Don’t we all yearn to flourish in our faith in all aspects? We want to live faithfully in our daily behavior, in our relationships with others, in our prayers, and in our use of the gifts that God has given us. With confidence, we affirm that Nativity is thriving and flourishing. We have opportunities to go deeper in prayer, study and worship, to engage in a broader and energetic Outreach ministry and to extend our robust and lively Children and Youth Ministry programs. All these things point to a community that is alive in the Holy Spirit. We believe that our community supports the vision that we can:
- Enrich our church’s history of community engagement by increasing support of the Outreach programs – Our Outreach ministry wants the church community to be more engaged with those whose basic needs cannot be met. We aim to increase the funds we spend and our individual involvement in outreach programs, showing the world and each other the love of Jesus Christ.
- Maintain and enhance our campus by increasing our maintenance investment and restructuring our building mortgage. It is important to be good stewards of what we have and to plan for maintaining our facilities, especially as they age. Increasing our reserves for long-term maintenance will allow us to better address issues as they arise. We hope to shift some focus to preventative maintenance, as well as hopefully lower overall costs.
Your prayerful pledge will allow the church leadership to plan responsibly for the affairs of the church, using the gifts efficiently now and planning carefully for the future.
The richness of our shared journey is dependent upon each of us and our openness to God’s leading. Let us join together to do God’s work through Church of the Nativity, as we continue to build on the foundation in which our faith may flourish.
Stewardship
Church of the Nativity is like a household that is fully financed by the members of the household.
During the annual stewardship pledge campaign, members of Nativity pledge how much they believe they will be able to contribute to the common household for the next year.
A pledge is not a firm commitment; it is an expression of your intentions. If your financial circumstances change during the year and you find that you are able to contribute more or less, you are absolutely free to do so.
These pledges are for the annual Operating Fund, used for the many programs Nativity is in engaged in. Nativity has a financial team that meets multiple times during the year to create and follow up on Nativity’s financial budget. Your pledge is an important piece of input to the financial team, so it can create a budget for the coming year.
You may pledge either on a paper pledge card, which you will find in the Narthex and in the lobby of Estill House, during the pledge period, or you may use Nativity’s online pledge tool, where you fill in your pledge information online and submit it electronically to Nativity.
You may pledge any time of the year. If you pledge after January 1st, your pledge will be for the remaining part of the financial year.
Proportional Giving
Proportional giving means that your gift is in proportion to your income. You give a certain percentage of your annual gross income as a gift.
The Bible defines the concept of a “tithe” – to give back to God one-tenth (10%) of what we have received from God.
For families on fixed income or families with children still in the school age, 10% may be a bar too high to reach.
Start thinking about your commitment to proportional giving with a small step: Promise to give two percent each year, or three and then grow towards the tithe level as you feel comfortable doing so.
The important point is that the Biblical notion of proportionality is the ultimately fair way of giving. You pledge and give in proportion to what you have or make.
Planned Giving
The Book of Common Prayer says it is “the duty of Christian parents to make prudent provision for the well-being of their families, and of all persons to make wills, while they are in health, arranging for the disposal of their temporal goods, not neglecting, if they are able, to leave bequests for religious and charitable uses.”
Planned Giving is taking an action now to make a gift to Nativity that will be completed upon the donor’s transition to eternal life. Most often, the gift is created within the context of an overall plan that includes:
- a power of attorney for healthcare decisions and/or financial matters
- a will
- arrangements for funeral and burial
- organized information to assist surviving friends and family
Nativity encourages its members to look at these issues comprehensively. By making a Planned Gift, the donor can:
- sustain Nativity with predictable future revenue streams
- provide the means for Nativity to address opportunities of the future
- allow future Vestries and Rectors more financial flexibility
- inspire other donors
- protect Nativity against financial emergencies and difficult times
- create legacies for both donors and our church home
Planned Gifts have already made a significant difference to Nativity’s development. They become effective after the transition to eternal life has freed you from day-to-day financial concerns. Planned Gifts supplement contributions to annual operating campaigns and occasional capital campaigns. However, there are no specific targets — either dollar-wise or time-wise — for Planned Giving.
