Planned Giving for Eternity

Dale Walvort is Director of Advancement for Kalamazoo Christian Schools, an association that has been in existence for 130 years. He wrote this to friends of the school in November 2008.

Several months ago I attended a meeting that focused on planned giving opportunities in challenging economic times. Several of the topics were interesting, so I decided I would write an article about them for the next issue of our newsletter.

But things didn’t go as smoothly as I thought they would when it came time to “put pen to paper.” At first I couldn’t find the right type of reference material. Then I had several unexpected changes in my schedule.

When you read this several months will have passed since September 2008. But I am sure you remember those few days in September to be one of the most turbulent times for our economy since the Great Depression. All of our financial institutions seemed shaken down to their cores. Nothing seemed permanent anymore.

I was at the Barnabas Foundation annual meeting while all of this was happening. This organization is a Christian foundation that provides planned giving services to its Christian ministry members and their constituents. The seminars focused on issues such as the importance of will planning, how to promote planned giving, and some technical estate planning matters. The dominant theme of all discussions was that everything in this world belongs to God.

Then at the end of the week I was in church and noticed in the bulletin that the sermon topic was “Joy that Outlasts This Life.” As I listened to the message and followed the outline I was blessed to discover that my pastor had chosen to preach on the stewardship principles found in I Timothy 6. One of his central themes was that while everything in our lives on earth is temporal, we can use our material possessions to ensure future, or eternal, joy.

There haven’t been many times in my life where God has spoken to me as clearly as He did during that week. For this article, it would have been a good thing to tell how a charitable gift annuity can create tax savings in a down economy. But most people, including me, must work hard to remember that God owns everything in our lives and that we must use our material possessions to advance his kingdom. So my topic changed after that week ended.

Many (most, I hope) of you reading this article love and appreciate Christian schooling. Some have “lived” our schools for an entire lifetime, while others have been partners for several years. No matter how long you have been part of Christian schooling it’s my hope that you can see how the investment in the lives of Christian students is indeed an eternal investment.

Everyone’s financial situation is different (and changing, as we have seen in the past months). But one thing that will always remain constant is the opportunity to give back to God’s kingdom on earth when one goes to His heavenly kingdom. The process of preparing for that time is called planned giving.

So if you want to make a true eternal investment, I encourage you to learn about the basics of estate planning and about stewardship opportunities. These come from meeting with me and our planning partners.

Several other Christian schools around the country have a base of financial strength that is almost unequaled simply because they and their constituents have worked intentionally in the area of planned giving for many years; some are willing to name a schools as a partial beneficiary in their estate plan. Now these schools are in a strong position to be able to handle any decline in enrollment and the need for new facilities because of the eternal investments that were made. But first things must come first. Will you take this step of true stewardship?