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. 

How to Pitch Legacy Giving in Year End Appeals

Looking to add legacy giving to your year end appeals? If you have hesitated because you think it will be too much work or disrupt your year end goals, read this blog article for actionable tips.

How to Add Legacy Giving to Your Year-End Fundraising Appeal Marketing

Did you miss the webinar? Year end fundraising is serious - we need to get the gifts in to reach our calendar year goals, but we also need to balance legacy giving as well. Are you interested in cultivating legacy giving or using it as a tool to raise funds by the end of the calendar year? in this webinar here you can find out why you may want to do either one, how to do it and when you may not want to bring up legacy giving.

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

What is Legacy Giving?

This question comes up all the time and is both easy and hard to answer. Read here my REPOST article I wrote for Network for Good. Link to their site here.

If you are new to legacy giving, let’s start with what legacy giving is not – it is not scary, it is not fraught with technical tax issues, and it is not only for former practicing lawyers and financial and tax advisors. It is a fundraising option that should be used by any nonprofit professional that has responsibility to raise money for an organization. Think of it as an additional revenue resource for your organization, and another way for your donor to show support. I like options and I bet your donors do as well.

You may have heard of legacy giving by its many different names – planned giving, deferred giving, estate giving, etc.

What is a Legacy Giving Program and why is it helpful?

Why is legacy giving important as a revenue source, like annual fund, corporate and foundation giving, and events?  It is because:

• It adds another element to individual giving;

• It adds an additional revenue source for organizations to secure their fiscal stability;

• It builds an endowment to provide an ongoing source of income each year in perpetuity;

• It augments the other “asks” and deepens the connection with donors, and

• It provides an opportunity for impactful gifts.

• It broadens your donor base to allow donors to make impactful gifts by providing a diverse way to give assets.

There are so many reasons to add legacy giving as an option for your donors.  Why limit it to current gifts of cash and securities?

Many donors don’t have the capacity to give major gifts on an annual basis but they can make a major gift by using other types of assets, like art and life insurance policies, and more thoughtful planning through estate gifts and endowments. By promoting legacy gifts you are broadening your base of donors that can give to you in ways other than cash or securities.  You are providing your donors a way to make an impactful gift to the best of their ability.  You are creating a system that allows them to attach their values to their gift.

If you want to provide your donors with an opportunity to make an impact, while also creating a sustainable revenue source for your organization starting a legacy giving program is the way to go – and it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

4 Simple Steps to Build a Bequest Program

I had the pleasure of writing an article for Network For Good about how nonprofits can quickly build a legacy giving program through bequests. Below is the REPOSTED article and the link to read it on Network For Good’s site.

If you want to provide your donors with an opportunity to make an impact, while also creating a sustainable revenue source for your organization starting a legacy giving program is the way to go – and it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. This program involves promoting bequest gifts to your organization. Bequests are the most common planned giving vehicle used by donors to create a legacy gift – in fact, they make up over 80% of the gifts out there. By focusing on only bequests, you can limit your marketing budget since you are only focusing on one type of gift and your staff training is much more focused. Bequests are also easier to speak with donors about, since most people understand the concept of a will, whether they have one or not, and are easier to administer.

With the following steps you can get a legacy giving program up and running within months.

1. Start with your Board Chair (and board)

You Board Chair is important to the success of your program for a number of reasons.You need your Chair to be supportive of your program to allocate resources such as your time and budget to be used to grow the program. A legacy giving program may take years to see the return on the investment and it is key that your board is aware of this and willing to wait for those great results. Also, your Board Chair should be one of the first to do a legacy gift if s/he hasn’t created one already. It sets the tone for the rest of the board and also shows leadership support when you start to speak with your donors about their own legacy gifts. Ultimately, your board chair should be your most engaged donor and should set the example.

