A donor makes a verbal promise to include a planned gift for your organization in their will, but they never send you a signed intention form. Then the donor dies. How do you ask the family if the gift was included in the donor’s estate plan? This type of situation happens frequently.
Giving Excels at the Speed of Trust
Sometimes a board member or nonprofit will ask us, “Why planned giving? People are giving us annual gifts and we don’t want to impact that source of revenue.” Unfortunately, this is the logic that keeps among the 99% of nonprofits that do not pursue planned gifts. Here’s how to join the top 1%.
Donors Flock to Reliability, Predictability, and Trust
It’s tempting to think about marketing as a collection of traditional outreach. Sure, part of it is which we have been offering for years. Display ads, postcards, surveys, tag lines, digital media, videos — the list goes on. But marketing is more than that. Marketing also includes things you might not immediately think of.
IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions
Sometimes the IRA Qualified Charitable distribution is referred to as an IRA Rollover gift. This is a sloppy and misleading term, because an IRA Rollover is another distinct process. Better to use the term IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD).
Is AI Dumbing Us Down?
AI is smart enough to discover names of people in your organization. Legitimate-looking emails come in with the line, “see attachment” — which, when opened, launches malware. Others request sensitive business information or for you to fill out an RFP behind a password. I wrote back to one such bot, and it responded so convincingly I almost fell for it. Be very careful — two friends lost between $4k and $7K at work through such an attack. Only one was reimbursed.
The Power of Endowments
An endowment sends a motivating message to the world, as well as to your board, staff and donors. It says your organization is going to be here for the long run. It creates respect, trust, authority.
Nonprofits Did Not Do Well Last Year
2023 was another tough year in the nonprofit industry. Although all the numbers aren’t in yet, it’s on track to be on par with 2022 — perhaps worse. And what’s even more concerning is that this seems to be part of a larger downward trend.
Only 1% of Nonprofits Take Planned Giving Seriously
Do you want to join the top 1%? Are you a tire kicker or a Formula One driver? Be the exception!
Make Planned Giving a New Year’s Resolution
According to Forbes Magazine, here are the top five New Year’s resolutions for 2024: Get fit, lose weight, and three more. This article will surprise you!
Accept Real Estate: Risk Free
Is Your Nonprofit Accepting Gifts of Real Estate? If not, you’re missing out on a very large untapped donation market. Consider this: While most nonprofits focus on cash gifts, that cash comprises less than 10% of America’s wealth. Meanwhile, about 43% of the nation’s wealth is held in real estate … yet only 3% of that […]