Give & Take

It’s true. Planned gifts really can get complicated. That’s why we have professionals like Meredith Sossman, JD; Camilyn Leone, Esq.; and Scott Janney on our team. And it’s a very good team. But when it comes to effective planned giving marketing, all you really need is street smarts and commitment. Even Camilyn and Meredith above, both lawyers, publicly admit it. However, admitting it is one thing. Putting it into practice at your nonprofit organization is another. Camilyn and Meredith get it, but most fundraisers out there don’t — and they don’t put nearly enough commitment into marketing their planned giving programs. Instead, they focus on learning all the technical details  of planned gifts. Seriously — look at all of the fundraisers taking seminars on CRUTs, CRATs and CRAPs. They even take seminars on calculators. As my old saying goes, “If you need to take a course on understanding a planned

You have a planned giving program — that’s great! And you get those occasional gifts, and that's great too. But you're wondering if your donors know that you exist.

You can’t believe how hard it is for people to be simple, how much they fear being simple. They worry that if they’re simple, people will think they’re simpleminded. In reality, of course, it’s just the reverse. (~ Jack Welch, CEO General Electric.)

The classic cry of the binge fundraiser is "Oops... gifts are slow to come in. I guess I’d better send out a mailing." If you find yourself in the middle of a quiet spell, thinking that a few actions, a couple of phone calls and a mailing here and there will get things moving again, you need to rethink your strategy.