As we welcome the new year, it is a good time for gift planners working for the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) in the North American Division (NAD) Planned Giving & Trust Services (PGTS) to evaluate the focus of our work. As we reflect on our purpose, we should also ask ourselves, where do we spend most of our work time? Are we spending our time doing what will accomplish the greatest benefit toward fulfilling our organization’s mission?
The answers to these questions may be dependent on how we express what we do. This article addresses five terms related to gift planning and attempts to define them. This article intends to start a conversation, so we encourage you to provide your own definitions or comments on the ones provided by clicking on the following link and emailing [email protected].
Below you will find published definitions of the terms regularly used in our work in PGTS. Ellen White quotations are included when available. The text not enclosed in a quotation are my observations.
The purpose of our work with members and friends of the church is to assist donors in managing their possessions as they seek to be faithful stewards of God, and encourage these donors to support the mission of the church and the organizations we represent.
The five terms that we attempt to define are:
- Philanthropy
- Charitable Development
- Fundraising
- Planned Giving
- Trust Services
Philanthropy
“The word ‘philanthropy’ derives from the Ancient Greek phrase philanthropia, meaning ‘to love people.’ Today, the concept of philanthropy includes the act of voluntary giving by individuals or groups to promote the common good.” (Philanthropy New York, https://philanthropynewyork.org/sites/default/files/resources/History%20of%20Philanthropy.pdf).
German American academic professor Helmut Anheier defines philanthropy as follows:
“The practice of individuals reflecting a ‘love of humanity’ and the voluntary dedication of personal wealth and skills for the benefit of specific public causes. While philanthropy, like the term charity, has long historical roots in religion, its modern meaning emerged in early twentieth-century America and refers to the private efforts to solve common social problems such as poverty or ignorance.” (“Nonprofit Organizations – Theory, Management, Policy”, Helmut K. Anheier, pg. 8).
“How many youth might have been assisted to procure an education; how many orphans and widows might have been made to rejoice, to send up to God a tribute of praise for the supply of necessary comforts, if money expended for gold and jewels had been devoted to philanthropy!” (Ellen White, “Review & Herald” March 17, 1896).
God is love (1 John 4: 8 & 16), and He loves people. So, God is the first and foremost example of philanthropy because of His love for people, as evidenced by His plan to save planet Earth. When we work in the ministry of gift planning, we are cooperating with God by assisting His people who love Him and want to support His mission to save all people on Earth.
Philanthropy, in its broadest sense, is people loving people evidenced by acts of kindness. Some people may not even believe there is a God who rules the universe. Yet they are still stewards of God’s assets, and the Holy Spirit still works through them to support everyone’s needs on this sin-sick planet.
SDA PGTS Gift planners assist those who the Holy Spirit has impressed to make donations of their possessions by connecting them with the causes they seek to support. As gift planners, our job is not to coerce, manipulate, or pressure donors to do something they are unwilling to do voluntarily. Rather, we are to enable them to accomplish what their God-guided passion inspires them to do.
Charitable Development
“Fund development is not only concerned with raising money, but doing so in a way that builds long-term sustainable relationships to ensure that the organization’s mission and vision are realized.” (Development Consulting Solutions, https://www.developmentconsultingsolutions.com/what-is-fund-development/).
“(Charitable) fund development is the ongoing strategic positioning of an organization to sustain and grow its resources by building relationships with those who understand and care about the organization’s relevance to the community. Building these relationships requires creating a shared vision, clear articulation of mission, creative strategies, and a solid communication plan.” (MissionWorks, https://www.tsne.org/blog/more-just-fundraising-why-fund-development-essential-nonprofit-planning-tool#:~:text=Fund%20development%20is%20the%20ongoing,organization’s%20relevance%20to%20the%20community.).
Charitable development is the building of relationships with donors who are passionate about helping people with a particular need and connecting them with those who have that need. After the relationship is built, a development officer may direct the donor to a fundraiser or gift planner to work out the details and complete the gift transaction. Stewarding the donor relationship into the future is a vital function of charitable development.
Fundraising
“Since there have been good causes to support, there has been fundraising.” (CauseVox, https://www.causevox.com/blog/fundraising-history/)
“Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gather money for non-profit organizations, it is sometimes used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capital for for-profit enterprises.” (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundraising).
