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Help, I’m a Newbie

Or, "We need [more] planned gifts! Where do we start?"

Small and new non-profits don’t like to see their supporters setting up planned gifts with other organizations. But when it comes to setting up their own planned giving programs, the task can seem daunting.

First, as a newbie, understand that planned giving is not fundraising, it's marketing.

With the importance of endowment and the gifts that build it, every non-profit must make planned giving marketing a priorirty. A top priority.

• First, whether you know it or not, you’re already in the planned giving business.
• Second, your prospects know more about planned giving basics than you think they do. They read financial advice columns; they receive handsomely produced brochures from brokers and financial planners; planned giving newsletters from other charities arrive weekly.What does this mean for newbies? You don’t have to learn all the intricate details of every gift plan before you can start promoting planned gifts. And, don’t bore your new prospects with dry recitations of the features of gift plans – they’ve already heard them.
• Third, start with the gifts that are easier to handle – bequests, life insurance and gifts of appreciated property. (No need to gear up for non-grantor lead annuity trusts right away!)
• And fourth, let your prospects know that you’re open for business. Planned gifts that you close today will typically mature within the next 6 to 9 years – and that means that every day you delay now, means another day of weak endowment for your organization ten years from now.

Even an unattended program raises gifts.

As we said, you’re already in the planned giving business. If you’ve searched your files, you have probably found that a few supporters, unsolicited, have already included your institution in their estate planning. That means that even though your organization left planned giving marketing completely unattended, some determined donors have still made gifts to you.

Why did they do it? Not because they wanted to avoid income-in-respect-of-a-decedent problems on retirement plan distributions. They made their gifts, unsolicited, because they admired the work your organization is doing and believed that you would continue doing good after they were gone. You can harness the power of this belief in, and affect in for, your organization with mission-driven marketing.

How to lose.

If you focus on the features of a gift plan – its mechanical details – you will be competing head-on with financial services giants and larger charities. But mission-driven marketing engages your organization’s unique relationship with your prospects and personalizes your solicitation: “Building our endowment will enable us to advance the goals that we share, far into the future.You will be making a difference long after your gift is received.”

Don’t speak generically about how planned gifts work.Speak specifically about your organization’s programs and goals, and how the benefits of a gift plan gift can make it possible for a prospect to support those goals in the way he has always dreamed of.

Motivated?

Here are some specific steps to get a new program moving:

1. Develop a planned giving website and make sure it is easy to link to. We can help.
2. Write a letter to your prospects stating that you will be promoting endowment, and will be offering creative gift plans to help make endowment-level giving feasible. (download sample letter)
3. Develop a display ad (talking about the whys of endowment and gift planning rather than the hows) and place it in whatever publication your organization mails its supporters. (download sample ad)
4. Identify the donors who have already included your organization in their estate plans (if any), profile them on your web pages, and use them as the basis for a recognition society. (See sample donor stories on these websites.)
5. Consider professionally screening the database containing all your donors to “dig-out” your top planned giving prospects. Our PGFinder developed by The Planned Giving Company does just that.
6. Develop a series of  planned giving postcards and market on a steady basis (some organizations use newsletters, which we do not recommend).
7. Market steadily – easy-to-read pieces sent consistently make more of an impact than a flashy brochure followed by six months of silence. But do not overdo!
8. Get some facts on planned giving marketing. This 7 minute presentation is a must read.

If you work in a more top-down organization, lay the groundwork with a personalized letter from your president or board chair explaining the importance of endowment , and announcing that your organization is about to make building the endowment a fundraising priority.

VirtualGiving can help you with all of the above. Contact us today.