Lutheran Legacy Foundation

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Lutheran Legacy Foundation The LLF seeks to nurture Christian faith and values to future generations through endowment funding. Krause Milling Company.

Please find more information at www.lutheranlegacyfoundation.org Since its founding in 1953, The Clara and Spencer Werner Foundation has awarded more than $30 million for Lutheran causes. Spencer Werner, a native of Milwaukee, began his career with the Charles A. It was there he met Clara, who became his wife in 1921. In 1934, the Werners and several other investors purchased a mill in Paris, Illinois. Eventually, the Werners became the sole owners of the Illinois Cereal Mill. The Werners were committed, generous Christians and major founders of Grace Lutheran Church in Paris, Illinois. Clara was the principal evangelist and Spencer was known as one who always went out of his way to befriend and help others, especially children. Though both are now sainted, the foundation continues to carry on a tradition initiated by the Werners: "To further the efforts of Lutheran organizations to be in ministry, to reach out to those in need and to pass on the faith to the next generation, all for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." In 2005, seeing the need for increased effectiveness, alignment and transparency in the operations of Lutheran ministries, The Clara and Spencer Werner Foundation decided to add to its grant-making efforts by founding a community foundation—Lutheran Legacy Foundation. As a community foundation, Lutheran Legacy Foundation can take a more flexible and innovative approach in relationships with Lutheran organizations.

10/19/2026

The third week of October is National Estate Planning Awareness Week. If you've been meaning to get around to it, consider this your nudge. We're glad to help with the part that involves your ministry. 217.463.8202

10/18/2026

"We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord." — Psalm 78:4

The psalmist is describing a handoff.

Not a monument. A handoff — one generation deliberately placing something in the hands of the next, because nobody inherits what wasn't passed along.

Most of what gets handed down in a congregation is intangible. A hymn sung the same way for sixty years. The way people show up with food when someone dies. A confidence, learned young, that this place will be here.

That last one isn't automatic. Somebody has to make it true.

Starting an endowment can feel like standing at the bottom of a very tall hill. ⛰️The first gift goes in. Then the secon...
10/15/2026

Starting an endowment can feel like standing at the bottom of a very tall hill. ⛰️

The first gift goes in. Then the second. And someone on the council finally says what everyone is thinking: at this rate, how long is this going to take?

That's exactly the moment a matching grant changes the conversation.

The fund grows faster, which matters. But the bigger shift is quieter — people start believing it's actually going to work. A gift that gets matched feels like it counted twice, because it did.

Ask us about matching. It may be closer than you think.
LutheranLegacyFoundation.org | 217.463.8202

10/11/2026

"Acknowledge those who work hard among you... Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work." — 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13

Today is Pastor Appreciation Day. 🙏

St. Paul's instruction is oddly practical. Not "admire them." Acknowledge them. Say the thing out loud.

So — to the pastors, principals, and teachers across the Lutheran community: for the sermons written late, the hospital rooms sat in, the ordinary Tuesdays nobody sees. Thank you.

And for the rest of us, the surest way to honor that work is to make sure it outlasts all of us.

10/08/2026

Three of the most common ways people leave a legacy — and not one changes what's in your checking account this month. Questions are always welcome. 217.463.8202

Twenty years. 🎉Twenty years of doors that stay open after school. Of kids who found a safe place to land, a warm meal, a...
10/02/2026

Twenty years. 🎉

Twenty years of doors that stay open after school. Of kids who found a safe place to land, a warm meal, a mentor, someone who knew their name. Ministry like that never happens by accident.

Lutheran Legacy Foundation is proud to sponsor the 20th Annual Lighthouse Youth Center Benefit Dinner.

We support events like this one for a simple reason. The ministries doing the work today are the ones we hope are still doing it in fifty years. Tonight is about the work. Endowments are about all the years after.

Congratulations on twenty years, LYC Foundation.

Ask around your congregation and you'll find the same quiet admission: most people don't have a will. 📝Not out of carele...
10/01/2026

Ask around your congregation and you'll find the same quiet admission: most people don't have a will. 📝

Not out of carelessness. It's the kind of errand that never becomes urgent until it is — and then it's your family sorting through grief and paperwork at the same time.

Putting your wishes on paper is an unglamorous act of love. It spares the people you leave behind from having to guess.

And while you're in that document, there's room to name the ministries that shaped you.

October is a good month to finally do it. We'd be glad to help you think that part through.
LutheranLegacyFoundation.org | 217.463.8202

09/27/2026

“A good person leaves an inheritance for their children's children.” — Proverbs 13:22

It's a striking phrase — children's children. Not the next generation. The one after that.

Which means the inheritance Solomon has in mind isn't really about money changing hands once. It's about setting something in motion that keeps arriving after you're no longer here to hand it over.

That's what an endowment does. A gift given once, invested and cared for, still supporting a Lutheran school or congregation when your grandchildren are grown.

As September closes, it's a good question to sit with: what have you set in motion?

09/20/2026

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Acts 20:35

Paul quotes these words of Jesus almost in passing, at the end of a farewell speech, as though everyone already knew them.

And most of us do know them. What's harder is believing them — especially in a culture that measures a life by what it managed to hold onto.

But ask anyone who has funded a scholarship, or started a fund in a parent's name, or watched a ministry they love become steady instead of anxious. They'll tell you Paul was right. The blessing runs in the direction you'd least expect.

The memorial envelopes come in after the funeral. A few hundred dollars here, fifty there — from neighbors, cousins, the...
09/15/2026

The memorial envelopes come in after the funeral. A few hundred dollars here, fifty there — from neighbors, cousins, the couple who sat two pews back for thirty years. 🕊️

Then comes the question nobody quite knows how to answer: what should we do with it?

Often the money goes toward something good but ordinary — new hymnals, a repair, a line in the budget. All worthy. But there's another option families sometimes don't know to ask about.

Those gifts can become the beginning of an endowment fund in your loved one's name. Invested, cared for, and sending support to the church or school they loved every single year — long after the last envelope is opened.

It's a quiet way to let a life keep giving.

If your family or congregation is holding memorial gifts and wondering what comes next, we'd be glad to talk it through with you. LutheranLegacyFoundation.org | 217.463.8202

Address

513 S. Main Street
Paris, IL
61944

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+12174638202

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