Using spam for planned giving marketing? Think again.
Who’s Visiting Your Planned Giving Website?
Measuring website metrics (stats) is not an easy task. It’s also a science the very few can do. Unless you have someone who specializes in metrics, you are not going to get reliable data. This post explains why and how.
Law and Planned Giving
You Don’t Need to be a Lawyer to Succeed in Planned Giving Most of us in planned giving started out doing something else. We were volunteers, annual giving officers, ministers, financial planners, insurance brokers, teachers. And some of us (including one of the authors) were — yes — lawyers. Initially, we faced an unintelligible jumble of arcane terminology and obscure tax regulations (Contingent bequests? Four tiers? Interpolated terminal reserve? You value a racehorse’s stud services how?) We never imagined that planned giving would eventually be simplified. Eventually, we became proficient at this second language. We could hold our own at the lunches of the local planned giving council. We ventured our first posting on Gift-PL. And then came The Disconnect … We forgot how boring planned giving is to most civilians. We began telling donors every Postal Service detail regarding placing securities and stock powers in the mail. We lectured about outstanding loans on insurance policies and slipping shingles on retained life estates. If you gave us a clean sheet of paper and a free afternoon, and we could answer every question about how the make-up provision of a NIMCRUT works in years of below-payout-rate-earnings. The trouble is, the prospects weren’t asking those questions. Prospects are reassured that you know what you’re talking about. They want to feel that your organization will handle their gift professionally. They deserve a scrupulously fair disclosure of how their gift will affect their financial security and that of their family. But they don’t want to hear how much you know about the IRS Code. Instead, they want to learn how you can make their desire to help your organization a reality. Consider — which of the following headlines would attract your (or your 80-year-old mother’s) attention? You Don’t Have To Be Wealthy To Make a Significant Gift Or We Can Help You Cure the Indebtedness on Your Next Real Estate Gift The same disconnect between dry detail and your unique, personalized appeal applies to financial-planning material on your planned giving website. Well paid professional writers and designers produce thoroughly researched, handsomely packaged analysis and advice for their for-profit clients. When you distribute canned financial-planning articles, you are competing with long-established institutions on their home turf. That’s not an efficient use of your resources. Instead, harness the special relationship your organization has with its supporters. They want to know how your organization is faring and how they can help. They all know a lawyer – what they don’t know is how a gift plan can help them become a significant donor. Category: Planned Giving Marketing
Should I Develop People Skills, or Technical Skills?
Did you know that most companies base 80% of their hiring decision on technical skills, yet 85% of turnover is due to behavioral incompatibility?
Why are planned giving newsletters getting less response?
Marketing noise: every day the average prospect is inundated with over 3000 marketing messages. In a large city, it’s over 5000. A battle is being fought for the eyes and ears of the world, and in most cases the enemy is an overstuffed mailbox.
Planned Giving Mass Emails (or Spam?)
Some vendors advocate sending out “weekly generic emails” to prospects and financial advisers. “Stay in their face,” they say..
Counting Your Website Hits? The Real Scoop.
Most in philanthropy are not that tech-savvy. And if one does not understand the basics, it’s much too easy to go down a misguided path by taking advice from someone not as much interested in his or her institution’s long-term interest.
