Legacy Giving

We define Legacy Giving as any gift made during or beyond a donor’s lifetime, that is part of a planned estate gift, toward the church’s forward mission of Making Disciples of Jesus Christ who love God, Love Others and Serve the World.

Legacy Giving can be a series of small installments or a single one-time gift in the future. This can be as easy as making FMCM a co-beneficiary of a life insurance policy or as complicated as a charitable trust. Some planned estate giving is best served in partnership with a tax or financial advisor, which the church has been blessed with wonderful believing professionals who have offered to help others, to save you taxes and any worries. Some planned giving is simply given from discretionary income, inheritance, or any current way that God has blessed you financially.

Whether your gift involves cash, stocks, investment funds, real estate, partnerships, life insurance, artwork, or inheritance, the benefits of legacy giving can work for the church and your estate.

Benefits for You

Expression of a legacy or belief that extends through your next generation. A decision you can make now, that connects your descendants to the work of the Lord.

Income tax and estate planning advantages worked out in advance of your passing.

The current knowledge and spiritual connection from knowing your gifts secure a future for the church you love.

Benefits for FMCM

Endowment or future gifts serve as an enduring source of support to the ministries of FMCM.

Planned giving allows for long-term facility and ministry planning which makes for much smarter choices and options.

First Methodist Mansfield has four destinations for any Legacy gifts; all of which are great for giving back to the Lord.

General Fund for all current year-to-year operations. You can commit any amount or percentage of future funds to each years’ General Fund. Almost everything you see the church doing today, including Missions, Care, Student-Children-Special Needs programming is all done out of annual General Fund giving.

Capital Campaigns that spread over specific years dedicated to campus expansion as voted on by the Congregation. Capital Funds go to very specific new buildings or upgrades to our existing property and buildings. You could give in a way that ensures this church serves this community well beyond your life.

Designated Giving is less flexible for everyday church use but gifts can be “designated” for very specific Ministries. Some recent very helpful designated giving has been:

• Dollars given to decorate and furnish the new Counseling wing of Building D
• Chapel dollars that went to improving and naming The John Wheat Chapel.
• Instruments and/or Worship equipment-related gifts that are given out of appreciation for our incredible worship arts teams.

The First Methodist Church Mansfield Foundation was set up specifically to receive funds providing special tax advantages for donors which provide future income for the church.

Some recent and some possible estate giving ideas that exist today are:

• A donor can contribute appreciated property, such as an index (mutual) fund or vacation home, and receive an immediate charitable deduction for the full market value of the asset while avoiding capital gains on the transfer.
• Donors who establish a life-income gift receive a tax deduction for the full fair market value of the assets contributed, minus the present value of the income interest retained.
• Gifts contributed upon a donor’s death, such as a percentage of an estate left to the church in a will, generally avoids any estate or income taxation.

[We can of course not keep up with the continually changing US Tax code so these ideas all worked at certain times to help a family give to the church in a smart and Holy way, but every situation should be revisited between you and a tax professional.]

Just like going to a Pastor for spiritual growth or going to our Missions building to volunteer for Meals on Wheels, smart Godly professional help is here to discuss any and all these ideas with you. Talk to your own financial advisor or come have a safe, confidential conversation with us. Taylor Davis, (taylord@fmcm.org, 817-564-4573) our Executive Director or Robin Lestina, (robinl@fmcm.org) our Finance Director are experienced and confidential contacts if you would like to discuss any facet of legacy giving.

We also have an incredible list of legal, tax, financial, and banking professionals that consult our church already and would charge you nothing to help you plan.

To include FMCM in any of your giving plans, simply use our legal name and Federal Tax ID:

The First Methodist Church of Mansfield
Federal Tax ID number: 75-1072918