Legacy Giving on a Budget

Legacy Giving on a Low Budget

Yes, you absolutely can build a legacy giving program without spending a lot of money. There are many simple things that you are able to do in order to create a successful program with a low budget.

Existing Materials

Simply use what you've got. Look through your marketing and communications materials  that you have done in the past few years. Where can you add a legacy giving component that you don’t have to print something new, or you are going to print it anyway -- website? Annual report? 

Reordering

It is possible that your budget will not allow you to spend money on new marketing materials. In this case, determine the materials that you have to reorder. Once you have figured out what things you are going to reorder, include messaging regarding legacy giving in these items. Whether you redesign them or simply leave a checkbox for more information about legacy giving, you are able to add something legacy giving related  without having to pay any extra costs. 

E-Signature 

Another low-cost trick is to put something about legacy giving in your e-signature. Every time you're sending an email, there is some sort of tagline or your core message on the bottom. 

Training Your Staff

Once you have the information about your core message and donor value messaging, train your staff on it. When you have your colleagues on the same page, they are able to have important conversations with donors, board members, or anyone in the community. This changes your culture from transactional giving to philanthropy. 

Call Your Donors

The thing that is going to cost you nothing and get you the most value is to pick up the phone and call your donor. This will allow you to deepen your relationships with donors and gain insight into why they give.  Most importantly, as you're speaking with your donors track who you're talking with and the next steps. 

Remember that it is crucial to get your message out. Donors need to see legacy messaging many times in order for them to start to think about doing a legacy gift. It is hard to know where they are in the cycle, so you need to be front of mind with everything legacy giving. 

A Primer on Legacy Case Statements

How to Have an Effective Case Statement

A legacy case statement is one of the underutilized but important elements of a legacy program. Step back and think about why you need a legacy giving program and what your goals are. Going through the exercise of crafting your case statement will allow you to set your goals and keep you consistent and focused.

What do I mean by that? Well, when you start your legacy case statement, think about why you want legacy gifts. What does the organization need? How are you growing? What kind of challenges do you face in the future? Do you need more staff? Do you need more facilities? Are you having a growth spurt? Whatever it is that you need, put that in the case statement. 

Having this legacy case statement will keep everyone on staff and your leadership focused and consistent about what you need to raise for the future to keep your organization fiscally stable and viable. You want to increase revenue through a legacy giving program to stabilize and enable growth for the future. The work you're doing now will pay off for the future. 

Defining Your Case Statement

Your case statement is not your mission statement. Your legacy case statement is why donors should give a legacy gift to the organization. The legacy case statement is a cornerstone of your program. You need to have it in order to have a really strong marketing campaign and messaging.

Your case statement is an internal document. It could be part of your strategic planning process. If you're working out a plan, it is part of your strategy. You can attach your goals and objectives to it.

Your legacy case statement can also be an external document.  Using it in this manner, you can create a brochure or a leave-behind for your donors.

Start with a Story

The best thing that you can do is to start off with a story, and draw your donor into that story. They need to identify themselves in that story of the organization or of that donor. Tell them what they need to know for the future. Maybe the story is about a particular gift or a particular person that your organization helps, and why the organization does what it does. It needs to be different and a little unique, but understand that someone is going to identify with it.

Articulate Your Importance

Clearly define what is important about supporting your organization for the future. This is critical to separate you from other organizations and show why you are unique. Then you are going to get into what you have done successfully. Talk about what you've done successfully already, and why it's important. 

Marketing

You will be able to derive so much marketing content from your legacy case statement.  You will be able to take out your legacy messaging and use it for your e-signature and your marketing materials. You can use the story as part of a direct mail piece. You can create a brochure out of it. There are so many ways that you can slice and dice this legacy case statement. When you have the case statement, all your marketing for the year is that much easier. 

Next Steps

You're going to use this document for everything that you do in your program. A legacy case statement keeps you focused. It also creates a message that everyone in your organization can rally behind. 

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.  

Just Starting out in Planned Giving? Let's Make it Simple!

Just Starting out in Planned Giving? Let's Make it Simple!

For those that are just starting out in planned giving, there is a tendency to think of it as being extremely overwhelming. There's a lot to know. There's a lot to do. Where do you start? 

Deciding on Goals

First, think about what your goals are. Think about where you want to be in a year from now. And if you can't think about a year now from now, think about six months from now or three months from now. Understand your goal of legacy giving. If you want to start receiving gifts right away, that is going to be very different than if you want to build awareness around a campaign that you're going to be doing in the future. So think about what your intent is. What do you want to see out of your legacy giving program? What do you want to convey to your donors about legacy giving? First start there.

Keep it Simple!

