are properly acknowledged. Consider arranging for Board members to thank donors. Sample bequest intention and tracking forms are available from the UUA Office of Legacy Gifts.

G. Say Thank You!

Always say thank you. When someone joins the Legacy Society, thank them for their generosity and foresight. Ask members of the governing Board to say thank you, too.

H. Honor, Recognize, and Involve donors in the Life of Your Congregation

Treat your Legacy Society members and other planned gift donors well, and many of them will give again. Someone who has provided a legacy gift to the congregation is deeply committed and may be moved to do something special during their lifetime.

An occasional note or visit, a community service project, an annual dinner or monthly forum, and a simple telephone call are all ways to express appreciation to those who care enough about the congregation to give to its future. Some of your legacy gift donors may be housebound or otherwise restricted from social activities; remember to stay in touch with them with phone calls and visits.

I. Avoid the Temptation to Over-emphasize the Technical or to Provide Legal Counsel

It’s easy to get lost in the technicalities of planned giving (tax deductions, tax rulings, and complex gift vehicles). Your most successful efforts will be “people-centered” and “value-centered.” Your planned giving program exists to help individual Unitarian Universalists give to something in which they find great value, Unitarian Universalism. Your purpose is to make it possible for people to fulfill a desire to help our liberal religion, to help our values endure to serve future generations. When you meet with someone, when you write a letter or something for the congregation newsletter, or when you create a brochure emphasize the human story, the spiritual satisfaction giving has to offer. When we commit financial resources to our religious values, great things radiate, inwardly and outwardly, strengthening our connection to the community we cherish.

J. Evaluate and Revise Your Program Frequently

Every 3-4 years, review the work of your committee. Review policies, procedures, and forms. Study the gifts you have received, looking for patterns that might guide your work for the next few years. What has been working well? Continue to build on these things. What could use improvement or changes? Consult with others as needed to get input about updating your practices.

K. Develop a working partnership with the Office of Legacy Gifts Staff at the Unitarian Universalist Association

Use the email provided below.