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Churches and Demanding Donors

Orginally published on Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 7:33 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Has your church ever dealth with a demanding donor? A “donor” strutting their power, that is. This is an interesting article, orginally published by MSNBC, but I found it at SmartPastor.com… see if this kind of situation has ever rung true in your church…

DALLAS - A booster’s unusual ultimatum has placed the University of North Texas in an awkward position: Rename its new athletic facility after the just-fired football coach or allow the donor’s $1 million gift to be redirected to the music department.

To keep the peace, and perhaps keep open the big-money pipeline, school officials say they will honor the odd request from Houston furniture magnate Jim McIngvale — known locally as “Mattress Mack” for his goofy TV and radio spots.

Thus, the McIngvale Practice Facility will get renamed for Darrell Dickey, who was fired last week. No timeline for the renaming is set.

A school spokeswoman cited school policy, which states that a facility “may be named in keeping with the wishes of the donor.”

It was either rename it, McIngvale said, or redirect his money to the acclaimed One O’Clock Lab Band, the showpiece at one of the country’s top music schools. Mattress Mack was serious enough to take out a one-page ad Sunday in the Denton Record-Chronicle explaining his demand.

“Right’s right and wrong’s wrong. It’s the right thing to do,” McIngvale said. “I don’t think firing a guy three weeks after he had a heart attack was the right thing to do, either. Even Wall Street is not that callous.”

Dickey suffered a heart attack Oct. 12.

McIngvale admits his demand is largely symbolic, as his donation was made two years ago and already spent. He made it out of frustration with Dickey’s firing and what he said is a lack of adequate athletics funding from the school.

The school’s capitulation underscores the influence held by boosters bearing checkbooks, such as T. Boone Pickens at Oklahoma State and the late Ralph Engelstad at the University of North Dakota. McIngvale’s $1 million gift means a lot at North Texas, where the football program’s budget is about $3.7 million and the music school’s is about $8.7 million.

It placed the school in the strange position of defending the record of the coach it just fired. Athletics Director Rick Villarreal talked about “the number of good things” accomplished by Dickey, including four straight Sun Belt championships and bowl appearances.

The Mean Green went 2-9 last season and 3-7 in 2006. Dickey is 42-62 overall.

Dickey, who was under contract through 2009 and will receive a $560,000 buyout, did not respond to telephone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Last year at Oklahoma State, Pickens donated $165 million to the athletics department. At least publicly, Pickens’ gift has come without conditions.

That wasn’t the case when Engelstad built a $104 million hockey arena at North Dakota — and then threatened to stop construction if the school gave into NCAA demands to change its mascot from the Fighting Sioux.

Money-hungry programs are rarely in a position to turn down boosters, said Rudy Davalos, the recently retired athletics director at the University of New Mexico. When Davalos ran the University of Houston athletics department 15 years ago, he received a $32 million, no-strings-attached donation from businessman John Moores.

“If he would have told me that he wasn’t going to give the money unless we named something after him, rest assured we would have named something after him,” Davalos said.

Source: SmartPastor.com

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There are 6 Comments:

Posted by kent

Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 10:05 AM

He expects that for just $1 million? Cheapskate. it takes at least $50 million to get that naming right. $1 millionm, what a rube.
Posted by

Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 10:13 AM

[A school spokeswoman cited school policy, which states that a facility “may be named in keeping with the wishes of the donor.”]

There’s the problem. There’s the lesson. Change your policy before it’s too late.
Posted by Randy Ehle

Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 4:39 PM

I would expect that most churches don’t have “naming rights” associated with large gifts. Can you picture the Todd Rhoades Memorial Sanctuary? How about the Randy Ehle Youth Ministry Center and Skate Park?!? Come to think of it, though, I guess I do know of at least a couple churches that are named in honor of a deceased pastor. One, in San Diego, is now led by the honored pastor’s son...which could seem a bit odd to some people.

The honoring of a donor’s wishes can be troubling for churches, though. I spent six years on the Business Committee of a large church, and for most of that time we had an open issue - a gift designated for “senior housing.” We encountered a few problems with that: first, “senior housing” was nowhere on the church’s radar; second, the size of the gift might have been enough to care for one person in an assisted living facility for a year, but certainly wouldn’t have done much more than that; third, the grantor’s closest living relatives no longer lived in the area; and finally, the estate itself had long-since been closed, which precluded returning the funds to the estate. It took some “creative” thinking and numerous discussions between the executor (an attorney) and the Church Chairman (also an attorney) to finally come up with a solution that seemed amenable to all involved. (I think we redesignated the gift toward the church’s building program.) I’m sure there were many other ways we could have applied the funds that might have been more directly related to senior housing, but the lesson was indelibly etched on my brain: as soon as a church receives notice that a gift is being given, the leaders should carefully review any terms associated with the gift to ensure that the church can comply with those terms.

Of course, the best way to circumvent any problems is in advance. My preference would be to encourage undesignated giving - which requires that donors trust the current and future church leaders. Donors wishing to designate gifts should be encouraged to be sufficiently broad in their designation that the leaders have some leeway; for example, designate toward “foreign missions” rather than “our church’s missionaries in Liberia”, or “music ministry” as opposed to “annual choir trips”. Another thought is to designate several options; for example, “music, youth, and/or building”. Also, consider the possibility of a time period, such that a designated gift becomes undesignated after a certain time (e.g., three years after receipt).

All of these elements need to be clearly written into the gift instrument (e.g., will or estate plan), so the church should work as closely as possible with estate planners, attorneys, financial advisors, and the other professionals who are likely to provide counsel to would-be donors.
Posted by kent

Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 5:12 PM

A strong gift policy takes care of most of the problems you will encounter. And the courage to say no to a gift with strings attached.
Posted by

Thursday, January 04, 2007 at 9:22 PM

The planned “BishopDave Memorial Restroom and Janitorial Supply Closet”, which I found deeply flattering, was nixed as the plaque would have cost more than the facility.
Posted by

Friday, January 05, 2007 at 8:33 AM

We started attending our church almost 20 years ago. One of the things that attracted me to it was an almost total lack of plaques. In our old, mainline, church, every pew, every Bible, virtually everything had to have a notice as to who had paid for it and that always disturbed me. Now, as treasurer of this church, I am pleasantly surprized at the people who give with no desire or expectation for recognition. I think that lack of public recognition encourages others to give as God leads them. I don’t mind restricted giving. Our policy is to contact the donor if the gift cannot be used for the stated purpose. Most, if not all, are very willing to re-direct the gift to another use. Our board has set a practice to use memorial money toward “bricks and mortar” projects and to advise the family members by letter as a courtesy, but no plaques!

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