Catholic Planned Giving: The Complete Guide for Catholic Organizations

 By Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing

Planned giving is the practice of inviting and receiving charitable gifts made from a donor's accumulated assets, usually through a will, a trust, a beneficiary designation, or a life-income arrangement, rather than from current income. Most planned gifts are arranged during the donor's lifetime and realized at or after death. That sentence contains the whole discipline: a different source of funds, a different timeline, a different conversation.

A word about who this is for. This guide is written for development professionals at Catholic organizations, including directors of development, stewardship directors, advancement officers, and the pastors and principals who end up wearing the development hat. It assumes you are building the program, not making the gift.

If you arrived here as a parishioner hoping to leave a gift to the Church in your will, this isn't the page you need. Call your parish office and ask who handles legacy gifts; if they don't know, call your diocesan foundation. Then talk to your own estate planning attorney.

Everyone else, keep reading. What follows is the hub of an eight-part guide; each section points to a deeper treatment.

What's in this guide

• What is planned giving, and what is it not?
• Why does planned giving matter specifically to Catholic organizations?
• What do we actually know about the state of Catholic planned giving?
• What are the gift vehicles, and which ones will you actually see?
• Why do Catholics make planned gifts?
• What does a planned giving program actually require?
• How do you have the planned giving conversation?
• What is a legacy society, and how do you steward one?
• How do you communicate about planned giving without sounding like a law firm?
• Gift acceptance, legal names, and endowments
• What legal and tax boundaries must a fundraiser respect?
• What are the most common mistakes in Catholic planned giving?
• Glossary of planned giving terms
• Frequently asked questions

↑ Back to top

What is planned giving, and what is it not?

A planned gift is a charitable gift arranged in advance, funded from assets rather than income, and usually completed at some point in the future. A current gift is funded from what a donor earns or holds in cash now, and it is complete when it arrives. Nearly every practical difference between annual fundraising and planned giving follows from that distinction.

A donor giving from income is limited by this year's household budget. A donor giving from assets is limited by a lifetime of accumulation.

Planned giving is not a product line. It is not a brochure, a rate table, or a web page, though it eventually involves all three. It is not reserved for specialists at large institutions, no parish needs permission to begin, and it will not solve a cash-flow problem this fiscal year.

Planned giving vs. legacy giving: is there a difference?

In practice the terms are used interchangeably. But they carry different connotations, and choosing deliberately between them is an easy authority win.

"Planned giving" is technical and internal. It names the mechanism and points toward instruments, documents, and advisors. "Legacy giving" is relational and donor-facing; it names the meaning instead. Most donors have no idea what a planned gift is, but every one of them understands what a legacy is. That is why nearly every Catholic recognition program is called a legacy society.

↑ Back to top

Why does planned giving matter specifically to Catholic organizations?

Planned giving matters to Catholic organizations because the Church's institutions are built to last centuries while their funding is organized around the next twelve months. That mismatch is the whole argument. A parish that has stood for a hundred and forty years still funds its roof out of Sunday collections.

Four features make the discipline unusually well-suited here, and unusually neglected.

Institutional permanence is genuinely credible. A donor considering a gift realized in twenty years has to believe the recipient will still exist. Few nonprofits can claim that honestly. A diocese can. A parish can. It is the strongest asset Catholic organizations bring to a legacy conversation, and most never mention it.

The vocabulary already exists. Catholic donors have been formed for decades in stewardship language: the idea that what we hold is entrusted rather than owned. The USCCB's Stewardship: A Disciple's Response treats planned gifts as a normal expression of that formation, made from accumulated assets as part of an overall estate plan. You are completing a concept, not introducing one.

Donor tenure is extraordinarily long. A parishioner may have given weekly for forty years; an alumna may have been connected for a lifetime. Long tenure is the strongest known signal of legacy potential, and Catholic organizations have more of it than almost anyone.

And the counterweight: capacity is thin. Most Catholic organizations are shops of one. Planned giving most rewards patience and least rewards staff heroics. That is exactly why a small shop should be doing it, and why it gets postponed for another year of events.

↑ Back to top

What do we actually know about the state of Catholic planned giving?

