Last month, our parish received a $50,000 bequest (donor to remain anonymous). A few notes on bequests:
What is a bequest? A bequest is a gift given in someone’s will. Inheritance is a type of bequest that is reserved to children.
Are bequests common? It is hard to say. This article from the Non-Profit Times asserts that bequests made up almost 10% of the money given to non-profits in 2018, for a total of $43 billion. Some of that will be very large gifts, like the $20 million Paul Allen’s estate gave to Swedish Medical Center in 2021, but most of it will come from ordinary folks just trying to take care of their favorite charities, even in death.
I can tell you that churches used to receive many bequests, maybe one large one ($50,000 or more) every couple of years, but they have become far less common for churches today. I have celebrated almost 100 funerals as pastor of Assumption but have received only a handful of bequests.
How does the parish use bequests? When a parish is struggling financially, bequests are unfortunately often used simply to stabilize the parish budget. We were doing an unfortunate amount of that before COVID, when we were still carrying $1.3 million in debt, with an $88,000/year debt payment. In my note from January 2020, I explained that we needed to stop doing this. Because bequests are a one time gift, they should be used to pay for a one time expense, like a maintenance item or a growth initiative. Because this $50,000 gift is coming so close to Partners in the Gospel, I am planning to put it in savings unless an urgent maintenance need arises, but normally I would be talking with the Pastoral Council and Buildings and Grounds Committee about where it is most needed.
Should every parishioner put the Church in their will? Obviously, I would like them to do so! But of course, I understand that every circumstance is different. Some people, for example, have children with particular financial needs, and these children need every resource possible after their parents pass. However, with tithing as our goal, it would not be inappropriate to give 10% of one’s assets after death to the Church (either the parish, the Archdiocese, or other Catholic entities).
I would say this is especially true if one’s children have left the faith. Some families take care of the Church by having many children who spend their lives contributing to their parishes. But with so many children leaving the faith, sometimes the last time anyone is going to care for the Church is at the death of the parents, and in this case, it would be best if not all of the resources went towards the children.How do I set up a bequest? Blessedly, the Archdiocese of Seattle recently set up a very spiffy website to help people understand the process. You can find a lot of information at https://archseattle.mylegacygift.org/.
Fr. Moore 