Ways to Give
Click here to make a 2025 pledge.
Click here to make NEW 2024 or 2025 donations including memorials, Sunday flowers and space sharing payments.
Click here to access legacy Vanco payment system to manage 2024 reoccurring donations.
You Should Know...​
Donating Directly from an IRA is Tax-Free
If you are 70 ½-years-old or older you can make distributions to Lake Street Church of Evanston directly through your IRA. Gifts are tax free and can contribute toward minimum distribution. Even if you do not itemize your deductions, you benefit by removing your distribution from your taxable income. Your IRA administrator can make the distribution directly to Lake Street Church of Evanston, or you may write a check to Lake Street Church from your IRA account.
Financial Giving
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Types of Financial Giving
The following are some of the ways you can fiscally support Lake Street Church:
Unrestricted Gifts – These gifts have the most impact because they can be used immediately to address the church’s most urgent needs and provide the General Board the greatest flexibility in investing and planning for the future.
Temporarily Restricted Gifts – These gifts have explicit donor restrictions defining their use and expenditure. Examples are donations to the Daniel Jones Memorial Fund, the Sustenance Connection or Peace & Justice initiatives.
Endowment / Permanently Restricted Gifts – An endowment is a permanent asset of Lake Street Church that is invested to earn capital appreciation and is established in accordance with the Lake Street Church Investment Policy. The money to build the endowment can come from many sources including bequests and outright gifts. An Endowment Fund may be started with a minimum of $10,000 and, if restricted, must be approved by the Board of Lake Street Church prior to acceptance. As the majority of endowments are created to maintain perpetuity, the church limits the payouts in order to have a continual, permanent stream of money.
Financial Giving for Current Support
Annual Pledge – An annual pledge drive is conducted in the fall of each year and is very instrumental in the creation of the following fiscal year’s budget. All members and long-term friends are asked to pledge. If you choose to use online pledging, please click here.
Cash – An easy and welcome way to make a current or future gift.
Publicly traded stocks and bonds – Publicly traded securities such as stocks, bonds or mutual funds are a quick and easy way to make a gift to Lake Street Church. When those securities have long-term appreciation, your gift has two tax benefits: a current charitable income tax deduction for the market value of the gift and avoidance of capital gain on the appreciation. To learn more, simply contact giving@lakestreet.org! For your convenience, please find our brokerage account details below:
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Vanguard
DTC #0062
FBO: Lake Street Church of Evanston
Acct #64752406
Contacts:
Vanguard
P.O. Box 982901
El Paso, TX 79998
877-662-7447
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Charitable lead trusts – This is an irrevocable trust (or annuity) that pays an income stream to Lake Street Church for a specified period of time and distributes the remaining trust assets to the creator or others.
Memorial / Tribute Gifts – These are meaningful ways to remember or honor a loved one, often given to commemorate a birthday, anniversary, holiday or other significant occasion.
Matching gifts – Many employers sponsor matching gift programs and match any tax-deductible charitable contributions made by their employees. If your employer has such a program, request a matching-gift form from your Human Resources Department and do what the company requires from you. Lake Street Church will do the rest. The impact of your gift to the church may be doubled or possibly tripled! Some companies also match gifts made by retirees and/or spouses.
Financial Giving for Future Support
Making a planned gift is not just for those who have wealth or special financial expertise but for anyone with a generous spirit who wants to offer a gift during his or her lifetime. Members and friends of Lake Street Church share a deep sense of gratitude for those who have gone before us, whose gifts have funded current needs and continue to provide long-term benefits. To discuss any of these options with a church representative, please click here.
Bequests – One of the simplest and most effective ways to make a gift to Lake Street Church is to create a bequest as part of a will. A bequest allows the donor to maintain control and use of the assets during his or her lifetime and it is flexible. The bequest can be structured as a specific dollar amount, a percentage of the estate assets (or a percentage of the assets remaining after payment of other bequests and expenses), a specific asset, or even a gift effective only if the donor has no other beneficiaries. Estate planning professionals can help design gifts to meet personal and charitable goals.
Charitable remainder trusts – This is an irrevocable trust that pays the donor or one or more individuals the donor selects an income stream for life or a term of years. At the end of the trust term, the remaining assets are paid to Lake Street Church.
Retirement plan beneficiary designations – Naming Lake Street Church as the beneficiary of all or a portion of retirement assets such as an IRA, 401k, 403b, pension or other tax-deferred plan, is an excellent way to make a gift. It avoids both taxes of retirement assets payable at death — income tax and estate tax. The church benefits from the full value of the gift and the estate benefits from an estate tax charitable deduction. Make sure you talk with your estate-planning professional before changing your beneficiary designation to ensure the best result.
Retirement assets may be transferred to Lake Street Church by completing a beneficiary designation form provided by your plan custodian.
Life insurance beneficiary designations – Another simple method of making a charitable gift is to name Lake Street Church as beneficiary of a current life insurance policy. Although the donor does not receive a deduction when the church is named as beneficiary, the estate receives a charitable deduction for the insurance proceeds paid to charity.
Endowment fund – An individual can designate a specific amount or percentage of his or her bequest to be donated to an endowment fund that has been set up by Lake Street Church, in which regular withdrawals from the invested capital are used for ongoing operations or other specified purposes. The money earned by the endowment fund is used for the purposes specified by the fund.
Effortless Financial Giving
There are easy ways to make a difference and raise money for Lake Street Church, known as “effortless fundraising!” Everyone can help make it happen.
Goodsearch – GoodSearch.com provides discounts and coupons on goods and services throughout a variety of industries. Visitors who designate Lake Street Church as their nonprofit beneficiary will contribute up to 3% of their purchases to our community.
Donor Bill of Rights
PHILANTHROPY is based on voluntary action for the common good. It is a tradition of giving and sharing that is primary to the quality of life. To ensure that philanthropy merits the respect and trust of the general public, and that donors and prospective donors can have full confidence in Lake Street Church and the causes we support, the church declares that all donors have these rights:​
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To be informed of the Lake Street Church mission, of the way the church intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
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To be informed of the identity of those serving on the Lake Street Church governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.
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To have access to the church’s most recent financial statements.
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To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
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To receive appropriate acknowledgment and recognition.
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To be assured that information about their donations is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
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To expect that all relationships with individuals representing Lake Street Church and the Stewardship Committee will be professional in nature.
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To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of Lake Street Church or hired solicitors.
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To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that Lake Street Church may intend to share.
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To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.
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Developed by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits. Lake Street Church subscribes to ideals set forth in the Donor Bill of Rights.
Donating Time and Talent
Donating Time
Volunteers connect with others in the community and have the satisfaction of working together. Finding out about opportunities is easy: the Sunday service bulletin, conversations in coffee hour after the service, the Spire newsletter (sign-up here) and browsing this web site (Social Justice, for example) will get you started.
Donating Talent
You have skills and talents that can help Lake Street Church move forward in doing good in the world. What do you bring that you would like to share? Let us know.
There are many other ways to provide support to Lake Street Church. To request more information on financial matters, or to inquire about volunteer opportunities, please click here.​