Honestly, less than we should. There is no Catholic sector census of planned giving. Nobody publishes reliable aggregate figures on how many parishes have a legacy society, how many bequest intentions are on record across the Church in the United States, or what a typical realized Catholic estate gift looks like.

FADICA, the network of Catholic foundations and donors doing the most serious work here. Giving USA and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy report on religion as a category, not on Catholic institutions, and that category spans every faith tradition in the country.

So when you see a confident figure attached to Catholic legacy giving, be suspicious. It is usually a general-market number repackaged, vendor platform data presented as sector data, or a pre-pandemic study still in circulation. We would rather tell you the data is thin than hand you something you might put in a board presentation.

What can be said directionally, and defended:

• Bequests through wills and living trusts are, by a wide margin, the most common planned gift most Catholic organizations will ever receive.
• Retirement account beneficiary designations are the fastest-growing category, and the most often missed; no attorney is involved, so nobody thinks to tell you.
• Diocesan foundations have proliferated over two decades and have become the infrastructure through which most parish-level planned giving actually happens.
• Diocesan legacy societies are being launched now, not generations ago. The Diocese of Charleston established its Catholic Heritage Society in 2017 under Bishop Robert Guglielmone; the Diocese of Wichita launched its Grateful Steward Legacy Society in 2023. This is an early-growth field.
• Realized estate gifts frequently arrive as a surprise, which is itself evidence of how little cultivation is happening.

Measure four things yourself, because no one else will: documented bequest intentions, the age of your oldest documented bequest intention, donors with ten or more consecutive years of giving, and realized estate gifts received in the past decade. Check accounting records for realized estate gifts, not your CRM, since estate gifts often land in the finance office and never reach development.

↑ Back to top

What are the gift vehicles, and which ones will you actually see?

A gift vehicle is the legal or financial instrument through which a planned gift is structured, such as a will, a trust, a beneficiary form, or an annuity contract. Recognize all of them; leave most to specialists. Read the complexity column as complexity for your organization, not the donor.

Everything in the low-complexity rows is available to you today, with no new infrastructure, state registration, or reserve requirements, and the overwhelming majority of planned gift dollars Catholic organizations receive comes from those rows.

The high-complexity rows almost never require you to become the administrator. Gift annuities can be offered through a diocesan foundation or a pooled issuer; Catholic Gift Annuity, issued by the Catholic Church Extension Society, has provided them since 1912. Recognize the fit and make the referral; don't underwrite a lifetime payment obligation out of parish reserves.

And revocability changes how you talk about a gift internally. Nearly every gift a parish is told about is revocable, which makes it a relationship to steward, not a receivable to book.

For the mechanics of each instrument, see types of planned gifts.

↑ Back to top

Why do Catholics make planned gifts?

Catholics make planned gifts for the same reason they make any gift, only more so: the mission has become part of who they are, and they want it to continue after they can no longer support it. Tax efficiency is a feature of how the gift gets structured. It is almost never the reason it gets made.

That has an operational consequence. A program built around tax advantages attracts a few affluent, advisor-driven donors and misses the parishioner of fifty years in a paid-off house with a modest IRA. That parishioner is, pastorally and statistically, your most likely legacy donor.

The Catholic case rests on ground already familiar to your donors: that what we hold is entrusted rather than owned; that stewardship is a response to gift, not an obligation; that the Church's mission is intergenerational by nature; and that death is a passage rather than a deadline. That last point is why urgency-and-mortality appeals, such as "before it's too late," read as manipulative in a Catholic setting.

↑ Back to top

What does a planned giving program actually require?

A functioning planned giving program requires three pieces of infrastructure, one habit, and patience. Not software. Not a brochure.

1. A gift acceptance policy adopted by your governing body. Board-adopted, not drafted-and-filed. It is what lets you say yes and no with confidence when a donor offers something complicated.
2. Proof of tax-exempt status you can hand to an attorney. A current IRS determination letter or your listing under the USCCB group ruling, plus your exact legal name and tax identification number.
3. A relationship with counsel experienced in charitable gift planning. Not necessarily on retainer; just a name you can call before accepting something unusual.

The habit: a way to record and retrieve an intention. You need somewhere to note that the Smiths have included the parish in their will, when they said so, who they told, and what they hoped it would fund. An intention living only in a staff member's memory dies when that staff member leaves. This is the most commonly skipped step in Catholic planned giving, and it costs real money years later.

