Why You Are Not Getting the Legacy Gifts

Why You Aren’t Getting the Gift

When you're missing an annual gift from a donor, you feel it right away.  When you run that report and you see it is missing, you're able to follow it that year or maybe the following year. But what about when you don't get a legacy gift? That's not so easy to track. Read on to understand why you may not be getting those legacy gifts and what you can do about it to change it around and get some legacy gifts.

Your Mindset

The number one reason why you're not getting legacy gifts is your mindset. That is the first thing that you need to shift. Many people are concerned about asking for a legacy gift or have created obstacles in their heads standing in the way of having that legacy conversation. 

What kind of mindsets are those? It could be “How do I actually ask for a gift?” It could be a mindset that legacy gifts are too complicated. After all, they are about death and taxes. Maybe you are unsure of how to have a conversation with the donor, or when the right time is to have the conversation. These are common obstacles that a lot of people come across when they need to, or they know they need to, ask for legacy gifts.

You’re Overwhelmed

You might also question how to incorporate a legacy giving program within your existing development program. Perhaps you don't have enough information about legacy gifts. Maybe you think that they are only gifts that come into the future. If you're not sure about the legacy gifts themselves, that could be holding you back as well. There is a lot of information out there, and perhaps you are overwhelmed by all this information about legacy giving, and not quite understanding how to have that legacy conversation and easily add it to your program..

Support From Your Board

If you aren’t getting legacy gifts, ask yourself if your board is supportive of the program. Are they supportive of the actual program by allocating a budget and staff to the program? Do you have a budget to work with for marketing? Do you have dedicated staff to work on these legacy conversations? 

Your board should be your most engaged donors. They should be making the first legacy gifts to your organization. 

Strategy

It's great to start to have conversations with your donors, but you need to have a strategy in place in order to get that gift from the initial ask through the time that it closes. Remember that these gifts have a long lifespan to them. You may not see these gifts for many years from now, so you must have a plan in place to steward the donor and track the gift and make sure that this gift is recognized and doesn't become revocable. 

Your Legacy Messaging

You may have a strategy in place, but your strategy is not going to work if you don't understand your legacy message. This is why creating a very effective case statement that solely addresses legacy giving is so important. It's not about your mission. It's not about your programming.  The legacy case statement is going to address why your organization is unique and why donors should make a legacy donation to your organization. You and anyone that has conversations with your donors are going to be able to understand why you need a legacy gift for the future.

If you're asking for a legacy gift, your donor may decide he or she will instead give you an annual gift now. You have to be able to have that conversation about why you need it for the future, as well as annual gifts. And trust me, just saying to support the future of the organization is not the best way to do it because it's overplayed. Yes, you need to support the future of the organization. But why? What are you doing that's so important? How are you growing? What do you need that future impactful gift for? 

Next Steps

If you have a plan in place, if you break through those mindsets and those obstacles holding you back, if you understand why you need legacy gifts for the future, if your board is supportive of this, you’ll be able to have conversations with your donors. And most importantly, you’ll have clarity and confidence to take action and succeed.  

How to Talk to Your Board About Legacy Giving

How to Talk to Your Board About Legacy Giving

Breaking Down Your Board

There are many different things to consider when speaking with your board about legacy giving. One such way is breaking down your board into different segments. 

Financial Security

There are the board members that are interested in the financial security of the organization. For these board members, you would want to highlight how fiscally responsible it is to bring in legacy gifts for the future as another source of revenue to support the organization moving forward. In essence, you are framing the conversation in a way that they can understand. You are talking about the return on investment for legacy giving. When you know a particular board member is all about the numbers, show these lay leaders that legacy giving is an investment that secures a future of the organization. 

Connection and Value

Another one includes the board members that are really connected to and value the program. This is a passion project for them. They love this organization for the programming, for what it's done for them or their family or their community. This is what really drives them on the board. You can talk with them about the values and how people can support the organization for the future through a legacy donation. Try to demonstrate how this aligns with the organization’s values and the programming and how the organization affects the community.

Keeping it Simple

You also have the board members that just want to keep it simple. So make it easy for them! Show them how easy it is to be involved in legacy giving, and do the heavy lifting for them - give them a declaration of intent to sign, provide them the information that they need, or  give them the list of donors or other board members they should call to talk about a gift.  Then you have a better chance of them actually being involved.  

Engagement

Then there are the ones that want to be involved. They want to see your declaration of intent. They would like to be part of crafting your case statement. They want to see the list of all the donors and help you create different categories or solicitation lists for different people. Structure your conversation with them a little differently -- get them involved, and get their feedback. Have them look at your marketing materials. Give them a task that makes them feel involved and part of the program.

When first starting out, have conversations with your board members to find out how they want to be involved, what they are passionate about and what they envision for the future.  If you have spoken with your board members, where do they fall in these categories?  

How to Involve Your Board in Planned Giving

How to Involve Your Board in Planned Giving

It is very important to understand how to involve your board in planned giving. You could very likely have a successful staff driven legacy program, but you also need your board’s involvement to really shine.  

