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GOVERNANCE & MINISTRY
by Dan Hotchkiss
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Saying No to Gifts
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Excerpt
Photo by Free To Use Sounds Everybody knows that congregations require money, and most leaders know that to receive gifts, you usually have to ask for them. But sometimes donors offer gifts without being asked. This is a good thing—usually! But unasked-for gifts often have strings attached. Accepting them blindly risks letting donors choose the congregation’s course. Paradoxically, one of the most effective ways to encourage gifts is to adopt clear policies about when you will say no to them. Gifts with strings attached (technically, “restricted” gifts) are those where the donor says, in effect, “I’ll give you this, but only if you promise to use it as I say.” Donors may say, for example, that money must go for building maintenance or social justice work. Or they may require their gift to be invested and that only income from it may be spent. Instead of money, donors sometimes like
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