Stewardship of Planned Giving

We thank our many donors for their financial support, but also for the prayers and spiritual support.  We encourage each individual/family to pray about how to best use their time, talent, and treasure to the glory of God.  Being a good steward of God's blessings and sharing our time, talent and treasure truly helps us realize our hopes and dreams as a community of the Body of Christ.  It was not long ago that we broke ground and construction of our school began.  The parish became debt free in June of 2012, and this was a major step in the right direction.  We have been responsible in assisting our parish, diocese, nation, and international needs.  We look forward to beginning a capital campaign for the construction of the new church building and continuing the good ministry of Jesus.

Please consider planned giving as a way of joining us in our valuable mission here in Riverton, Utah.

 

PRAY, REFLECT, RESPOND

Prayer in gratitude to God and spiritual discernment are important elements of stewardship.  Prayer allows our giving to flow from a grateful heart for the blessings we have received.  Thoughtful reflection helps us to give graciously in thanks to God, and not from a sense of obligation, guilt, or from our abundance.  Like the widow who placed her meager two coins amount into the collection, hear offering was not about the amount, it was about her giving in thanks from her desire.  Many others had put in much greater amounts, but it came from their abundance, their extra, and not from a place of thanksgiving.  Prayer and thoughtful reflection are important so that we give from our desire and hearts in thanksgiving.  It is then we are ready to respond.

PLANNED GIVING CALCULATOR

There are many methods that people use to determine their planned giving.  We offer an excel sheet that makes calculating your planned giving easy.  You simply fill in your household income and the amounts that you desire in our four categories, the rest is calculated for you.  You can quickly change values and watch the numbers automatically calculate.  A color graph is also updated with each adjustment.

 

> > > Download our Planned Giving Calculator! < < <

This tool is completely secure and safe.  No data is transferred to us or anywhere, so it is super easy.  You may save your data to your computer if you desire and keep your own downloaded Planned Giving Calculator.

 

Manual Tools

If you do not plan on using the above Excel calculator, you might find these tools helpful.

Worksheet to manually determine level of giving
Weekly Matrix
Monthly Matrix
Annual Matrix

 

WAYS TO GIVE

All methods, except CASH, are posted to our donor giving database.  At the end of the year, we will send letters out that include all your giving.  This makes it super easy to do your taxes and get credit for your tax deductable gifts.  We want to help you and make it easier for you.  Most people can claim charitable deductions up to 50% of your adjusted income.  Some at 30% or 20%.  Please refer to the IRS Charitable Contributions link at the bottom of this page.

CASH
This is a popular method of giving, but be careful!  If you do not put your cash in an envelop and identify yourself as the donor, we can never know who donated it.  This means we can never record it to notify you so that you may easily claim your tax deduction.  We post all donations and send a letter out at the end of the year to each donor over $250 that can be used in your tax preparations.  Otherwise the burden falls on the donor to keep proof, and when giving loose cash, there is no proof !  Be sure to always identify your donation so we can help you get your tax deduction.

CHECKS
These always work well, and can be given in person at Mass or in the office.  They can also be mailed to us at any time.

PARISH ENVELOPE PROGRAM
Our envelope program is voluntary, and many parishioners enjoy using this.  If participating, the parish assigns you an envelope number (ENV#) and envelopes are automatically mailed to your home.  You will have an envelope for each offertoy and Secure Future Fund collections, and so it make it easy to look ahead and plan.  Please only use this option if you will use the envelopes, as the parish covers the cost of having these mailed to you.

DIRECT PAY or BILL PAY
Many banks and credit unions allow for members to contribute electronically or by mail directly from your bank account to St. Andrew Parish.  Many people pay their bills in this fashion, or setup automatic payments for their regular bills.  The same can be done for automatic contributions.  This is a great way to have your contribution automatically be sent.  They can be adjusted or cancelled at at any time, and this method has become a favorite among parishioners due to the ability to login and make changes whenever desired.  Please use: ST. ANDREW PARISH, 11835 S 3600 W, Riverton, UT 84065 and put your intent in the memo field, e.g. Offertory, Secure Future Fund, Second Collection.

ONLINE DONATIONS
This is not available at the moment.  This option allows a donor to use their credit card to send a single gift, or a recurring gift.  These are nice because donors can sometimes accumulate air miles or other benefits offered by their credit card company.  The downside is that the credit merchant and online collection service each take a percentage of the donation as a service fee, so 100% of your contribution does not reach the recipient.  Making adjustments to recurring gifts can somtimes be difficult using this method, depending on your credit card company.  This is still a very good option and we will look into in the coming year.

GIFT-IN-KIND
A gift-in-kind is a non-monetary gift, such as a baby blanket.  When you give the gift, simply present the receipt for the purchased item so that we may record the donation to help you qualify for the tax deduction.  The receipt must accompany the gift, as we are required to verify the gift against the receipt and keep the receipt for our auditor.  An excellent example of a gift-in-kind in our parish is when someone donates a gift basket for the Mardi Gras.  Simply present the receipt when you drop-off the gift.

Larger valued gift-in-kinds that are not new might be eligible for the deduction.  Generally a receipt will not be available, but if we can properly value the item and depreciate its cost, you might be eligible, e.g. vacation home, used trailer, used leather couch.

 

LONG-TERM PLANNING

There are many ways to provide for long-term planning and often in ways that are overlooked.  Here are a handful of options that we will be writing about in the coming year.  If you would like to consider a long-term gift please contact Fr. John so that we may share our opportunities with you, the pros and cons of different methods, and can address your desire and needs.

Estate Planning
Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds
Property
Gift Annuities
Life Insurance
Wills and Bequests
Utah Catholic Foundation

 

OTHER RESOURCES

Charitble Contributions, IRS Publication 526 (2011), PDF
This covers all contributions: cash, property, gift-in-kind,what you can deduct, what you cannot deduct, when to deduct, limits, how to report, etc.

Determining the Value of Donated Property, IRS Publication 561 (Apr 2007) PDF
When donating a gift basket or other items, simply provide the receipt with it and get the full value if it is brand new.  Otherwise, the gift-in-kind must be depreciated, e.g. a one year old computer, a two year old canoe.  This document is still valid (2013) to help determine fair market value and depreciation.

List of Second Collections (16 National & Diocesan) + (1 Cooperative Mission Appeal).  These would be our normal second collections that happen throughout the year.
2014
2013
2012