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  • Mar 11, 2020
  • 5 min read

Nonprofits are often so busy thinking about today, that they do not have a lot of time to think about tomorrow. Thinking and working on planned giving often gets pushed to the wayside for more pressing matters. Planned giving, however, can create a substantial, long term gain for your organization. If your nonprofit already has a strong base of donors that you feel you have cultivated with good stewarded relationships, you may want to consider working on a planned giving campaign.


What is planned giving?


Planned giving is a process in which a donor makes a substantial gift, within his or her lifetime or upon his or her death, as part of their financial or estate plan. Donations given out of an individual’s cash flow or discretionary income are not considered planned gifts. Planned giving can take many forms, including appreciated assets, artwork, life insurance policies, real estate, as well as the creation of charitable trusts. For donors, it connects their philanthropic goals with their financial and estate planning goals, in addition to connecting donors to an organization that they feel is special.


Planning giving is not just for the wealthy. Indeed planned giving is often how middle class individuals make major gifts. It should also be noted that planned giving does not affect annual giving. In fact, legacy benefactors feel a strong sense of connection to the organizations that they invest it, often increasing their annual donations. Planned giving accounts for about 9% of overall philanthropy in the USA. Does your organization receive 9% of its revenue from planned giving? If not, you should consider a planned giving campaign.


How do you start a planned giving campaign?


1) Cultivation and Stewardship


A planned giving campaign is part of an organization’s overall fundraising strategy and is connected to donor cultivation and stewardship. If your organization does not have a developed cultivation and stewardship process, start there and develop your relationships before moving on.


If you have a strong base and developed relationships, you do not need to defer planned giving! Continue your strong cultivation and stewardship and began to identify individuals as planned giving prospects. It is important to understand how to identify potential planned giving prospects. Almost anyone has the ability to plan a gift. Bequests (gifts in wills) are how the middle class give planned gifts. Wealth is not in cash alone but is held in assets that may be not visibly seen (think: real estate, retirement funds). You, however, do need to steward a strong relationship with your planned giving prospects. You want to find loyal donors. Identifying those that give more often than annually (think: monthly donors) and those that volunteer in addition to donating. The most common age to make planned gift designations is between 40-50 years old. Finally, those without children are more likely to make planned gifts.


2) Research


Do some initial research. Learn about your state laws. Read your organization's gift policy, if you have one. Understand the various types of gifts and what they mean (cash, appreciated securities, savings bonds, bank accounts, jointly held accounts, life insurance, IRAs, CDs). Does your organization have any policies against particular gifts? Talk to a lawyer who specialized in estate planning or wills and last testaments to learn about planned gifts so that you may better answer prospect questions. In addition, is your organization prepared to accept particular gifts? Do you know what you would do if gifted real estate or artwork? Do you know the various tax benefits of different types of gifts? Who at the organization will be the leader in planned giving and answer prospect questions? Before you develop your campaign, develop your organization’s infrastructure and policies to be ready to accept a gift.


While researching planned giving may make the process seem more complicated, an easy way to start the campaign without having to know every option is to start by only accepting bequests or gifts in a will.


3) Write


Write up a 1-2 page document on planned giving and your value proposition. Post it on your website and print out versions to give to prospects in a flyer or brochure. Create a website page for planning giving (think: “Other ways to Give”). Use language like, “gift in your will” rather than “bequest.” Look at large nonprofit charities for examples (American Cancer Society, Medecins Sans Frontiers, etc.). Find a small way to include a note about planning giving on everything your organization does (think: footer link to planned giving page "remember us in your will." Remember to mention your vision and long term goals, as well as value proposition. Avoiding taxes are not a major consideration for planned giving. Donors want to make a philanthropic difference to an organization that makes a difference and they value.


Before you actively start the campaign (as well as any other fundraising campaign), you will want to ensure that your website is generally up to date for individuals that want to spend more time learning about your organization.


4) Outreach


Planned giving is similar to any other fundraising effort, you must make the ask and a coordinated ask is always better. Think about your various forms of communication from your website, social media, emails, and direct mails. You can begin to include a link to your planned giving page in newsletters or at the bottom of other emails and direct mailers. Only using passive approaches to planned giving will not create the trusting relationship you need with a donor.


You must make active asks of your designated prospects. First, you can ask your current and past board members. (Think stewardship: When was the last time your reached out to past board members? If it was a while ago or never, you do not start with planned giving but stewardship). Within donor stewardship activities, you can bring your planned giving brochure with you to coffee with the individual prospects. If you do not want to conduct one-on-ones with prospects, consider a free, small special event to target 10-30 mid-level to major donors that you have identified. Invite them to learn about your vision for the future and why you are unique. As with any contact or asks, make sure you follow up with each prospect 2-3 weeks later.


It is important to note that less than 40% of Americans have an understanding of what planned giving actually means and far less have ever been asked. So you may need to educate your donors and talk generally about their philanthropic goals, how planned giving methods can help accomplish those goals, and why almost anyone can make a planned gift.


2) Recognize


You should create a Legacy or champion club for those that make a planned gift to your organization. They may want special recognition on your website, within marketing materials, and at your special events.


Planned gifts can start off simple. Yet, you must have donors that value you. Look at your donor base and work on your stewardship. If you are ready to begin a planned giving campaign, research, write, outreach, and recognize.


