By: Barry G. Allen- President & CEO
Did you know your church had a foundation? It’s the Kentucky Baptist Foundation, which was established in 1945 to serve as the trust agency for all Kentucky Baptist churches so each church would not have to establish a separate foundation.
It was born out of the same concept as the Cooperative Program, namely, through voluntary cooperation Kentucky Baptist churches can reap the benefits of having one foundation versus multiple separate foundations. And, the benefits are many.
Just from an organizational point of view, there are significant cost savings and efficiencies derived from the economies of scale of size. Also, there is no duplication of effort, and most churches would not be able to fulfill the on-going accounting, reporting, managing and legal responsibilities involved in having a separate foundation.
Some of the benefits available to your church from the Kentucky Baptist Foundation are: assisting the church in the stewardship education of its members particularly in the discipline of estate stewardship and leaving a lasting legacy through the church; serving as the trustee of charitable trusts for the benefit of the church; administering perpetual endowment funds established by church members for the church’s missions and ministries in the future; providing church members private consultation in the areas of estate stewardship planning, incapacity planning, legacy gift planning, long term care planning and wealth transfer planning; Christian based investment management and oversight service for the church’s special purpose funds, which relieves church members from the day-to-day necessities of research, analysis, decision-making, transacting and reporting.
For your church to be successful in reaching for Christ your community, the state, the nation and the world, it must be equipped to cultivate and secure estate gifts from its members. Offering plate dollars will not be sufficient. Equipping your church is why the Kentucky Baptist Foundation exists, and we stand ready to equip your church.
Please do not delay any longer taking advantage of the benefits of your church’s foundation. Call Laurie Valentine or me for more information or to arrange a time for us to meet with the leadership of your church to discover how the Kentucky Baptist Foundation can best serve as your church’s foundation.
For more information, please call us at (502) 489-3533 or toll free in KY at 1-(866) 489-3533
The information in this article is provided as general information and is not intended as legal or tax advice. For advice and assistance in specific cases, you should seek the advice of an attorney or other professional adviser.