The patience: a program built today typically begins producing meaningful realized revenue in seven to fifteen years. Every development office has a story about a bequest that arrived within eighteen months; don't plan around them, and don't let your board plan around them either. Set expectations in terms of intentions documented and conversations held.

Institution type changes the starting point. A parish has weekly contact and a pastor whose witness outweighs any mailing. A school has alumni and a non-theological entry point: your education here shaped you, and you can do that for someone else. A Catholic Charities agency has donors moved by acts of mercy who may not identify with the institutional Church at all.

If you're at a parish and your diocese has a foundation, start there before building anything. The Roman Catholic Foundation of St. Louis maintains a parish toolkit, and the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph keeps a public parish planned giving page. Both are worth reviewing as models.

↑ Back to top

How do you have the planned giving conversation?

You have the planned giving conversation by starting with what the mission has meant to the donor, and never opening with mechanics. That's the whole technique, and most people break it in the first thirty seconds by explaining bequest language to someone who hasn't been asked what the parish means to them.

The opening move is a question about their history, not your instruments. What has this ministry meant to you over the years? Once they've narrated their own relationship with the work, a bridge appears: Have you ever thought about what you'd like that relationship to look like long into the future? That question opens a door without pushing anyone through it. If they change the subject, let them, note it, and try again next year.

Recognizing signals matters as much as asking. Donors rarely announce they're thinking about estate giving. They say I want to make sure this school is here for my grandchildren, or we've been redoing our paperwork, or the kids are all settled now. Each is an opening, and the right response is a follow-up question, not a pivot to product information.

Prospect identification is simpler than most people expect. The strongest signal is not capacity but tenure. Ten or more consecutive years of giving, at any level, is the working screen we recommend. Wealth screening has its place, but a database sorted by consecutive years will hand you a better first list, and it costs nothing.

Timing takes pastoral judgment. Don't raise legacy giving during a personal crisis, mid-appeal, or in a group setting where private discernment is impossible. Recent widowhood deserves particular care: the instinct to reach out is right, the instinct to raise estate planning in the same visit is wrong.

↑ Back to top

What is a legacy society, and how do you steward one?

A legacy society is a named recognition program for donors who have told you they've included your organization in their estate plans. Membership requires notification, not documentation. Gift amounts aren't disclosed, and the commitment stays revocable. That last point isn't a weakness of the model; it's why donors are willing to join.

It solves a specific problem: planned gifts are invisible. A donor who writes your parish into her will gets no plaque, no event, and no way of knowing anyone noticed. The society closes that gap while she's alive to appreciate it.

Catholic organizations have an advantage here no secular nonprofit can match: recognition with genuine spiritual weight. The Diocese of Wichita's Grateful Steward Legacy Society, established in 2023, has no minimum gift and includes a monthly Mass intention offered by Bishop Kemme for members, plus an annual Evening of Appreciation.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco's Society of Saint Francis sends a welcome letter from the Archbishop, a Society lapel pin, and an invitation to an annual Archbishop's Mass. The Catholic Legacy Society for the Archdiocese of Boston, administered by the Catholic Community Fund, follows a comparable model.

A Mass offered for the living and deceased members of your society is a form of gratitude no donor reception can replicate. It also costs nothing.

Four things a basic society needs to launch: a name that does theological work, such as a patron, a founder, a charism, or a Marian title tied to your parish; a one-page enrollment form; an acknowledgment letter signed by the pastor or executive director; and a written commitment to honor anonymity requests permanently.

Start with charter members, not an announcement. Identify five to eight donors who have already mentioned estate intentions and invite them first. Their presence gives the society credibility and everyone else social proof. Then hold a charter Mass within six months.

And then steward them. A common is drift after enrollment.

↑ Back to top

How do you communicate about planned giving without sounding like a law firm?

You communicate about planned giving by naming the mission first, telling one true story, and making the invitation in language a person would actually use. The most common failure in Catholic planned giving communication isn't insufficient frequency. It's writing that sounds like it came from a compliance department.

Plain language beats technical language every time. "A gift in your will" invites more response than "a charitable bequest." "Leaving a gift from your retirement account" beats "an IRA beneficiary designation." Save the technical terms for the page where an attorney will look for them.