The most common and simple way to make a Planned Gift is through a will:
- a fixed dollar amount
- a percentage of one’s estate
- the transfer of specified assets such as real estate or liquid investments (CDs, stocks, and bonds)
Other ways of making a Planned Gift include:
- designating Nativity as a beneficiary, in whole or in part, of life insurance or a retirement account such as a 401(k), 403(b), or IRA
- creating a Charitable Gift Annuity that provides the donor with an immediate tax deduction and annual income throughout the donor’s life
Donors of Planned Gifts may opt to belong to the Nativity Legacy Community, either by name or anonymously.
Coral-colored Planned Giving forms are available to inform Nativity that you have made or intend to make a Planned Gift. You need not declare the size or the mechanism of the Planned Gift.
Nativity has a Planned Giving Committee ready to engage with you personally, answer your questions, and provide you with referrals to estate planning professionals if you need them. The process of implementing a Planned Gift does not have to be complicated or expensive. Call the church office to ask for the current chairperson of the Planned Giving Committee. Additional information is available from the Episcopal Church Foundation.
Paying Pledges
There are more ways you can pay your pledge gift to Nativity. One way is to write a check and place it in the collection plate on Sundays, which many do and it works fine. If you prefer to submit your cash or check contribution in a sealed envelope, you may request envelopes from Nativity’s business manager: Email Business Manager - Nancy Reed. However, a growing number of our parishioners prefer to do most of their banking and other financial transactions online. You can use your financial institution’s bill pay service, or an online giving service, such as WeShare (formerly Parish Pay). You won’t need to remember to write a check or make a cash donation on a schedule, and your tax documentation will still be available. Finally, you may also pay your pledge through a stock donation to Church of the Nativity.
Financial Institution Bill Pay Service
Banks and Credit Unions generally offer a service where you can ask your financial institution to pay a monthly fixed amount to a given recipient, which can be Church of the Nativity. The service is often known as a “Bill Pay” or “Scheduled Payment” service. The financial institution will write and mail a check with the amount requested at the interval requested and mail the check to the church. They will charge a fee for doing so. Credit Unions are mostly cheaper than banks – as an example, Coastal Federal Credit Union charges a fixed fee of $1.50 per month for this service. You need four pieces of input in order to set up a regular bill pay request:
- From which account the money is to come
- How often you want the payment to occur – typically once a month at the beginning of the month
- The amount to be paid each month
- The recipient
The recipient is:
Church of the Nativity
8849 Ray Rd.
Raleigh, NC 27613
Phone: (919) 846-8338
Bank or Credit Union bill pay is generally an inexpensive way of setting up a regular payment schedule. You are most often able to set up such a schedule using the financial institution’s web interface. The bill will be paid every month until you request it to be cancelled. You can at any time change the amount to be paid.
Each bank and Credit Union has their own web interface for setting up a bill payment request. Go to your financial institution’s web interface or contact your local branch office for help when setting up a payment request.
Here is an example of the information needed to set up a regular bill payment request.
Online Giving Services
Nativity uses three online donation services:
WeShare
WeShare is a nationwide online service used by many congregations of different denominations to administer electronic payments. Over the Internet, you create your own WeShare account, with contributions to be directed to Nativity. You specify a monthly amount and provide either your bank account number or a credit card number. MasterCard, Visa, American Express and the Discover Card are accepted. Money will be transferred from your bank or credit card provider to Nativity. You don’t need to take any further action. You may log on to your WeShare (ParishPay) account at any time to modify your account settings or to retrieve a record of your transactions. Nativity records the payments it receives from WeShare exactly as though you had written a check or used an offering envelope.WeShare deducts between 3% and 3.5% of your payment as a payment fee. If your pledge was to pay $400.00 each month, your gift to Nativity will be recorded as $400.00, but the actual income the church receives from WeShare will be around $388.00. The fee depends on the source of the payment – credit card or bank transfer. To create a WeShare (ParishPay) account, go to the WeShare Nativity website. This link will designate that your payments are for Nativity. If you have any questions, please contact a member of the Vestry or call the church office at (919) 846-8338.
