By pledging a weekly or monthly gift to the church, you enable our Trustee Ministry Team to accurately set our budget. There are several ways to get these gifts to the church but in each case, it is important that the giver is identified so their gifts can be recorded.

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The traditional way is to put the cash or check in an envelope (usually supplied by the church) and drop it in the plate. Some just drop a check in the Sunday collection plate or mail it to the church. 

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Some other ways to make gifts to the church may be more convenient, and some have tax advantages.

For convenience you can have your bank send a weekly or monthly check to the church or even wire the money directly to the church bank account. This is convenient, but you must remember to set a time limit and to adjust the amount yearly.

 

These are the ways to give that might save you money

Gifts to the church are tax deductible if you itemize deductions. Gifts to the church are now deductible on your Massachusetts tax return even if you don’t itemize on your federal return and can include:

• Making a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD)

• Giving from a Charitable Donor-Advised Fund

• Giving appreciated stock

 

Each of the above may reduce your taxes because you are donating money that hasn’t been taxed plus you still get a charitable tax deduction if you are eligible. You should always contact your financial advisor and tax advisor before making a QCD, giving stock, or setting up a Charitable Donor-Advised Fund.

 

Qualified Charitable Deduction (QCD)

A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) enables you to get a charitable deduction without itemizing (Must be 70 ½ years old). Taxpayers can make an IRA distribution (QCD) payable directly to The Church of the Pilgrimage (charity), and no income tax (federal or state) is paid on a QCD.  If you do this when you are 73 the QCD counts toward your IRA Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).

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Contact your financial adviser to arrange the QCD transfer and your tax adviser to see if you will save any tax.

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Giving Appreciated Stock

To make a onetime gift of appreciated stock to The Church of the Pilgrimage you need to contact your financial adviser to pick the appreciated stock and arrange the transfer. Then contact our Office Manager at the church office to obtain the information your financial advisor needs complete the stock transfer. You also want to inform the Office Manager the purpose of the gift.

 

Charitable Donor-Advised Fund 

If you own appreciated stock you plan to sell and you give money to The Church of the Pilgrimage and other charities you may want to set up a Charitable Donor-Advised Fund. You may get a charitable deduction from your income taxes and avoid paying capital gains tax by using this method. For donations of less than $15,000, the cost is about $100/year.  There may be a limitation on the size of the donation.  Fidelity and Schawb have a minimum donation of $50. These instructions are written assuming you have an online brokerage account such as with Schwab or Fidelity.  If you deal directly with a stockbroker or financial advisor, they will likely do something similar on your behalf.  If you hold actual physical stock certificates but have no broker, please contact the Trustee Ministry Team as this will require a special procedure.

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A Charitable Donor-advised Fund works as follows: once you have set it up (see below), you transfer stock from your brokerage account to this charity account using the normal stock transfer mechanisms of your account.  At that point, you have donated the stock. The Gift Fund sells the stock and invests the money into mutual funds. You have given the stock away for charity purposes. From an ownership viewpoint, you no longer directly control it.  You get a charity tax deduction of the value of the stock on that day and your broker will send a statement to that effect.  You do, however, get to advise the charity fund  how to invest this money until you actually give some or all if it to a charity.

 

How to make a donation to a charity

You log on to your charity account and follow the screens for making a donation.  You can donate to any 501(c)3 charity, including the Church. There will be dialog screens to identify the charity and the amount you want to donate.  If you just type The Church of the Pilgrimage, it will likely pop up.  There will be a chance to specify any special fund you would like to give to. There will be options for recurring donations such as monthly. There may be a minimum size limit of $50. If you wanted to give only $25 per month just give $50 every other month.  Once completed, the Gift Fund will mail a check to 8 Town Square and the donation will be processed in the normal way, just as if you had written a check from your checking account.   The Church has charity tax ID (EIN) of 04-2307320, though the system will likely already have this number.

 

Setting up the Account

After logging on, go to the tab labeled something like “open an account”.  There will be many options. Find the one called Charity or Charity Gift or something similar.  You can name the account whatever you like, though it is suggested you don’t call it a “trust” as there is no legal trust document for this account and the funds cannot be inherited. Since the system already knows your ID and associated information, much of the screen will be filled out. However, there are other things to do.  You can authorize other IDs to access this account, so people other than yourself can make donations. You can give instructions about where any residual money should be donated should you become deceased.  Most important, you can advise the Gift Fund how to invest the proceeds from the donated stock prior to making a charity donation.  For example, you could say, 75% to a wide-variety stock fund, 20% to a money market fund and 5% to cash.  There are many options.  When you make a donation, the Gift Account your broker will remove funds in a way that maintains the balance you have specified.  You can change the percentages and funds at any time.

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Some caveats: 1) It takes a couple of days processing to fully establish a charity account due to government regulations, so allow time if it’s near the end of the calendar year, and 2) if you itemize deductions on your 1040 tax form, when you receive your yearly donation statement from the church, be careful not to double-count. You got a tax deduction when you donated the stock originally; you can’t take a second deduction on the church annual statement for the donations from the Gift Fund.