Never lead with tax benefits. Tax treatment can be mentioned briefly and factually, but reducing a spiritually motivated act to an estate-efficiency argument insults the donor's actual reason for giving. Mission first, story second, mechanism third, next step fourth.

Never use fear. No "while you still can," no "before it's too late." A Catholic communication that understands death as passage into eternal life does not treat it as a deadline. A great deal of general-market copy fails this test badly, which makes it a real differentiator.

The channels are less glamorous than the principles. A short recurring bulletin item beats an annual full-page insert; a named contact with a real phone number beats a web form. And personal follow-through matters more than technical sophistication, a point the Catholic Community Foundation of Cleveland makes in its parish legacy resources.

↑ Back to top

Gift acceptance, legal names, and endowments

A gift acceptance policy is a formally adopted governing document defining which gifts your organization will accept, which require additional review, who may approve them, and how they'll be valued, liquidated, and acknowledged. It exists so high-stakes decisions aren't made under pressure with a grieving family in the room.

Every organization should have one before accepting its next non-cash gift. IRS Form 990 Schedule M asks directly whether a policy is in place. Existing gift acceptance policies can be used for inspiration. Policies from Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh and The Catholic University of America are publicly available.

Catholic organizations face two complications secular frameworks don't address. The first is a gift offered with conditions contrary to Church teaching or Catholic identity, which must be declined regardless of size. That decision is far easier when a board-adopted policy says so in writing. The second is disputed donor intent: an unrestricted bequest from someone who told you for years she wanted it to specifically fund the school. That needs counsel before acceptance, not after.

Then there's the naming problem, which matters more than it looks. A will naming the wrong entity creates delay, legal expense, and sometimes a gift that lands where the donor never intended. Common failure modes: naming a parish that isn't separately incorporated in your state; naming a school rather than the parish or diocese holding its assets; using a popular name rather than the legal one; naming an entity that has merged or closed; and omitting the tax identification number. Have counsel verify all of it, then publish and stop changing it.

Endowments are the other half of this. An endowment is a fund whose principal is preserved and invested, with a portion of its return distributed annually. Most Catholic organizations default every estate gift to endowment or every one to operations, and both defaults are mistakes. The right question is what the donor intended and what the organization needs, answered by policy in advance, not by whoever opens the mail.

↑ Back to top

What legal and tax boundaries must a fundraiser respect?

Fundraisers may explain how gift vehicles work in general terms. Fundraisers may not tell a donor what to do. That boundary is clean, and respecting it is one of the most valuable things you offer. A donor who trusts you won't overreach will tell you things they'd never tell a salesperson.

Four concepts are worth understanding well:

Revocable versus irrevocable. A revocable gift is one the donor can change or cancel at any time: bequests in a will, beneficiary designations, transfer-on-death accounts. Because no legal interest has transferred, they generate no charitable income tax deduction during the donor's lifetime.

An irrevocable gift permanently transfers ownership, including outright gifts of cash or securities, gift annuities, and remainder trusts, and generally does produce a deduction, subject to limits you should never quote. The error to avoid is telling a donor that adding you to a will produces a current tax benefit. It does not.

Retirement assets are the most tax-efficient asset to leave to charity. This is the most useful thing in this section, and it needs no numbers. A traditional retirement account left to a child is reduced by the income tax the child owes on distributions. The same account left to a tax-exempt organization is not reduced at all, because the organization owes no income tax on it.

Cash, a house, and appreciated stock generally pass to heirs on better terms. So the principle is: leave taxable assets to charity, tax-favored ones to the children. Whether it fits a family belongs to their advisors.

Beneficiary designations override the will. Retirement accounts, insurance policies, and transfer-on-death accounts pass according to the form on file with the custodian, regardless of what the will says. A donor who amends her will to include your parish and never updates her IRA beneficiary form has not changed where that IRA goes. Suggesting she confirm her designations with her advisor is a service, not an ask.

Estate tax reaches very few estates. Thresholds change with legislation and inflation, some states impose their own rules at lower levels, and none of it is yours to calculate. Refer, always.

