What is Planned Giving?

Planned giving is faith carried forward, a way to leave a lasting legacy.

While weekly offerings are a wonderful way to meet today's needs, Planned giving looks to the future. It allows you to make a meaningful statement about your faith by supporting the church through financial or estate planning. Our beautiful church, and the ministries and outreach it supports, exists now because those that came before us made gifts of love and faith to their future church, the one that we enjoy today.

Planned giving:

• Comes from your accumulated assets—not weekly income.

• Supports the long-term stability of our church and its ministries.

• Is available to everyone, regardless of income.

• Offers the opportunity to express your values through thoughtful generosity.

Why it Matters

Planned giving isn't just a financial decision—it's a spiritual one. It reflects your desire to pass on a legacy of faith, compassion, and commitment to the future of our congregation.

Simple Ways of Making a Planned Gift:

1. Bequest from a will or trust - Bequests are one of the easiest ways to arrange for a gift from your estate. Gifts by bequest may consist of a set percentage or a specific amount of one’s estate.

2. Retirement plan assets - You can select First-Plymouth as a beneficiary of the remaining balance or a portion of the balance of your retirement account. This includes Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), 401(k)s, 403(b)s and pension plans. Because retirement assets left to family members are typically subject to higher taxation than other assets, using them to make a charitable estate gift can be a good choice. Making this type of gift can be arranged easily by contacting the administrator of your retirement plan.

3. Life Insurance - Life insurance is a simple yet often overlooked way of making a charitable estate gift. You can simply select First-Plymouth as a beneficiary of all or a portion of your life insurance policy’s proceeds. Alternatively, you can give the policy to First-Plymouth, make annual gifts to the church equal to the annual premium, and the church uses your annual gift to pay the premium payments. Talk to your financial advisor about the pros and cons of charity-owned life insurance.

4. Bank and brokerage accounts and other financial service products - If you have certificates of deposit (CDs) or other accounts at a bank or financial institution, you can select First-Plymouth as the beneficiary of these accounts or a portion of these accounts through payable-on-death (POD) or transfer-on-death (TOD) provisions. Upon your passing, the church would receive only the remaining balance of the funds.

Tax Efficient Ways of Giving During Life

1. Qualified charitable distributions - A qualified charitable distribution (QCD) allows individuals aged 70 ½ or older to transfer up to $111,000 directly from an IRA to charity tax-free. The primary advantages include excluding the donation from adjusted gross income (AGI), satisfying required minimum distributions (RMDs) without increasing tax liability, and lowering taxable income to reduce Medicare premiums and Social Security taxes.

2. Donor advised funds - Establishing a donor advised fund (DAF) with our partners at Lincoln Community Foundation or another financial institution can be a great way to minimize your tax bill and maximize the impact of your gift to First-Plymouth and other charities. The main benefit of DAFs is that they allow the donor to take immediate tax deductions for contributions—up to 60% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for cash and 30% for appreciated assets—while allowing donors to recommend grants to charities over time. They provide tax-free investment growth, permit donations of complex assets (stocks, real estate), and are simple to administer.

3. Gifts of appreciated stock - If you own stocks or other securities that have appreciated in value and you have owned them for at least one year, making a gift of them to First-Plymouth provides significant tax advantages and allows for a larger donation compared to giving cash. Such a gift avoids capital gains tax on the appreciation and allows for a tax deduction based on the full fair market value of the stock, up to 30% of adjusted gross income.