Director of planned giving lives out calling
RhodesCHARLOTTE — Stewardship is a way of life for Gina Rhodes. She and Jim Kelley of the diocese’s development office have worked for many years with generous donors to establish endowments that help support the diocese’s churches, schools, agencies and other organizations – and through God’s grace, they have become quite good at it.
Recently, Kelley and Rhodes sensed that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte Foundation was getting close to another milestone number, so Rhodes – the director of planned giving for the diocese – decided to count the endowments. When she reached 350, she saw a familiar name next to the St. Luke Catholic Church Endowment Fund – her own.
“We didn’t even realize it until we were actually counting to see if we had reached 350, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that the St. Luke Catholic Church Endowment is the 350th. How cool is that?’ I was totally caught off guard in that moment,” she recalls. “I feel really blessed that the endowment my husband Adam and I established is the 350th.”
The couple established the endowment at their Mint Hill parish of 20-plus years as a general purpose fund in memory of Gina’s parents, Jewel and Gus Giustozzi. Rhodes says she hopes that, once other St. Luke parishioners learn about the endowment, they will want to add to it.
“We wanted the church endowment because St. Luke didn’t have one for general parish needs. We know in the future that they are going to have needs that might not have been part of the budget,” she says. “Adam and I plan to continue to support it, and hopefully other people in the parish will start seeing the benefits of it in the income stream, forever.”
The diocese’s 350 endowments have assets of more than $81 million, thanks to generous donors contributing amounts large and small over 29 years to The Diocese of Charlotte Foundation. The diocese reached 300 endowments just two years ago.
Established in 1994, the foundation offers a means for people and organizations to provide long-term financial stability for the diocese and its more than 150 organizations and ministries.
An endowment is a permanent fund, the principal of which is invested – not spent – that generates income to help pay for projects and programs specified by the donor.
Endowments are tax deductible and help sustain the strength and viability of the diocese and its entities, paying for capital improvements, charitable outreach, education and parish operations.
The foundation makes available annually 5 percent of an endowment’s value (averaged over three years). It reports to endowment holders every quarter outlining the latest value and how much is available for distribution for its prescribed purpose – which can be very specific or more general, giving recipients the leeway to decide how the funding can help them most.
“The benefit of an endowment is that its principal continues to grow while at the same time generating an increasing amount of income for a school or ministry or parish,” says Kelley, diocesan development director.
Over the past 29 years, the foundation has distributed more than $15 million through its endowments to help support the diocese and its parishes, schools and ministries.
“I feel blessed every day to help the parishioners in the Diocese of Charlotte to consider ways to remember the Church in perpetuity through endowments, through bequests and through other planned-giving vehicles,” Rhodes says. “This is part of what Scripture tells us, and I’m happy to be able to live it every day.”
— Annie Ferguson
Create an endowment
You can establish an endowment in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte Foundation by leaving a bequest in a will, a beneficiary designation from a retirement plan, a gift of real estate or life insurance, cash or securities, or a life income arrangement such as a trust or annuity.
For details, contact Gina Rhodes at 704-370-3364 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..