Online Will Planners
We recently interviewed Jordan Cassidy, Co-founder & Head of Business Development of LifeLegacy, about nonprofits using online will planners for their constituency. Here’s what he had to say. Q: Is a will really an effective way to get planned gifts? A: A bequest giving tool like our free online will is great for engaging everyday donors. You can offer this complimentary service to your donors, track engagement and use it as the beginning, not the end, of the conversation with them. Q: How is this different from others? A: Our donor experience is fully customized to our nonprofit partners; most others have inflexible platforms that do not offer this. In addition, we have seamless integrations — nonprofits can get set up with our platform within minutes using a co-branded link. Here’s a demo of the co-branded online will experience for one of our partners, the American Brain Tumor Association. Q: Your competitors online will service prices are very expensive. What gives? Why are your services more reasonable? A: LifeLegacy’s price point enables organizations to effectively use our tools and, most importantly, maximizes long-term ROI. Small- to medium-size nonprofits simply can’t afford the high annual subscription prices that our competitors charge. We believe that marketing, coupled with technology, is the key to success in planned giving. Using that extra budget toward third party marketing companies like PlannedGiving.com is the one-two punch nonprofits need to increase success rates. Q: Does your online will service allow users to leave digital assets like cryptocurrency? A: It may seem “small,” but the ability to leave crypto assets as a planned gift in a will was a frequent request (and selling point) for charities. Crypto assets, including cryptocurrencies and NFTs, now make up a sizable portion of people’s estates — but they also present complex challenges to securing, transferring, protecting, and gifting that wealth. Many elements of traditional estate planning are rendered obsolete in the realm of digital assets. We’re the first and only to offer a cryptocurrency component in our Last Will and Testament to meet the needs of this growing cohort. Q: How does this product help a fundraiser know more about donors and their intentions? A: There’s a common saying in the nonprofit world, “You only know one out of every four planned gifts you receive.” This showcases how fragmented planned giving data is. We aggregate donor insights within our proprietary dashboard to enable nonprofits to identify/track gifts, spot trends, and enhance their fundraising campaigns. Q: Some providers allow users to make a trust online, in California and possibly some other states soon. Why don’t you offer online trusts? A: Great question. Here’s how we look at it: Would you feel comfortable setting up a trust on your own, online? If so, maybe it’s right for you. We personally don’t believe this level of complex estate planning is something you should do on your own, without the guidance and opinions of a professional. In fact, we are not even sure if it is truly possible. Regardless, estate planning attorneys should be used for complex estate planning needs. Q: Other providers talk about using traffic from their nonprofit partners as a way to promote planned gifts for any nonprofit. Is this something your service does? Why or why not? A: There are two sides to this. It may sound nice that you receive unexpected and unsolicited planned gifts from a random donor, but say a donor comes to our site from your organization to leave a planned gift, but then they are presented with an option to leave part of their bequest gift to another charity. Would you want that experience for your donors? Could that potentially take away from the amount of the gift they were going to leave to you? Our co-branded wills are programmed to be pre-selected with your charity for bequests, in order to maximize donors leaving planned gifts to your organization. We don’t want to promote specific charities; we don’t want to take away from the reason (your nonprofit) that they came to our site in the first place; and more importantly, we don’t want to take away from the gifts they were going to leave to you. Q: We’ve heard that some of your competitors will reach to a nonprofit about a planned gift that a donor wants to make, but will not reveal any further details unless the nonprofit signs up and pays for access to their products. Is this something you do as well? A: We share all gifts with all nonprofits, no questions asked. There is no reason to hold that information hostage. As long as the donor has agreed to share that information, we pass it along to the nonprofit accordingly, whether they are a paying partner or not. Q: I’ve heard good things about using online will makers, but is this the answer for all my needs? A: The short answer is “no.” Planned Giving requires a variety of approaches. There is no one answer and no one solution that fits all. Combining our technology and marketing with a nonprofit’s own team, and getting that team well-versed and confident will create what you need to make yourself ready for the Great Wealth Transfer. Category: Sustainability
Use It Or Lose It: Charities that Limit Giving Options Limit Donations