PayPal
You do not need a PayPal account to use PayPal. PayPal gives you two options:
- Pay with a debit card or a credit card
- Pay with a PayPal account
If you do not have a PayPal account, choose Pay with a Debit or Credit Card on the PayPal payment page.
Please note that PayPal takes a fee per transaction as follows:
- 2.9% of the payment
- Plus $ 0.30 flat fee per payment transaction
When you use PayPal to pay a donation to Church of the Nativity, you can let PayPal deduct the fee from your donation, in which case Nativity will receive your donation minus the fees. You can also choose to pay the fees yourself, in which case Nativity will receive your full donation.
A PayPal donation can be made in honor of or in memory of someone you name.
Venmo
The newest online payment option from Nativity is the popular phone app Venmo, which can be downloaded to your phone from the app store or Google Play.
Nativity’s Venmo id is: @nativityonline
All payments made to Nativity via Venmo will go into the Operating Fund.
If your name on Venmo is not the same as what is in Nativity’s member directory, please enter your Nativity name in the “What’s it for?” box, so our Business Manager will be able to record the donation correctly for your yearly donation statement. You may also enter other information in this box, such as “my pledge for week/month/etc.”.
Thank you for keeping up with your pledge and regular donations in this difficult time. The bills for power, phone, water, mortgage, salaries, etc. all continue to require payment during this period.
Here is the Nativity Venmo QR code. Scan this code when you want to make a payment to Nativity using the Venmo phone app.
Stock Donations
Stock donations are another way of paying your annual pledge to Nativity. When you donate stocks to a charitable organization, such as Church of the Nativity, neither you nor the church pays capital gains taxes of the stock.
Church of the Nativity has a broker account with Merrill Lynch and uses that broker for handling stock transfers.
The following procedure is required for transferring stock from your broker or shares held individually by you:
- Initiate the stock transfer to Church of the Nativity
- STOCK CERTIFICATES PERSONALLY HELD
Call Merrill Lynch (919) 829-2094 and they will help you with the transfer paper work for your stock certificates. - STOCK HELD IN A MERRILL LYNCH ACCOUNT
For a telephone transfer, contact Merrill Lynch at (919) 829-2094 and indicate that you wish to transfer stock to the Church of the Nativity. They will then assist with the stock transfer. - STOCK HELD IN AN ACCOUNT WITH ANOTHER BROKER
Contact your broker for details on how to transfer stocks to Nativity’s account at Merrill Lynch. Your broker may have online functions to initiate such a transfer, or they may have forms on their website that can be printed, filled in by you and mailed to your broker. Contact Merrill Lynch (919) 829-2094 for questions or help.
For those with IBM shares held by ComputerShare, a broker transfer form can be printed from the ComputerShare website. Fill out the form and mail it to ComputerShare at the address at the bottom of the printed form.
- STOCK CERTIFICATES PERSONALLY HELD
- Notify Merrill Lynch
It is always a good idea to let Merrill Lynch (919-829-2094) know that you have initiated a transfer to Church of the Nativity, so they can watch out for the transfer to occur. - Notify Nativity
Please print and fill in the Stock Donation Notification Form in order that Church of the Nativity can have adequate documentation of your donation, and acknowledge your contribution when the stock transfer has been completed. Return this form to Nancy Reed (Business Manager) at the church.
Annual Meetings and Financial Reports
Every year in late November or early December Nativity holds its annual meeting where the Vestry along with church leaders present current information about finances and selected activities during the year.
Please see the 2018 annual report for details about the 2018 status and activities.
Please see the 2019 annual report for details about the 2019 status and activities.
Please see the 2020 annual report for details about the 2020 status and activities.