Give and Take

Who’s Visiting Your Planned Giving Website?
Planned Giving Marketing
Viken Mikaelian

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.

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Law and Planned Giving
Planned Giving Marketing
Viken Mikaelian

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

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Why are planned giving newsletters getting less response?
Planned Giving Marketing
Viken Mikaelian

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.

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Counting Your Website Hits? The Real Scoop.
Planned Giving Marketing
Viken Mikaelian

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.

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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

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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

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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

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