wfn.org | UCC / Church agency hires new director of special giving

[powellb@ucc.org]

March 17, 1997
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ
Laurie Bartels, press contact
(216) 736-2213
E-mail:  bartelsl@ucc.org
On the World Wide Web:  http://www.ucc.org

Church agency hires new director of special giving

      CLEVELAND -- Nancy J. Fogal of Hudson, Ohio, has been
named Director of Special Giving for the United Church
of Christ's Commission on Development.  The new
position is designed to provide special emphasis on
increasing the number of major gifts ($25,000 or more)
contributed to the church.
      National statistics show that religious
donations account for 55-to-60 percent of the annual
$144 billion in charitable giving.
      "But almost none of that total is in the form of
major gifts," Fogal said.  "Some people don't feel
comfortable with major gifts in the church.  Perhaps
they see it as flaunting their wealth."  The
challenge, as Fogal sees it, is to change that kind of
thinking into understanding giving as a way of using
money for ministry.
      Like all giving, major gift contributions "help
both the giver and the receiver," said Fogal.  "The
general motive is not, 'I'll give this money because
this project needs it.'  People give because it
satisfies their needs or goals and, in giving, they
extend a piece of themselves."
      Traditionally, most "planned giving" donations
come in the form of money bequeathed in wills.  While
leaving money to the church is certainly not a
practice to be discouraged, Fogal said, her mission
will be to focus on "living legacies," or special
gifts, contributed during one's lifetime.
      The goal is to find new ways to approach people
about special giving and to "show people who already
have a particular interest or favorite cause how to
donate to the most effective program within the
church," said Fogal.
      Fogal said that in her 14 years as a fund
raiser, she has seen that giving and receiving is a
"contagious process."  Her experience has shown that
money can translate into ministry, a fact she first
learned as a missionary with the United Methodist
General Board of Global Ministries in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, from 1969 to 1978.  Fogal said her
experience in Argentina allowed her to see the church
as a global community that doesn't end at the doors of
a local church.  Special giving is one tangible way to
help others and to get involved.
      Fogal comes to the United Church of Christ from
The Eliza Jennings Group in Lakewood, Ohio, where she
has been Director of Development since February 1994. 
She was Director of Development for Conner Prairie
Museum in Fishers, Ind. (1992 and 1993), the
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (1990-1992), and
Westminster-Thurber Retirement Community in Columbus,
Ohio (1986-1989).  She was Development Coordinator for
Ohio's Easter Seal Society in Columbus from 1984 to
1986.
      Fogal is a Certified Fund Raising Executive. 
She earned an M.L.S. degree (1974) from Indiana
University, Bloomington, Ind., and a B.A. degree
(1966) from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio.
      A member of First Congregational Church, a
United Church of Christ congregation in Hudson, Ohio,
Fogal serves as president of the church choir and is a
member of the Stewardship Board.
      The United Church of Christ, with national
offices in Cleveland, has more than 6,100
congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico. 
It was formed by the 1957 union of the Congregational
Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed
Church.
# # #