Give and Take

Having a professional mentor sounds like an inspiring boost to anyone’s professional development. Being able to benefit from the wisdom and expertise of someone you trust sounds like a fantastic way to learn essential lessons and plan your next moves. But how do you find a mentor? What makes a healthy mentor relationship? Can a non-traditional mentorship still provide similar benefits? Read on to learn practical ways to infuse priceless expertise into your professional development.

A board governance committee serves as a powerful tool for nonprofits who wish to boost their board recruitment and better prepare for an organization’s inevitable “rainy days”. This committee, along with others like a finance committee and development committee, are vital sources of support for nonprofit leaders.

Planned giving donors can choose from several different kinds of giving vehicles to leave their legacy with your organization. One of those vehicles is a donor-advised fund. While these different tools may sound complicated, you can learn the basics of these tools to help guide your donors. Donor-advised funds are a dynamic planned giving vehicle that can provide a major gift to a nonprofit while also delivering peace of mind to your major donor.

It’s no understatement that the purpose of many nonprofits is to solve the world’s most urgent and challenging questions, often with the fewest resources. Issues like hunger, economic development, poverty, addiction, affordable housing, animal neglect, education, environmental hazards and more are often the core of our organizations’ purpose. But when your cause is so big and complex, how do you discuss it with an audience experiencing a shrinking attention span and more charitable causes to support than ever?

“But they cut my budget this year!” It’s the same story, year after year, no matter what the economy’s doing. People blame their inability to “do planned giving” on a lack of money. After 25 years in the planned giving marketing world this complaint comes in consistently. So what else has changed? I hear this in the corporate world, too.

Planned giving often ranks as one of the most intimidating forms of fundraising. However, planned giving is a sleeping giant, capable of directing significant donations to your nonprofit through donor-advised funds, bequests, and other planned giving vehicles. Help planned giving pay off for your organization by avoiding these five common mistakes in the planned giving sector.

Of all the marketing mistakes I’ve seen nonprofits make in planned giving, perfectionism is the second-worst. The first-worst is not doing any marketing at all. If you wonder why your planned giving program is inching along at a snail’s pace, perfectionism might be the problem.