St. Luke's Gift Policy

     Donation Form

     For more information, send email to Dee Duncan or to Doug Rowley.

St. Luke’s Policy for Donated Funds
(Gifts, Bequests, Memorials and Trusts)

 This policy applies to all funds donated to St. Luke’s as cash, checks, stocks, or trusts, but not given as part of pledging or for unified budget expenses.  The policy applies to gifts whether or not a specific purpose for the use of the gift has been specified.  

The Trustees and Finance team, working with the Financial Secretary and through the regular church financial systems, will insure that the receipt and expensing of gifts is tracked, that gifts are spent as agreed upon by the giver and the Gift Fund Team, and that unspent amounts are tracked.  The Trustees will insure that any recognition that the giver requests and is agreed upon by the Gift Fund Team is implemented, and that an annual accounting of gifts is provided in the Charge Conference Report.  This recognition will be based on the St. Luke’s Donation Form, which Finance will pass to Trustees, and will adhere to the St. Luke’s confidentiality policy.  

All gifts which are designated for the purchase of a specific item or items which have been agreed upon by the Giver and the Gift Fund Team will be directly assigned by Finance to the responsible staff member and/or ministry team for their use in purchasing the specified item.  All normal expense approval procedures shall be followed.  Finance will insure that the gift is used in the manner agreed upon. At the end of each calendar year, all staff members and ministry teams who have purchased items from such gifts will provide an actual expenditure record to the Gift Fund Team.  

Our goal is to set up a number of fund accounts to simplify the gifting process.  Donors will be able to make gifts of any size to existing funds, and larger expenses can be paid for out of these accounts.  Examples of such fund accounts are Music, Adult Education, Children’s Ministries, Youth Ministries, Missions, and Operations.  

Gifts which are not designated for specific items, and all bequests, memorials, and trusts, will be placed in existing or new fund accounts.  These accounts will be administered by Trustees and Finance.  Requests for spending from these fund accounts will be directed to the Gift Fund Team.  A monthly report of unspent amounts in these fund accounts will be published by Finance.  

In order to insure these fund accounts are used in the manner intended, Trustees and Finance will have responsibility for expenditures from the gift fund accounts.  Day-to-day responsibilities will be handled by the Gift Fund Team.  This team will be co-chaired by Trustees and Finance, with representation from the Ministry Council and Pastoral staff.  This team will review all new gifts, bequests, memorials, and trusts; it will be responsible for reviewing their acceptability and agreeing with the Giver on how they will be used.   

The Gift Fund Team will evaluate all expenditure requests, with input from assigned staff members and/or ministry teams.  For expenditures up to and including $10,000, the Team will approve expenditure requests.  For expenditures greater than $10,000, the Team will obtain the recommendation of the Ministry Council and make a recommendation to the Executive Board for the Board’s final approval.  The Gift Fund Team may give blanket approval to specific funds and specific staff members and/or ministry teams to spend a specific amount within the calendar year, within the constraints agreed upon by the donor(s) and Gift Fund Team.  After approval, the assigned party will implement the expenditure as approved.  All normal expense approval procedures will need to be followed.  At the end of each calendar year, all staff members and ministry teams who have made expenditures from gift fund accounts will provide an actual expenditure record to the Gift Fund Team.  

In order to not impede the purchase of items that are needed quickly, the Gift Fund Team will establish procedures to deal with routine and/or non-controversial items without waiting for their next meeting.  

Other responsibilities of the Gift Fund Team include:

1. Serving as needed as a point of contact for donors or potential donors
2. Advising Finance on whether gifts which St. Luke’s may not want to receive should be accepted.
3. Administer the $150,000 “Special Gift,” according to the existing procedures.

Exclusions to this policy:

1. All “in-kind” gifts (i.e., physical items which are donated for use by the church)
2. Giving which is part of an annual pledge or specified to be used for the unified budget, including loose plate and “identified but not pledged” unified budget giving.
3. Giving as part of an approved fund-raiser
4. Gifts which are intended to be part of the Pastor’s discretionary funds.