Ways to Give

Fr. Allan to help donors 'leave a legacy'

Around the time Father Allan Stetz was born in central Nebraska, someone planted a grove of young trees to serve as a windbreak. Today those trees are part of a game preserve where Father Allan hunts during visits to his boyhood home.

The symbolism of trees comes up often as the monk discusses his newest assignment, director of major and planned gifts for Conception Abbey. He succeeds Brother Mark Kosiba, who retired from the position after 16 years.

"Like the person who planted those trees, our benefactors provide for present needs," he said, "but they also are preparing something for the future."

Father Allan, a Conception monk of 42 years, returns to the abbey after 15 years of pastoral ministry in Missouri and Iowa, most recently as pastor of St. Brendan parish in Mexico, Mo.

As a pastor of parishes with schools, Father Allan isn't new to fund raising. But beyond stewardship campaigns, fall festivals, and parish picnics, he said the daily interaction with families perhaps best prepared him for his current work.

"In parish life you deal with families beginning with the births of children. You deal with deaths and all the struggles of going through the stages of life," he said. "And you deal with people who have retired, reached the third stage. They've spent their entire lives raising families and making money. Now they realize a time is coming when they want to leave a legacy for future generations. I know from my experience as a pastor that they think about this a lot."

Before his parish work, Father Allan for 13 years served as associate director in charge of advertising for the Printery House, and later for eight years as Abbey business manager. He will attend workshops and read books on planned giving and study tax laws. But he says he's most eager to meet as many of Conception's friends and benefactors as he can.

"They are very much like monks," he said. "For more than 40 years I've given my time and energy to the Church and the monastery. But that's what our donors also do. They give of themselves."

At a time when many of his contemporaries are preparing for retirement, the 63-year-old Father Allan has gone through a summer of great change. A new career, a return to monastery life, and in June he had surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his lung. Now, with a clean bill of health, he sees the future as a mystery.

But on evening walks on the Abbey grounds, he sees an old familiar symbol.

"I think about all those trees that Brother Damian planted," he said. "He's left a legacy for future generations. I hope I can do the same."