CATEGORY
Strategies and best practices for communicating planned giving effectively. Covers messaging, content development, digital presence, donor education, and positioning planned giving as a core component of fundraising strategy.
A direct mail campaign that’s not so vanilla. Only in the for-profit world. Would you have had the stomach for it?
A donor can donate a house, get a deduction, live there for life, and receive an annuity from the donation for life. Hmm … does not sound right.
I am amused when a client hires us and then tells us what to do. My favorite inquiry is, “We’d like to send out a planned giving postcard and see if something will happen.”
Remember when news broke that Tiger Woods was cheating — not at golf, but on his wife? The media jumped all over the story.
Are you nurturing your donors? One way to do it is by asking them to tell their story. People like to talk about themselves. It’s natural.
Too busy? Or are you placing Planned Giving on the back burner, again? So many fundraisers make excuses, claiming they’ve placed planned giving on the back-burner because of tight budgets, smaller staffs and not enough time. Bull. There’s an underlying reason that none of us wants to acknowledge: Four years ago we asked fundraisers whether they believed planned giving is “where the money’s at.” A whopping 74% in the survey answered “yes.” But on the very next question, “Where do
Most “experts” place the practice as having been birthed in the 1970s — or maybe as far back as the ’40s. So it’s safe to say the first planned gift must have been made sometime in those decades. Right?
Annual giving tends to focus on immediate needs. Planned giving is more focused on long-term growth. Although we need both, focusing on long-term growth creates stability.
What’s the most popular food served at conferences? You guessed it. Chicken. What’s the most popular flavor of ice cream? If you said “vanilla,” kudos again. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with chicken or vanilla. Although I do like both, I’m more of a seafood and habanero lover (yes, there’s even a habanero ice cream — it’s pretty good actually). But here’s the thing: Both of those options sum up what’s wrong with the nonprofit world. We’re plain.
Random acts of kindness? Pfui. How about consistent acts of kindness. Same goes for marketing… and that’s why many nonprofits fail because a little bit of this and a little bit of that …
Free Online Will & Estate Planning Tool for Charitable Giving
A donor-facing estate planning tool designed to help document charitable intent.
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