If you have a staff driven program, you can get things done only at a certain level. However, if you have the board involved, your program will become drastically stronger and better. Quite frankly, when your board is involved, you will get gifts much quicker. It really is a big boost in the first year or two of your program, as your board will not only be making gifts, but also asking for them. 

Way to Boost Board Involvement

A lot of times you may have a board that gives you the green-light to create a legacy giving program but then they don’t actually want to be involved in it. They don't want to do the work. They would rather it be staff driven, even though they think the concept is great. 

So, let's talk about how you get your board involved. Number one-- Pitch the idea at a meeting when you're starting to launch your program. Find one person on your board that is a proponent of legacy giving, whether they've done a gift or not, whether they are on your development committee, or a professional advisor that can speak about legacy giving. It doesn't have to be the chair of the board. It does not have to be the chair of the development committee. You want someone willing to be that champion to pitch it at a meeting and convey that this is important to your organization. 

Moving Forward

You need them to oversee your programs. In managing a successful, sustainable legacy giving program, you have things that must be approved by the board. You'll have gift acceptance policies that need to be approved by the board, or you may want to do a gift annuity program.  You need to have your board involved because they need to oversee the fiscal responsibility that you have towards this program. This is great for board members that don't feel comfortable asking for gifts and doing the solicitations, but would be comfortable at oversight. 

Get Them Involved

Match a few people on your board to something related to planned giving, such as marketing, and get them involved in that respect. Another way to get them involved is, of course, having them actually make a gift, or some sort of legacy intent. It could be a current legacy gift, like an endowment gift, or it could be an intent to do a gift in the future through their estate planning or a specific bequest.

Soliciting Donors

Soliciting donors is a task that not a lot of board members are comfortable doing. If you have board members that are comfortable making an ask, make it as easy as possible for them to ask for gifts. A lot of board members say they'll do it and then are too busy to follow through. Therefore, sometimes it's not the motivation to actually ask, it is just that time is an issue.  Since these are relationship-built gifts it may be easier for your board member to develop the relationship and bring someone else in for the ask. 

Fiscal Oversight

Another important aspect to keep in mind is the fiscal oversight of your program. As a legacy giving program, you will be getting many gifts, current and future. Someone needs to be on top of recording these gifts, and managing the assets. A lot of this will come down to your fiscal department as well as oversight of the board reviewing all of these gift vehicles. 

So, these are different ways to get your board involved with planned giving. Don't let them just remain on the sidelines and say that it's up to you to do everything. You need both the staff and leaders to build legacy. 

Ready to plan for Legacy Gifts this year?

Ready to plan for Legacy Gifts this year? 

Don't you love having a plan or a program in place that allows you to see how well you reached your goals? If so, read on and learn how to create a plan for legacy giving this year. As a result, you will be able to find ways to put  different actionable items into place throughout the year in order to successfully reach the goals of your organization.

Developing Goals 

But, first and foremost, what is your legacy goal? That is one of the things you must think about. If you are just starting your legacy giving plan, maybe your goal is to educate your donors. If you've been doing planned giving for a while, perhaps a couple of years or so, you might want to start bringing in more gifts or doing more solicitations.

Productive Planning

Think about going to Staples amidst the back to school madness. Personally, I am obsessed with Staples. I love going to the store and finding different items to help plan and do work. It's always exciting to go and get fresh legal pads and pens and all these different items that I could utilize to make my planning more productive.

Brainstorm what you can do to make your planning more productive. Focus on just a few goals. Don't go too over the top by thinking of lofty goals that you want to reach or 10 different goals for the year. Start with three legacy goals.

Define your Intentions and Actionable Projects

Think about and define what your intentions are. Maybe your intention is to educate your donor base about legacy giving. Then start to break out your goals into quarters and ask yourself, “What do I want to do this quarter?” Perhaps you decide to set a six month goal instead. Either way, think about what projects you actually can do to adhere to and ultimately reach your goals and pick a few to start with.

For instance, if you want to raise awareness, maybe you can write a testimonial letter to go to your donors about a gift that someone has already given to you. Or you can write an article in your newsletter educating donors, or perhaps a buck slip in your thank you letters that you send through which you can talk about legacy giving. There are endless different things you can do to raise awareness, or to reach any of your goals. 

Breaking Projects Down Into Tasks

After breaking down your goals into actionable projects, break these projects down further into tasks. This step includes assigning each element to whoever is responsible for it, whether it is you, someone else on your staff, or even an outside vendor. You'd have to look at the scope of the program and look within your organization to figure out who those right people are.

Once you go through this process, remember to review your goals monthly to determine if you are taking the correct actions and meeting the results you desire.  Pay attention to the actions that are getting the most results and double down on those, and eliminate the items that are not working.  This process can take some time, and it may be a year to two until you get into a system that is most effective for your organization to build a legacy program.