Give - Payne Theological Seminary

You Can Make an Impact

With your financial help, Payne can provide more scholarships and educational support to students and their ministries, hire and retain more first-rate faculty, develop technology to improve teaching and learning, and maintain our beautiful and historic campus. Your financial contribution is an investment in ministry and in cultivating and equipping prophetic voices prepared to serve this present age and for generations to come.

Make a difference today… Make A Gift to Payne Theological Seminary!

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Appeals & Campaigns

Impacting Lives and Communities

Because of your donations, we have managed to uphold the treasury of African-American worship and culture, empowering a new generation of spiritual leaders who integrate faith with activism. Your continued support has enhanced our academic programs, allowing us to prepare leaders who stand as a testament to our mission statement, “To prepare leaders for ministry in the African-American tradition of liberation, reconciliation, social justice, and the dignity of all humankind”.

Help Us Reach Greater Heights – Support our Annual Appeal 2025-2026

As we engrave your contributions in our legacy, we invite you to be a part of this year’s Annual Appeal by helping us to increase giving by $100,000. This audacious goal is an effort to extend our reach to support our students who need us and to enrich our ministry programs. By investing even more deeply in transformative education, our students are prepared to reach the people and places where the principles of liberation and the pursuit of dignity most need to be heard.

Scholarships & Endowments

Your giving matters and it makes a difference. Because of our many donors, Payne Theological Seminary has been developing ministerial and servant leaders for more than 130 years.

Scholarships: Student debt for our Seminary students is a significant challenge as they seek to fulfill their commitment to a life of service and ministry.

Your gift towards student scholarships will help to decrease that burden, and make the pursuit of earning a degree at Payne Theological Seminary more accessible. Scholarships are awarded to eligible students who are enrolled in our Master of Divinity Program, Master of Arts in Religious Leadership Program or Doctorate of Ministry Program.

Available Scholarships & Criteria

Endowments: Gifts to any of the Seminary’s endowments will last a lifetime! It’s the gift that keeps on giving, being invested conservatively through the Columbus Foundation, its earnings are used to support Payne’s mission and to provide support to Payne Theological Seminary students in perpetuity.

These investment incomes help to fund scholarships, operations, and initiatives such as research, professional development, and other Payne-sponsored initiatives, such as on-campus seminars and key speakers.

Planned Giving & Other Gifts

The Seminary’s ability to provide an exceptional education with proven results requires new resources to meet student scholarship and instructional excellence needs. Funding educational opportunities enable our graduates to be highly prepared to serve and become future leaders in our community.

By including Payne Theological Seminary in your estate plans, alumni/ae and friends can make gifts far larger than they ever expected. Donors using one of the five main types of life income or estate gifts–Bequest Intention, Charitable Gift Annuity, Charitable Remainder Trust, Charitable Lead Trust, and Retirement Plan Assets—can support the Seminary. These types of charitable gifts can:

Provide the donor with tax and income benefits
Endow a gift to honor and pay tribute to the memory of a family member, loved one, or a mentor in the donor’s personal or professional life
Provide endowment support to the Seminary. Gifts that endow scholarships, professorships, or other programs provide financial support in perpetuity and strengthen Payne Theological Seminary’s financial status.

To establish your future gift, please be sure to work closely with your financial advisor or your real-estate advisor, accountant, attorney, and the Seminary’s Office of Institutional Advancement and Business Office.

All gifts qualify for appropriate levels of recognition from the Seminary. For additional information on naming and recognition opportunities, please contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at 937-971-2870.

The Daniel Payne Legacy Society – Bequests

You can include gifts in the form of: cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, or personal property. The bequest can be a specified percentage of your estate after designations have been made for family members.
To make a gift in your estate or to give a portion of your estate to the Seminary, simply add the line “I hereby bequeath the sum of _____ dollars (or % of my estate) to Payne Theological Seminary of Wilberforce, Ohio.” Please contact the Institutional Advancement office to share your plans so that we can recognize you as a member of the Daniel Payne Legacy Society.

Members of the Daniel Payne Legacy Society inspire others to support our students and the Seminary’s success. The Daniel Payne Legacy Society recognizes individuals who have established a planned gift or have provided for Payne Theological Seminary in their estate plans and have informed the Seminary of this commitment. The Seminary understands that some donors wish to remain anonymous, and if that is the case, all information will be kept strictly confidential.

Other Ways to Give

Donors may also choose to give:

Matching Gifts from Your Employer
Gifts of Stocks, Charitable Trusts, Gift Annuities, Bonds, Mutual Funds or Real Estate
A Planned Gift (i.e. bequests, life insurance policies, etc.)

#Giving Tuesday

More Information

Share Your Story

We want to learn more about your story and connection to Payne Theological Seminary. We know that Payne has touched many hearts and minds resulting in support by countless friends, alumni, faculty, staff and friends with their time, talents and treasures. Your story is the story of Payne Theological Seminary.

Donor Bill of Rights

The Donor Bill of Rights was created by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits. It has been endorsed by numerous organizations:

The Donor Bill of Rights

Philanthropy is based on voluntary action for the common good. It is a tradition of giving and sharing that is primary to the quality of life. To assure that philanthropy merits the respect and trust of the general public, and that donors and prospective donors can have full confidence in the not-for-profit organizations and causes they are asked to support, we declare that all donors have these rights:

To be informed of the organization’s mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization’s governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgement in its stewardship responsibilities.
To have access to the organization’s most recent financial statements.
To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
To receive appropriate acknowledgement and recognition.
To be assured that information about their donation is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
To expect that all relationships with individuals representing organizations of interest to the donor will be professional in nature.
To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of the organization or hired solicitors.
To have the opportunity for their name(s) to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.
To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.

IRS Determination Letter

IRS Determination Letter of Tax Exempt Status