Planned Giving Marketing

In planned giving marketing, it’s virtually impossible to guess direct mail response rates unless you’ve had a control group you’ve been experimenting with for years.

Your organization helps teenagers with substance abuse. One of your board members announces he’s received a large inheritance from his grandfather and is going to donate $250,000 in his grandfather’s name. The local paper discovers granddad made his money from the sale and distribution of alcohol.

Using spam for planned giving marketing? Think again.

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.

  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

We don’t offer planned giving newsletters—and after 25+ years, we still get asked why. Here’s the short answer: they’re cost prohibitive, canned content kills credibility, and there’s a smarter way to reach your donors. Your planned giving newsletter probably gets a 1% readership rate. Not response rate—readership.

Some vendors advocate sending out “weekly generic emails” to prospects and financial advisers. “Stay in their face,” they say..