A few weeks ago, I was approached by a charity with a donor who, at the end of 2021, had just retired from farming. That means he has a harvested grain crop in the bin, which has yet to be sold to produce taxable income. But because he is no longer farming, he will not receive tax deductions this year for expenses such as seed, fertilizer, and fuel. As a result, he will have a pile of taxable Ordinary Income to report for tax purposes when he sells the grain, with no offsetting deductions. He really doesn’t need the income this year because he sold some machinery. He would like to spread the grain profits out over his lifetime for tax and cash flow purposes. I offered to help him set up a CGA funded with 45,000 bushels of corn. At a market price of about $6 per bushel for corn, that translates into about $270,000 of funding for a CGA. At his age (80), that will produce a 6.5% income ($17,500 per year) which will be taxed as Ordinary Income as he receives it annually. This means it will be taxed in a much lower bracket than if he had sold all the corn outright in a lump sum. The donor was ecstatic at being able to repurpose his grain to produce a nice retirement income stream for himself while also creating a future legacy gift for one of his favorite charities. Farmers are traditionally “land rich and cash poor,” so this strategy really came in handy for him. The unique thing about this case is that the farmer had been trying for eight months to work with another charity that accepted only cash and marketable securities. They had no clue how to fund a CGA or a CRT with grain, so he became very frustrated. What’s my point? As Baby Boomers continue to retire, there are several charitable planning tools that can help them in their planning to solve problems and create substantial planned gifts for their favorite charities, rather than enhance the government’s coffers. The charities that “get it” and have the capabilities to implement these charitable tools will flourish. The ones that don’t will suffer. Johnne Syverson, CFP, AEP, CAP, is the executive director of the Charitable Giving Resource Center. Category: Sustainability
It’s Easy To Find Success — You Just Have To Know Where To Look
By Dennis Haber It seems to be one of those fundamental laws: If there’s air travel involved, there’s a good chance you and your luggage will go your separate ways. So, I wondered, If you go to a lost and found when your luggage is lost, where do you go when YOU’RE lost? When your performance is subpar and you don’t know what to do next, do you ask others, “Have you seen the real me? I’m lost.” Of course you don’t. Creation, Not Discovery Successful people never “find” themselves. They go deep inside and create themselves. The tool of POTENTIAL is very useful toward this end. That is why it is important to embrace this fundamental truth: Everything in life exists in POTENTIAL. Those who understand the power behind POTENTIAL will have a lot more success than those who choose to ignore the influence they actually have over events and ways to respond to those events. The potential mindset shift is so powerful it gives you the ability to see life through different “sets of eyes.” Choose to Make a Choice In life, you always have a choice. You can be intimidated when another colleague sets a record (a massive major gift, perhaps, or a game-changing bequest) or be inspired by it. You can let your hopes and dreams be thrown off course when someone rains on your parade, or you can become more careful to whom you listen. You can be stopped by an obstacle or be ready for a comeback, having been setup by that setback. You always have a choice to react or respond. The potential to be better and get better is a choice that YOU make. After all, it is your potential. Those who refuse to focus on and use the power of potential will never see fresh opportunities. When you waste opportunities to connect with and influence donors and prospective donors, you will not get to ask them calibrated questions that could deepen the relationship and get your organization that gift. FOR EXAMPLE, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO ASK: What was the best gift-giving experience you ever had, and what made it so good? Are you aware how much of an impact your generous gift could make? Let me show you what we could accomplish with your help. What would you have to see to consider getting more deeply involved with us? Likewise, you will not help yourself modify your attitude, change your efforts, and enhance skillsets that together could positively affect and greatly benefit your business, personal, and family life. If you don’t use the power of potential, you will never get to ask 3 essential questions that can help you go deep and create the new YOU: What do I do to inspire others? What do I do that frustrates others? What do I not know about my SELF that everyone seems to know? What’s Your Kryptonite? Getting feedback from those you trust will provide an important characteristic baseline, enabling you to enhance relationships, tackle problems, learn new things and promote accountability. Only when you become aware of your kryptonite can progress beget even more progress and success. Again, life is never about finding your SELF. It’s about creating and re-creating your SELF. This thought is so important that I urge you never to forget it. See the reaching in your mind. Because it’s all in your mind. Your next chapter and next story are based on your next move. Capture that thought and turn it into action. Because it’s your thought, your response is between you and your mind. Again, you determine how to use your potential. You can be average, above-average, or phenomenally successful. It’s your move. Category: Sustainability