Legacy giving really can be very simple-- it doesn’t have to be complicated. There are a lot of moving parts to it, as with any program you deal with, but let it be simple. However, simple does not mean easy. You have to do the work for your legacy giving program to be successful, including everything from marketing, speaking to donors, strategic planning, and speaking to your board. 

Developing a Core Message

This is where coming up with an effective legacy giving case statement is very effective. It allows you to pull information from it and put it into your messaging for all of your communications-- your brochures, your website, direct mail pieces, advertisements, journal ads. You name it. It can go into everything, but you have to know what your core message is. 

It is possible that your organization already has one. It is helpful to go through all of your documents and see if you already have a legacy giving message. If you do, pull it out and see if it still is effective. Is it still fresh? Does it feel right for where you are now? Maybe it was just written last year and still works. If it was 10 years ago, take the time to make necessary revisions.

Your Ideal Program

Then, think about what your ideal legacy giving program might look like. Again, it should not be complex, but it is not necessarily easy. Decide not only what your organization is willing to do, but also what you are able to do.

It might be pitching at your board meetings. It might be putting legacy giving messaging on all marketing materials.  You have to figure out where it is feasible. And remember to take baby steps. Just take small, small steps because they will add up.

Thinking About The Tools You Need

This lends itself to thinking about what kind of help you need to reach your goals. Perhaps your goals include putting legacy messaging in all your marketing materials, speaking with five donors a month about legacy giving, and getting ten gifts at the end of the year. Those are great goals and totally doable. But, what are you going to do to get there? 

Think about all of the projects you need to execute to get there. If it's a direct mail piece, are you the person that's doing direct mail? Can you do a standalone direct mail piece about legacy giving? What do you query? Who in your IT department is going to do that query for you? How are you going to do the research for it? Think about all the elements that are involved and what tools you may need in order to get where you want to go.

Time Is a Factor

It is also crucial to keep your time in mind. A lot of work is required in putting together a successful legacy giving program. You’ll have to come up with certain systems for giving, create your legacy case statement, and put a bunch of other parts in place. Once in place, you don’t just leave it. You will still need to work at it, especially with regard to marketing and face to face conversations with your donors.

Yes, there is a lot of work upfront. Focus on the baby steps. Think about your goal and what you want to accomplish-- Work backward. Think about your messaging and why you need legacy giving. And think about the year or the six months ahead. What is your intent? What do you want to do? And keep it simple. Trust me. It's not so complicated. 

New to an Organization with an Old Legacy Giving Program?

New to an organization with a planned giving program? Read for some tips!

Whether you are new to an organization as the development director, the executive director, a development associate, a board member, or even the planned giving professional, what do you do when you've discovered that there are these legacy gifts from the past?

Just Starting Out

This can be a fantastic opportunity for you if you position yourself correctly. If you're starting from scratch, maybe you already have a list of people that had expressed a legacy intent in the past.. Maybe it's just a handful, or maybe there's 20. Start by doing the research that you can on each of them. Go through all your materials, and talk to people that may have some sort of institutional knowledge about these donors and their gifts. 

Next Steps

Then, gather all the information you can. Create a spreadsheet with donors' names and any information about the gifts. The goal is to acknowledge and thank the donor for his or her past gift, but also to find out information-- mainly, is the gift still active? Remember -  many of these gifts are revocable. The donor may have never finalized the gift. On the flip side, maybe the gift was made, and then perhaps the donor decided he or she is no longer engaged and passionate about it due to a lack of involvement. They may have removed the gift from their charitable planning. Their priorities may have changed. Maybe it has nothing to do with the organization. Maybe it's just family and financial priorities.

Finding out More Information

Once you find out if the gift is active, you are able to find out information about the gift. What type of gift is it? Is it in their will? Is it in a trust? Is it an endowment gift? Ideally, if you know the type of gift, then you may also find out whether something is revocable or irrevocable. Certainly, your finance committee would like to know if certain gifts are irrevocable as compared to revocable. 

Stewardship and Recognition

Once you confirm the legacy gifts are still active, make sure to recognize them for their legacy and steward them for their commitment.  It is likely that they may have been thanked for their gift previously, but it is important to continue to do so as you build out your legacy program.

If you take these actions,  you can start building relationships and engagement with these donors. 

Including Planned Giving in Year-End Fundraising

Not everyone thinks about planned giving at year-end. The focus is usually around getting those current annual gifts in before December 1st - but it also provides a perfect opportunity to plant the seeds of legacy giving and also get some current legacy gifts (yes, they do exist!). Watch this video of my interview at www.everyaction.com about why to also focus on planned giving in the year end campaign.

Listen/watch here