After you speak with you Board Chair, start to work your way through the executive committee and the development committee. You don’t need to solicit all these members in the beginning. Your initial goal is to get their support of the program.You will also want to identify at least one person that will serves as your ambassador. This is someone to stand up at board meetings to discuss the progress of the program, encourage others to make a legacy gift and make a legacy gift themselves.

2. Develop your marketing

Start with a strong legacy case statement. Many people try to bypass this step thinking it is an unnecessary task. That is a big mistake. When you do the exercise to think about your organization’s goals, why it is unique and why it needs legacy gifts you have done the bulk of the work leading to training your board and staff, creating marketing materials and soliciting your donors.

The next step in your marketing is to gather all the external communication your organization has sent out in the last 2 or 3 years. Review them – what is the tone? Do they include stories? Do they highlight legacy giving? If you have any previous legacy messaging, make certain it is in line with your new case statement. If not, revise it and determine where you can add legacy language by using what you already have. Add it to anything electronic, like the website and e-signatures, and then to any printed materials that will be going into production anyway (annual reports, gala journals, re-orders, etc.)

As you consider marketing, think about the different messages you need to promote. Remember, your donors (and legacy giving prospects) all have different levels of engagement, passion, giving, family involvement, etc. For example, how you discuss legacy giving with your board members will likely be different than your direct mail donors. Which leads us to the third step.

3. Segment your legacy prospects

A legacy program can’t go anywhere without donors. A tip to remember is that you already have your legacy giving prospects right there in your donor base. No need to look outside your organization to identify and cultivate new people. Start with what you have. The best way to do this is to segment your donor base.

Look to the following criteria. First, segment your most engaged donors. These are the donors that you know love your organization. They donate more than money; they donate their time. This will include your board members (past and current) and your volunteers.  Hint: you likely already have a relationship with these individuals. They should be your initial legacy conversations.  After engagement, segment by other factors such as age, gender, children, planned giving interest, leadership (other than board), major gifts to a restricted use, and past capital campaign donors. Notice I didn’t indicate wealth factors. This is because while indicators of wealth may be good for a major gift ask, it is not as important as engagement for a legacy ask. Don’t get sidetracked on only focusing on the wealthy. Legacy gifts come in all amounts.

After segmenting by interest and engagement, the next segmentation should be the pool of donors that have a history of frequent giving over a long span of time. This query will vary from organization to organization. This pool of donors are likely donors that have given you small gifts several times a year for years. You may not know them personally but these donors care about the organization and are excellent legacy giving prospects. Continue to send your marketing communications to them and offer them opportunities to make legacy gifts.

4. Build your systems

If you ask for legacy gifts without a system in place you don’t have a program. Before you ask for bequests to build your bequest program I recommend having policies such as gift acceptance, endowment, and investment policies in place to help guide you and your donor on what assets you can accept, how to structure the gift and how it will be invested. You will also need materials for marketing your program and documents donors can sign to indicate their interest.

A legacy program doesn’t happen on its own.  Besides the systems and materials you develop, the following folks will contribute to your legacy program’s success:

• Development department (to have the legacy conversations with donors)

• Finance department (to process the gifts and keep financial records)

• Lay leadership (to support the overall program and create legacy gifts)

• Marketing and communications (to develop marketing materials to communicate the need for legacy giving)

• IT department (to setup systems, pull donor lists and segment your database)

• Legacy advisory consultant (to help plan the program, set up systems, help develop marketing and segmentation so that you invest your time and resources wisely)

By following these four steps you can streamline your legacy program into an efficient way to offer your donors an opportunity to make an impact.

4 Ways to Boost Your Bequest Giving Program

Using these methods will boost your bequest program

Sounds great, right? I have been in the planned giving space for 19 years (yikes!) and pared down my experience in helping dozens of nonprofits to increase their revenue through legacy giving to a few valuable nuggets. This presentation I did for Network For Good was so much fun and best of all - ACTIONABLE. I am all about giving people ways to do more, in a simple and easy way. Intrigued? Listen to the presentation here and join the closed Facebook group Legacy Giving Made Simple here.