The AFP Code of Ethical Standards and the Model Standards of Practice for the Charitable Gift Planner both point one direction: know the concepts, refuse the advisory role, make the referral graciously.

The sentence to memorize: "We'd be honored to be part of your legacy. When you're ready to talk with your attorney, we'll gladly provide anything they need from us."

↑ Back to top

What are the most common mistakes in Catholic planned giving?

These are the failures we see most often, roughly in order of what they cost.

1. Never recording the intention. A donor tells the pastor at a funeral reception that the parish is in her will. Nobody writes it down. Six years later the pastor has been reassigned and the development director has moved on. 
2. Waiting for the diocese, the foundation, or the next hire. Recording intentions, having conversations, and publishing your legal name require no permission and no infrastructure. Organizations postpone the discipline waiting for capacity they'll never quite have.
3. Screening for wealth instead of loyalty. The top of your donor pyramid is not your legacy prospect list. Consecutive years of giving is the stronger signal, and it surfaces people your major gifts officer has never visited.
4. Booking an intention as revenue. Revocable means revocable. Counting expectancies in campaign totals creates promises to a board that a donor never made and can withdraw at any time.
5. Under-stewarding after the commitment. The donor said yes and the relationship went quiet. Enrollment in a legacy society is the beginning of stewardship, not the completion of a task.
6. Publishing the wrong legal name, or none at all. If an attorney can't find your exact legal name and tax identification number in under a minute, you've introduced avoidable risk into every gift.
7. Accepting complex gifts without a policy. Real estate with environmental exposure, closely held stock with no market, a restriction that conflicts with Church teaching. Each becomes far harder to decline once the family is watching.
8. Never asking about the diocesan assessment. Some dioceses treat estate gifts to parishes differently from ordinary parish income. Some dioceses exempt estate gifts to parishes from the standard diocesan assessment. If yours does something similar, that's a motivating fact for a reluctant pastor, and you'll never know unless you ask your chancery.
9. Assuming no one has already given. Check the finance office for estate gifts received over the past decade. Many organizations find they've been quietly receiving legacy revenue for years with no program at all. That is the best possible argument for building one.

↑ Back to top

Glossary of planned giving terms

Awareness. The stage at which a donor knows planned giving is possible at your organization but has taken no action. Created by communications, not visits.

Intention. A donor's stated decision to include your organization in their estate plans. A relationship milestone, not a legal commitment or revenue.

Expectancy. A documented intention recorded in your files: who, when, told to whom, and any stated purpose. Expectancies are what a program accumulates, counted separately from revenue.

Realized gift. A planned gift actually received, typically after estate settlement. Only realized gifts are revenue.

Bequest. A gift made through a will or living trust. Four standard forms:

• Specific bequest: a fixed dollar amount or named asset. Simplest and clearest, but fixed at drafting and eroded by time.
• Residuary bequest: all or a defined share of what remains after debts, taxes, and other bequests are satisfied. Frequently produces the largest realized gifts, because it scales with the estate rather than a figure set decades earlier.
• Percentage bequest: a stated proportion of the total estate, keeping the gift proportional as asset values change.
• Contingent bequest: takes effect only if a primary condition fails, most often when a named family beneficiary predeceases the donor. Protects family first, which is why some donors will make one when they'd decline anything else.

Residuum. What remains of an estate after all debts, taxes, expenses, and specific bequests are paid. The subject of a residuary bequest.

Revocable gift. A gift the donor may change or cancel at any time. Most planned gifts you'll hear about.

Irrevocable gift. A gift in which ownership has permanently transferred and cannot be reclaimed.

Beneficiary designation. A form filed with a custodian, insurer, or financial institution naming who receives an account at death. Passes outside the will and overrides it.

Charitable gift annuity (CGA). An irrevocable gift in exchange for fixed payments for life to the donor, or the donor and a second person, with the remainder passing to the mission. Rate guidance comes from the American Council on Gift Annuities.

Charitable remainder trust (CRT). An irrevocable trust paying income to a beneficiary for a term or for life, with the remainder passing to charity.

Charitable lead trust (CLT). The reverse of a CRT: charity is paid for a term, and the remainder returns to the donor's heirs.

Qualified charitable distribution (QCD). A direct transfer from an IRA to a qualified charity, available at age 70½ or older. A current gift, not a deferred one.

