Some real examples of how the work of The Orchard Foundation has contributed to the work of the kingdom...

Miss Yoder* was a elderly single woman. When her pastor went to visit her he would go to her simple home with an older car in the driveway and faithfully minister to her needs. Her sparse home was usually dark. She preferred to sit with the lights off in order to save money. After her death he received a call from an estate attorney who wanted to arrange the transfer of a large sum of money. She left over $1/2 million to her local church. She had a passion for the Lord’s work!

Mr. Smith* is a businessman in the Midwest who owns several rental properties. Realizing the sale of his properties would produce significant capital gains taxation; he sought help from The Orchard Foundation. This year he finished transferring four of these properties into a charitable trust that will avoid all capital gains taxes, provide an income for life for both him and his wife, and leave a large legacy for Alliance ministries.

Mrs. Jones* purchased a property for $18,920. By 1977, it had a value of $132,000. Again, in order to avoid taxation, she placed the property in a charitable trust in 1977. Throughout the remainder of her life she received an income which amounted to more than $250,000. At her death in 1995 over $500,000 went to Alliance ministries, 1⁄2 to her local church and 1⁄2 to the Great Commission Fund.

God is about to open the floodgates for charitable giving through estates. Researchers at Cornell University published a report in 1989 that we are about to experience the greatest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history, with an estimated $10 to $30 trillion dollars changing hands from one generation to the next during the next 20 years.

We are seeing that begin to happen in the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Gifts received in the Alliance through planned giving in the last five years have amounted to $36 million. Each year more and more people are better understanding what it means to be a steward and are seeking the assistance provided by The Orchard Foundation.

“Never before in the history of time have the challenges and opportunities for using wealth strategically been so great. But giving doesn’t just change the world. Generosity changes us, filling our lives with rewards like peace, security, and true financial freedom.” – Ron Blue, Generous Living

The urgency of world missions that characterized those first Alliance people still lives. The spiritual echoes of that Blackstone sermon still reverberate in the ears of Alliance people today. The words of A. B. Simpson ring as true to this generation as they did to his own, “Surely there can be no more all-constraining impulse than the hope that we may be permitted to complete the Great Commission and then turn our faces to the heavens and welcome him back to earth again!”

*all names have been changed to protect identity.