Planned Giving & Trust Services Standards Revision Process

New Standards voted

The North American Division (NAD) Planned Giving & Trust Services (PGTS) Standing Committee voted on April 28, 2021, to approve a revised set of 50 PGTS Standards for Accreditation. These revised Standards are effective January 1, 2023, and must be implemented by each NAD PGTS organization by their trust review immediately following that date. Early adoption of these Standards is encouraged so your organization will be prepared for that first trust review.

The revision of NAD PGTS Working Policy (WP) began in August 2018 and was voted by the 2019 NAD Year-end Meeting. The revised Working Policy will be in the NAD Working Policy for 2019 – 2020 (red book), and also can be found on the PGTS Staff Webpage. Once the changes to the NAD WP for PGTS were approved, revising the Standards was the next step in the process.

The Standards Revision Process

In July 2020, the Standards Revision Committee met via Zoom to start the process of reviewing and revising the then 47 PGTS Standards. The committee met for three days, four hours each day. The representatives on the committee were selected from a variety of organizations in the NAD representing the many stakeholders for PGTS. There were PGTS directors from conferences big and small, unions, higher education, ministries, health care, and Western Adventist Foundation. There were also committee members who were treasurers, auditors, attorneys, and past directors from the GC/NAD PGTS department.

On the first day, the large committee evaluated the current 47 Standards and looked at possible new procedures that may need to be added. On the second day, small writing committees looked at specific groups of Standards and made revision recommendations to present to the larger committee. On the third day, the large group reviewed and discussed all the recommended revisions. Some of the recommended changes were instantly recognized by the entire committee as being an improvement upon the previous Standards and garnered very little debate. However, some recommendations generated a variety of opinions and led to a vigorous debate. Everyone on the committee had opportunity to share their opinions and offer suggested revisions to help improve the Standards. A vote was taken, and a consensus reached, for each of the recommended changes; though not all recommendations were approved with 100 percent agreement. Even in these cases it was generally viewed we were making progress in improving the Standards we hold ourselves to when it comes to the ministry of PGTS.

The result of the committee’s work for those first three days was some Standards were deleted, some were combined with other Standards, some language was changed to provide better clarity, and some new Standards were recommended. Two follow-up meetings yielded a recommendation of revised Standards to the NAD PGTS Education Sub-committee of the Standing Committee. The NAD PGTS Education sub-committee received the Standards Review Committee’s recommendation and made a final recommendation to the NAD PGTS Standing Committee for the final vote. When the process began there were 47 Standards, and now there are 50 Standards.

New Categories & Reordering

In addition to the substantive revisions to the Standards they have also been reordered and given new categories in an effort to better organize them. Previously the Standards had nine categories and now there are seven. The table below compares the revised categories with the past categories and how many Standards are in each category.
Revised Categories Past Categories

Also, each Standard is designated as applying to one of the three Accreditation Service Levels (Planned Giving Only, Planned Giving Plus and Planned Giving & Trust Services). See chart below:

As illustrated by the chart above, those organizations that wish to make their PGTS operation less complicated should consider making the necessary changes to qualify for a change in the level of service offered from their office.

Thank You

The GC/NAD PGTS Department extends a heartfelt thank you to all those who participated in this revision process of the NAD PGTS Standards. The excellent work done has made the PGTS program in the NAD much stronger for years to come. Each of you who served has represented your constituencies well.

Summary

These revised Standards are not the result of one or two individuals, but from the collaboration of many stakeholders who view PGTS in different ways. The PGTS Working Policy and Standards revision is the latest attempt to come up with a set of Standards the Standing Committee feels will lead to a well run PGTS program, helping our donors realize the joy of giving, and supporting our organizations in spreading the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

For more information please see the Overview of the Revised NAD PGTS Standards article or go to the PGTS Accreditation Standards directly.

The PGTS Quarterly Newsletters for the fourth quarter of 2021, and throughout 2022, will have several articles pertaining to these revised Standards in an effort to answer questions that will undoubtedly come up. All past articles on the PGTS Standards have been updated to reflect the revised Standards.

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions you may contact the NAD PGTS office at 301-680-5001 or email your questions to [email protected].