Charitable gift annuities top $262,000
WELS Foundation is reporting more than $262,000 in distributions to the synod operating budget, ministries, endowments, and individual congregations so far this year from charitable gift annuities (CGAs). The largest single distribution to a congregation was more than $20,000 to Crown of Life in West St. Paul, Minn., from a donor who Pastor Mark Kom says "was one to think of others before herself."
"She wanted the Lord's work to be done—serving people with the gospel, long after she was in heaven," says Kom. "The CGA was her way of accomplishing that."
CGAs are one of three major gifting opportunities managed by WELS Foundation. A gift annuity is a contract between a donor and WELS Foundation in which the donor makes a gift of cash or securities (stocks, bonds, or mutual funds) in exchange for guaranteed payments for life. After the donor dies, the remainder of the gift is distributed to the designated WELS ministry, school, or congregation.
Kom says their recent distribution will be used to help reduce the principle balance on their new sanctuary, to enhance their Lutheran elementary school, and to fund mission work through a thank offering to the synod. "It strikes us that we as a congregation feel like we have been shown an act of grace and undeserved love from one of our members, the very same way that the donor felt when she designated the gift as she considered the grace and undeserved love that Jesus had shown toward her."
To learn more about CGAs and other gifting opportunities available through WELS Foundation, contact Executive Director Jim Holm at jim.holm@wels.net.
