Give and Take

The collection plate is drying up—and too many churches are praying instead of planning. Shrinking attendance, aging donors, and ignored legacy opportunities are putting ministries at risk. This isn’t a crisis of faith; it’s a crisis of fundraising strategy. Packed with real stats, biblical precedent, and blunt advice, this piece is a wake-up call for church leaders: Stop waiting on miracles. Start asking for planned gifts. Because "hope" isn’t a stewardship strategy.

There’s something that some fundraisers don’t get that good marketers know instinctively: You’re not selling a product, gift plan, or naming rights. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “You’re selling a dream.”   It doesn’t matter if you’re buying a Ferrari or Ford, a Rolex or a Timex, diamond earrings or cubic zirconia, a villa on a lake or a weekend at an Airbnb: You’re buying a dream of something bigger, better, shinier, or easier.  The same goes for donors. Your donors are buying a painting visualized in their minds. They’re not “buying” your mission. They’re buying a dream of lasting legacies; philanthropic hopes; and transformative outcomes. Objects are a commodity. Whether it’s a Ferrari Testarossa or a Ford Focus, it’s just a car. But a dream is something different. It’s a very personal thing, and you — the fundraiser or “salesperson” — cannot put a price tag on it. That’s for the

Planned giving can present a unique challenge for marketing, because the unspoken message is that a death must occur for a gift to be fully realized. Here are two ways to alleviate the macabre undertone.

This will sound familiar. A fundraiser has a good relationship with a donor and wants to prepare to make a major gift ask. Extensive research has been collected about the donor. It includes a philanthropic capacity estimate from services like iwave and DonorSearch, and whatever else could be found online. Notes from conversations, street research from people who know the donor, and the donor’s giving history to her organization are also gathered. Despite all of the research, the fundraiser has an uneasy feeling that whatever ask amount is settled upon, it will, at best, be a guess.

We have all unfortunately been there. A meeting that could have been an email. A lengthy meeting that left all attendees confused about what was accomplished. A brainstorming session where personalities derailed the discussion. What these situations all needed is an effective facilitator. Learn how to run respectful and productive gatherings with these basic facilitation tips.

We’ve all read the breathless projections of up to $140 trillion of wealth that will be inherited by Gen X and the Millennials over the next number of years. And as professionals in philanthropy, I expect we’ve all been waiting for that transfer to begin and make the great impact on charities we’ve imagined it will. But I admit my hair is getting grayer — and disappearing — as I wait for the great reward of this promised inheritance.

Endowments are most often associated with institutions of higher learning and huge nonprofits like hospitals. But an endowment may be a great fit for one of your prospective planned giving donors.

Establishing a major donor strategy is arguably one of the most effective ways to establish a significant, long-term funding source for your nonprofit. Ideally, major donors and nonprofits enjoy a long, mutually-beneficial relationship where the donor uses their resources to make big things happen at an organization they cherish. But how do you begin to build this strategy? How do you discover the giving potential of those in your community? Below are three top tools to help complete donor prospect research.

Corporations and businesses continue to adopt philanthropic strategies as consumers attempt to make more ethical purchasing choices. This makes corporate sponsorships a wonderful major gift partnership between businesses near you and your nonprofit. Whether your organization resides near some corporate headquarters in a major city or a rural area with family-owned businesses, corporate sponsorships can provide a helpful fundraising boost and open up possibilities for mutually beneficial partnerships.

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.