For more information on developing a Planned Gift Campaign or developing a financial development plan, contact New Nile Consulting.

  • Dec 21, 2018
  • 3 min read

Updated: Feb 26, 2020

You worked hard to get each donation. Now use that donation to build a relationship bringing the donors close to the cause and the organization, starting with thanking your donors.


It is incredibly important to build a connection with donors as nonprofits tend to lose about half of their annual donors. Moreover, current and lapsed donors are much more likely to donate again. You actually have very slim chances of securing a donor from a prospective even though it takes considerably more time to attract new donors!


There are many ways to say “THANK YOU.” But to make the thank you meaningful, there are a couple of things to consider. Thinking of your donor and their desires will make your thank you more considerate and appreciated. Remember those audience personas? This is another example of messaging that matches those personas. Some donors may wish to remain anonymous, others may want public recognition, some may want a special token, others may lean toward the digital. Major donors do not tend to appreciate gifts, but big contributors tend to like special access. If you don’t know why your donors donate or what their passions are, this is an opportunity to learn more about them! Create donor events and talk to them! Be creative!


Remember that donors donate because of their passion and goals. Your thank you should remind them what your organization is doing with the funds, with specific mention of a particular program that might interest them specifically. Don’t be overly focused on the organization though, or they might not feel their contribution is part of the process. Thank you notes could also apprise them of milestones or steps on the process. Thank you notes should inspire them and make them feel like part of the journey. Most importantly, the thank you should appreciate the donor and your relationship, as well as express how much the organization values them as part of the team or community.


Don’t delay your thank you, either! While a donor management system can immediately send a thank you, a personalized thank you note should be sent within a week (software can help you with reminders as well as sending personalized notes based on personas), but definitely within 90 days. Delayed communication suggests that you don’t value them as much as you say you do. Make thank you notes a priority. After the original thank you, you should also keep donors apprised of the programming and process throughout the year, but at least once more, such as the anniversary of the gift or at the end of the project.


Thank you notes can be creative and remember that they help the organization retain donors! You could send them a welcome packet that includes stories, photos, etc; actual paper or digital cards for birthdays, anniversary of gifts, and cards could be designed by staff or recipients or handwritten cards (this can be purchased online); videos of work being done; party invites, including donor only events; social media shout outs, newsletters with donor lists or profiles, or digital photo books. There are so many ideas!


Thank you notes need to be personal and thoughtful, but they don’t need to take considerable time. Using the proper software and managing content properly, can make the process easier through automation. The process is about stewardship, and will be rewarding in the long run!

  • Dec 4, 2018
  • 3 min read

Updated: Dec 6, 2018

Nonprofits should be well underway with their end of year campaigns. About 1/3 of all charitable giving happens in December and it’s the best time to win new supporters! So do you have a plan for the rest of the year? Here are some strategies to help your organization have a successful End of the Year.


The most important strategy is planning. Ideally, you would plan your broad messages in the fall for the following year, using an editorial content calendar. A calendar allows you to see ahead what you plan on saying, in addition to mixing in non-ask content. But, if you weren't ahead of the game, just sit down and start planning your messaging now. You need to make sure to give yourself enough time- time to plan and time to get to know your donors.


For many the first step (those that didn’t get around to planning out content ahead of time), is knowing your donors and cleaning up your email lists. Make sure all your emails and contacts are uploaded to your CRM system. Check what messages were bounced back in the past and clean up your lists. If you haven’t segmented your donors into types, consider doing this now (or soon!). You can assign various personas to your stakeholders, which consider their characteristics and past participation in the organization. Recognize how they have been connected to the organization in the past: have they attended an event? Donated (and how)? Signed up for updates? Don’t treat all your donors the same. Each has a unique connection to the organization.


Design messaging campaigns that considered the needs of these different groups independently. For example, mature stakeholders (those over 65) respond best to direct mailers and like to make tributes, whereas Gen X likes to participate in events and often donates through email solicitation. Despite all our love for social media and ubiquitous email, direct mail is still the number one medium for the end of the year donations. Its also important to remember that most people require 2-3 “touches” or contacts before they donate, whether that is a newsletter or an event. Additionally, 2/3 of individuals do not do research before donating, but either know the organization or rely on friends and families recommendations.


By planning ahead and using software, you can automate automate and track your message. Write your messages, schedule them, and make time for other tasks!


Some additional advice:


Focus on returns. Without a lot of fundraising ambassadors or a large audience, fundraising on social media may not get you the response you want.


USE CRM and Track the results of online and offline touches. Evaluate your efforts and learn from them. For example, look at your data to understand who is opening your emails, what messages didn’t work, etc.


Story tell. December is the time for "heart-first" messages. First hand stories of how your organization changes people’s lives creates a personal connection.


Use Facebook Data. Run targeted ads to your subscribers or find Facebook users with same interests and locations as your subscribers. You can run advertisements in concentric circles to find a message that gets a response.


Consider the Non-ask Ask. Sending a holiday card or a thank you card without any ask for donations is a "touch" that many appreciate. If you need to have messages with asks, put holiday cards or thank you cards in your calendar for next year!


Remember donors give for their own reasons, not yours. Understanding your donor is important to creating messages. Find out how the organization is helping donors achieve their goals.

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