Planned Gifts Your Parish Can Get With Legacy Sunday
Planned gifts your Parish could receive using the Legacy Sunday planned giving strategy (assuming 40 Parishioners in your Parish pass away per year):
- With the Legacy Sunday Strategy and Just 20% of Deceased Parishioners Leaving Charitable Bequests to Your Parish
- Estimated No. of Bequests Your Parish Could Receive per Year: 8
- Multiply the Number of Bequests Receivable By: X
- Average Sized Bequest Amount: $ 78,630*
- Planned Gifts Your Parish Could Receive per Year: $629,040
*Per Chronicle of Philanthropy, Survey of Wills, Eden Stiffman, August 28, 2019
Due to the aging of affluent Parishioners, generating planned gifts before Parishioners pass away is mission critical.
Most Dioceses Are Experiencing Financial Difficulties due to Aging Donors Passing Away
Diocesan Mortality Statistics:*
# of Catholics
Passed Away
| 1 | Baton Rouge | 1589 | 1736 | 2017 | worsening |
| 2. | Brownsville | 2820 | 3076 | 3472 | worsening |
| 3. | Fort Worth | 825 | 1217 | 1545 | worsening |
| 4. | Lafayette | 2951 | 3204 | 3734 | worsening |
| 5. | Omaha | 1770 | 1782 | 1966 | worsening |
| 6. | Phoenix | 2652 | 2547 | 3148 | worsening |
| 7. | Raleigh | 1292 | 1188 | 1519 | worsening |
| 8. | San Antonio | 4488 | 4333 | 5575 | worsening |
| 9. | Santa Fe | 3022 | 2750 | 3379 | worsening |
| 10. | Venice | 2434 | 2102 | 2490 | worsening |
*Source – Official Catholic Directory (2020, 2021,2022)
Why Dioceses and Parishes Need to Generate Planned Gifts:
Question: What will the financial impact be on a Parish when its top 20 senior (Age 65+) Parishioners pass away?
- Answer No. 1: If they have not remembered your Parish in their estate plan, your offertory will decrease significantly as those Parishioners have died and can no longer donate to your Parish.
- Answer No. 2: If they have left a bequest to your Parish, the Parish will financially benefit as those Parishioners’ financial support will increase by an average of $78k per bequest.
For additional tactical planned giving strategies, go to Resources.
Funerals vs. Bequests
Recent Parish surveys show reasons for concern:
- Most Parish priests said their Parish had received no bequests from deceased Parishioners last year.
- Parish priests said they had presided from 30 to 50 Parishioner funerals in the last year.
Can your Parish afford to continue being disinherited by its Parishioners?
For additional tactical planned giving strategies, go to Resources.
