Legacy Giving
For more than 200 years, thoughtful, forward-looking members of the Episcopal Church in Vermont have made generous legacy gifts for their congregations and for the ministries and programs of the Diocese of Vermont. These legacies have built and sustained our churches and their holy spaces, provided endowments for the ongoing support of our annual budgets, underwritten scholarships for Rock Point Camp, endowed specific programs and activities for church life and ministry, and so much more. It is now our turn to look forward into the future and to ask what our legacy will be to the Episcopal Church in Vermont.
This section of the Episcopal Church in Vermont’s website is provided as a resource for congregations and individuals to learn more about Legacy Giving and to assist leaders in our congregations as they offer to their church members important information for planning for the end of life.
The Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) is the foundational resource for information contained within this site. Information found in many of the sections below will direct you to a publication or other ECF online resource.
Making a Bequest in Your Will
Perhaps the easiest and most common way to make a legacy gift is through your will. Yet over 50 percent of Americans do not have one. The ECF booklet Planning for the End of Life: Faithful Stewards of Your Good Gifts, includes a comprehensive guide to “Preparing to Write Your Will.” It can be downloaded here.
Life Income Gifts
ECF offers a variety of brochures describing life income gift options. They encourage churches to download these brochures or order them and make them available in a tract rack or other place accessible to church members. You can find the links here.
Getting Started with Legacy Giving
ECF offers an article about starting a program for Legacy Giving in your church. The Episcopal Church Foundation’s bundle of materials, Planned Giving on Demand, is an excellent packet with program basics and more included.
Program Guide to Legacy (Planned) Giving: A Step-by-Step Approach
ECF’s Legacy (Planned) Giving Program Guide takes you through five successive levels to build a Legacy Giving program.
Video Resources
Legacy Giving
Legacy Giving for Career Professionals
Legacy Giving for Young Adults
Webinars
Webinar: Fulfilling your Wishes: End-of-Life Planning
The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened the urgency of ensuring that our loved ones know our end-of-life wishes. Join Jim Murphy, managing program director at the Episcopal Church Foundation, to learn more about how to communicate your wishes about medical care, how your assets are distributed at your death, and the kind of funeral or memorial service you prefer. Watch the video.
Webinar: What is the Best Gift for Me, Now and in the Future?
Have the recent changes in tax law confused or surprised you? Would you like to support your parish or favorite Episcopal charity more effectively? Are you approaching your 72nd birthday or starting to prepare for retirement and want to coordinate your charitable giving and steady income? Join Jim Murphy, managing program director at the Episcopal Church Foundation, to learn how tax law changes and other factors can enable you to give more to charity while also benefiting yourself. Watch the video.