Planned Giving Home

Welcome to The LCMS Foundation Gift Planning Homepage

Your district Gift Planning Counselor is a fellow Lutheran who shares your love for the Lord and understands your desire to help spread the Gospel. Your counselor is an experienced professional who can assist you with the Transfer of Blessings to family, heirs, and ministry. When you ask for the counselor's assistance you can expect:

     · Convenient meeting time and place
     · No charge for your counselor's services
     · Counseling on organizing an estate Lifetime Plan for Giving
     · Complete confidentiality

Counselors share a variety of choices that you may have in developing gift plans, such as Christian preambles, gift annuities and donor-advised funds. They will also give a general overview of other planning techniques like wills, living trusts, and credit shelter trusts.

Having a completed Gift Plan gives you peace of mind knowing that your wishes for the gifts God has entrusted to you are fulfilled.

New!!! Click here to locate and contact a counselor on our interactive map.

For Congregations and Ministry Organizations

The LCMS Foundation gift planning counselors also assist congregations and ministry organizations with establishing, promoting, growing, and managing ministry endowment funds.

Click here to download our free Ministry Endowment Funding booklet (Adobe Acrobat required).

LCMS Foundation Donor Stories

Many of the stories feature actual LCMS donor stories, while other stories are fictional to be used for illustrative purposes only.

Please contact The LCMS Foundation or your gift planning counselor for more information.

A Nebraska Family Includes God's Work in their Wills
"Gentle rivers meander along pine-studded canyons, towering waterfalls and a veritable ocean of prairie grasses alongside America's largest man-made forest, a wildlife refuge of gigantic proportions..." More on A Nebraska Family Includes God's Work in their Wills >>.

Memories of Concordia Result in Gift
Sixty years ago, 14-year-old Edward Eaton rode his bicycle to and from school every day through the streets of Bronxville, N.Y. More on Memories of Concordia Result in Gift >>.

Leaving a Legacy to Benefit Many of God's People
It's hard to believe that something good could come as a result of a terrible natural disaster. But it has. More on Leaving a Legacy to Benefit Many of God's People >>.

Mother's Coffee Cake Helps Lutheran Pastors
My mother was a good German cook. She loved the Lord and she loved to bake coffee cake. Little did she know that her coffee cake, many years later, would be the source for a LCMS Foundation Trust at Calvary Lutheran Church, Wray, CO. More on Mother's Coffee Cake Helps Lutheran Pastors >>.

Steps to Wise Giving

There are several steps to help you make wise and prudent gifts. These pages are here to help you learn how gift planning ideas can be of personal benefit. Let us suggest a few steps that would help you in that process.

Terry Gerdts
Senior Vice President of Gift Planning Services

Thanks very much for visiting us! I would be very pleased to help you. Simply click here to email me at your convenience.

Professional Advisors

We also have a complete tax update service for CPAs, attorneys, CLUs, CFPs, ChFCs, trust officers and other professional friends. The GiftLaw services are made available to all advisors as a free service. We also are always available to assist in helping you provide clients with clear and understandable gift illustrations. If you would like assistance with a gift illustration, please contact Gift.Processing@lcms.org.

If you are a professional advisor, you may take the following steps on this site.

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