What is Planned Giving? Planned giving is charitable giving to a non-profit that will occur in the future. It is a gift to support a cause you care about both during or after your lifetime. It is an offering of the first fruits of our wealth. Planned gifts are typically wills, trust, gift annuities, and life insurance.

Crimea, Yalta, Russia. Orthodox Christian church of Livadia palace

Why do a planned gift?

  • Allow for alternative ways to give to Holy Cross aside from stewardship and volunteering.
  • Have a positive impact on society
  • Make a difference in the lives of those we serve
  • Demonstrates values that you may want to pass on to your children
  • Secure tax advantages to both yourself and your heirs

Types of Planned gifts

  • Beneficiary gifts comprise 85-90% of planned gifts and include: wills, trusts, retirement plans (401k, 403b), IRA charitable rollover, whole life insurance, donor-advised funds.
  • Other gifts include: charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, appreciated assets (i.e. stocks, property, etc.), and charitable lead trusts.
  • Do you have more questions about the kinds of gifts that are accepted? See our Gift Acceptance Policy

How Planned Giving Helps Holy Cross: Provides for the long-term financial security of the parish while giving back to the community. Planned gifts serve as a way to fulfill our call as Orthodox Christian stewards.

How will planned gifts be used? Build the church’s endowment. Eventually, interest from the endowment will be used for extraordinary purposes including: ministries, projects, and/or philanthropy.

How do I make a planned gift? We always recommend discussing planned gifts with your financial advisor.  Once you are ready to make you gift, fill out Planned Giving Donor Commitment Form and email to endowment@holycrosspgh.org, or you can send the form to the church office.  Of note, please let us know of any changes in your planned gift to allow for accurate record keeping.  

Interested in learning more?

Email: endowment@holycrosspgh.org

Yes! Great care is taken to keep all donor information strictly confidential.

Not really. It conveys wanting to live every day knowing that you are going to do something good. It’s about the meaning of life.

Often times planned gifts are set during life-triggering events. These can include international travel, inheritance, job/career change, sale or transfer of a family-owned business, death of a loved one, divorce, retirement, birth or adoption of a child, an accident or illness.

Holy Cross’s endowment was created in 2024. The endowment is kept in an-open ended mutual fund with goals of capital appreciation and income from relatively conservative investments focusing on both long-term growth and preservation of capital.

It is highly encouraged to make your gift un-designated. The Endowment Advisory Board (EAB) is made up of a small group of volunteers and does not have the resources to administer numerous designated gifts. With this in mind, a minimum threshold has been created to be considered for designated gifts. Please see our Planned Giving Donor Commitment Form for more details or reach out to an EAB member for further guidance.

Yes! The EAB will report regularly to the Parish Council and yearly at the General Assembly.

Once the endowment has reached $500,000, requests can be made by filling out the Endowment Grant Request form (attached).

Yes! Holy Cross has a Legacy Society, called The Church on the Hill Society. This society is for those that have given, plan to give, or are interested in giving a planned gift. A goal has been set for Holy Cross to have 75 people/families commit to a planned gift by our 75th anniversary in 2029!

Tom Conaboy, Anthony Cuneo,  Elaine Friedman, Rachel Gogos, Arne Jahn, Nicholas Tripodes