Donor-advised fund (DAF). An account at a sponsoring charity from which the donor recommends grants, and may name a charity as successor to remaining assets.

Endowment. A fund whose principal is preserved and invested, with a portion of return distributed annually. The principal is the corpus.

Gift acceptance policy. A board-adopted document governing which gifts an organization will accept and how.

Legacy society. A recognition program for donors who have disclosed an estate gift intention.

↑ Back to top

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between planned giving and legacy giving?

Functionally, none. By connotation, "planned giving" names the mechanism and belongs in policies and board reports; "legacy giving" names the meaning and belongs in bulletins, appeals, and society names. Use the second with donors and the first with colleagues.

Is planned giving only for wealthy donors?

No, and treating it that way is the field's most common strategic error. Because a planned gift comes from assets rather than income, a parishioner of modest means with a paid-off home can give more through her estate than in any year of her life. Loyalty predicts legacy giving better than wealth.

How long before a planned giving program produces revenue?

Usually seven to fifteen years before realized gifts arrive in any predictable pattern. Occasional gifts come much sooner, but don't plan around them. For the first several years, measure documented intentions and conversations held rather than dollars.

Does a parish need a diocesan foundation to accept a bequest?

No. A parish properly named in a will can receive a bequest. A foundation adds real value through investment management, gift acceptance expertise, and counsel relationships, and you should work through yours if it exists. But its absence is not a reason to postpone anything.

Should a donor name the parish or the diocese in a will?

That depends on your state's law, your parish's corporate structure, and what the donor wants the gift to do. Settle it in advance with counsel and your diocesan development office, then publish the verified language so every attorney gets it right.

Can we accept a planned gift without a gift acceptance policy?

You can accept a straightforward cash bequest. You should not accept real estate, closely held stock, tangible personal property, or a restricted gift without a board-adopted policy. Those are exactly the situations where you need a pre-established basis for saying no.

How do we identify planned giving prospects in a small database?

Sort by consecutive years of giving, not gift size. Ten or more consecutive years at any level is the working screen we recommend, and longer tenure strengthens the signal. Layer in age and ministry involvement where you know them.

Isn't it inappropriate to talk about death and money with parishioners?

It's inappropriate to do it clumsily. Done well it's a service, since most people have no estate plan or an outdated one, and thinking it through serves their family first. The errors to avoid are bad timing, group settings, and pushing after someone declines.

What do we do when a donor says they've included us in their will?

Thank them warmly and ask whether there's a purpose they hope it will serve. Write it down, including the date, what was said, to whom, and any stated purpose, and send a personal letter. Invite them into your legacy society, and confirm what recognition they do and don't want.

Can we count a bequest intention in our campaign totals?

Not as revenue. Revocable intentions can be reported as expectancies in a clearly labeled separate category, and many campaigns do exactly that. What you must not do is let an expectancy migrate into an operating projection.

Which asset is best for a donor to leave to the Church?

As a general principle, retirement accounts, because a tax-exempt organization owes no income tax on distributions while an individual heir would. Cash and appreciated property usually pass to heirs on better terms. Whether the principle fits a particular family is a question for their own advisors.

Do beneficiary designations really override a will?

Yes. Retirement accounts, insurance policies, and transfer-on-death accounts pass according to the form on file with the custodian, regardless of the will. This trips up donors constantly, and suggesting someone confirm their designations with an advisor is a genuine service.

Are fundraisers allowed to recommend an attorney?

Recommending one specific attorney creates an appearance problem and can create real conflicts. Offer several names, or point toward a diocesan or local bar referral resource, and make clear the choice is the donor's. Never draft, edit, or witness estate documents.

This article is written for fundraising professionals and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Donors considering any planned gift involving estate documents, trust agreements, or beneficiary designations should consult a qualified estate planning attorney. Organizations should consult their own counsel and their diocesan development office before accepting complex gifts.

↑ Back to top

Where Petrus fits

Most of this can be started this month by one person with a database and a calendar. What stalls a program isn't knowledge; it's the absence of someone holding the organization to the habit over the years it takes to mature. That's our work, inside Catholic parishes, dioceses, schools, and religious institutes, building development programs that outlast the staff who start them. You can read more about who we are and how we work.