We will focus our attention on the non-profit portion of the definition above. Non-profit or not-for-profit fundraising includes all the activities associated with an organization communicating its mission to its stakeholders to inspire contributions toward fulfilling it. Some of these activities include mass communication, special events, personal phone calls, donor appeals, and personal visits. All fundraising activities are intended to strengthen the relationship between charitable organizations and their constituents, leading to individuals contributing financially to the organization. These gifts may include a large volume of gifts of varying value given to the annual fund. Gifts could also be a smaller number of major gifts given for specific purposes. All types of financial gifts constitute fundraising and support the mission of the organization. Often, through fundraising efforts, constituents may contribute to the organization in other ways as well, such as volunteering at the organization or advocating on its behalf.
Planned Giving
Planned giving is the term most of you will relate to.
“Planned giving is also referred to as gift planning* or legacy giving. It enables philanthropic individuals to make larger gifts to charitable organizations than they could make from ordinary income. *Key insight: From a marketing standpoint “planned giving” eclipses “gift planning” at a 20 to 1 ratio on Google searches.” (PlannedGiving.com, https://plannedgiving.com/about-us/what-is-planned-giving/).
“Some planned gifts provide lifelong income to donor. Other gift plans use estate and tax planning to provide for charity and heirs in ways that maximize the gift and/or minimize its impact on the donor’s estate.” (ibid).
“Thus, by definition, a planned gift is any major gift, made in lifetime or at death as part of a donor’s overall financial and/or estate planning. These include gifts of equity, life insurance, real estate, personal property, or cash.” (ibid). Planned giving gifts usually find their origin in long-term assets or possessions that have been accumulated over many years. Planned gifts may be made during life or be planned during life but given after a person passes away. Since the person no longer needs these possessions, they are available to be given to family or to support charitable organizations.
Planned gifts are often deferred which makes the stewardship of the donor relationship very important since many deferred gifts are revocable and could be redirected to another organization that is communicating its mission more convincingly. Donors like to receive reports from organizations they contribute to informing them as to how resources have been used to accomplish their mission.
When planned giving personnel spend more time in the back office and little time in the living rooms of donors there is a very high risk deferred gifts will be changed to other charities, or not given to the Lord’s work at all.
Trust Services
Trust services is usually associated with banks or trust companies that act in a fiduciary capacity for their clients or customers to administer assets or estate planning documents. NAD SDA PGTS organizations have offered some of these services to their members for many years. Investopedia gives these key takeaways when describing trust services:
- “A trust company is a legal entity that acts as a fiduciary, agent, or trustee on behalf of a person or business for a trust.”
- “A trust company is typically tasked with the administration, management, and the eventual transfer of assets to beneficiaries.”
- “A trust company acts as a custodian for trusts, estates, custodial arrangements, asset management, stock transfer, and beneficial ownership registration.”
- “Trusts are managed for profit, which it may take out of the assets annually or upon transfer to the beneficial third party.” (Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/trustcompany.asp).
Not all these bullet points listed apply to what SDA organizations that conduct trust services offer members, particularly the fourth item. However, if the word “donation” were to replace “profit”, this would draw closer to how trust services is practiced in the NAD. That is, donations and/or bequests are usually taken out of the residue of an estate or deferred gift, and the remaining assets do provide a benefit to charitable organizations.
When an organization offers fiduciary services to their members/donors they accept that these services may be more labor-intensive and thus incur costs to the organization before the bequest can possibly reimburse the time and expense to conduct such services. Some PGTS directors have stated they believe it is an overall benefit to be a fiduciary for members since it helps to protect the gift while maintaining a relationship with the donor, thus making the revocation of the gift less likely. There is no doubt that it is a service for members who do not have family to fill these fiduciary roles. Some SDA organizations have chosen to be a beneficiary only without offering fiduciary services.
Conclusion
Every aspect of philanthropy, charitable development, fundraising, planned giving, and trust services are important functions contributing to the support of the mission of God on Earth. Each of these functions makes their unique contribution to the support of the mission of SDA organizations. Cooperation, support for, and understanding of these functions is important to the success of the mission of God.
The most important function of SDA gift planning is to educate, promote and encourage all SDA church members to have a plan for their families to keep and manage the possessions God has entrusted to them throughout their lives while working to support the mission of God, which is to preach the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. SDA Gift Planners have the privilege to work with the most dedicated and committed people on the planet in helping them honor God with their plans for the future. May God use you to accomplish His will and mission throughout 2021.