Stewardship - First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto

Stewardship at First Lutheran Church is a year-round commitment. It is the prayerful use of our money, our time, and our abilities. Our stewardship gifts make a difference in people's lives, in the life of the congregation, and in the community and world.

Stewardship is for everyone. Everyone at FLC makes a decision about stewardship - whether to participate, and to what extent. The whole FLC family joins in. Kids in Sunday School bring their offering envelopes each week. Young adults in their first job send checks in the mail. Many people put their envelopes in the offering plate. Some folks contribute now and again. A few persons contribute electronically and others give quarterly or semi-annually. The important thing is for everyone to decide that stewardship includes them - and that they want to make a difference in people's lives.

In our congregation stewardship means making a pledge that we will give a certain amount of money to FLC's ministry next year. Anticipating income makes it possible for us to plan for the upcoming year - to insure that current commitments can be met and to decide whether expanding visions can be considered.

Pledges over the last ten years have been flat and the number of people pledging has dropped. Our goal for 2011 is to get back to where we were in 2000 both in number of people pledging and in the total amount pledged. A pledge increase of 10% in number of pledges and dollars will achieve that goal.

On Sunday, October 17 we will bring our pledges of support for 2011. The money we bring is used for:

Worship support and materials
Education program
Children and youth ministry
Community programs including homeless shelters
Worldwide relief programs
Facilities and administration

The stewardship packet will be mailed during the week of October 4th. You may:

Fill out the pledge form and mail it back to the church office.
Fill out the pledge form and place it in the offering plate on Commitment Sunday.
Pledge electronically via the confidential form below.
Make arrangements through the Thrivent Simply Giving program for automatic transfers from your bank account.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration of your 2011 commitment to First Lutheran. If you have any questions or do not receive your Stewardship packet as expected please contact the church office.

Simply Giving

We also participate in Simply Giving, an electronic direct-contribution program operated by Thrivent Financial. This allows your pledged amount to be automatically deducted from your checking account (or charged to a credit card) every time. You can enroll at any time, and change or withdraw from the program at any time.

More information on Simply Giving at Thrivent's website
Download an enrollment form: pdf

Endowment

The First Lutheran Church Endowment Fund was established by the congregation in January 1999. The purpose of the Fund is "to support the property and mission of First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Palo Alto, California." A separate account, the FLC Endowment Fund, was opened at Charles Schwab and contains the funds dedicated to the Endowment.

During the past few years members of the congregation have made gifts to the FLC Endowment Fund, so indeed the Fund is growing. The policy established for the Endowment Fund is that distributions from the Fund will not be made until assets in the Fund reach a total market value of $100,000. Since the Fund balance has not reached that level, no funds have been distributed.

The FLC Endowment Fund is directed by the Endowment Fund Committee, which serves as custodian of the Fund on behalf of the congregation.

Our goal is for the Endowment Fund to grow to the point where the interest can be used for congregational needs, especially maintenance on the building. For that to happen, it is important for people to be aware of the Endowment Fund and to consider gifts.

The most obvious way to give a gift is to write a check to the FLC Endowment Fund. In addition, there are ways to plan for present and future gifts.

Bequest. Include First Lutheran Church Endowment in your will or trust.
Shares of stock. Transfer stock to the FLC Endowment Fund account.
IRA or Retirement plan. Request a change of beneficiary to FLC Endowment Fund.
Gift of a life insurance policy. Make FLC the owner as well as beneficiary.
Gift of your home. Arrange to give your home to FLC when you no longer need it.
Purchase a gift annuity. Obtain income until you no longer need it, when the original purchase amount is paid to FLC.
Charitable remainder trust. Obtain income, with the remainder eventually going to FLC.

Contact any of the Endowment Committee for further information on these or other gift alternatives for the Endowment Fund.