Top 8 Features of a Planned Giving Website

Simple. Non-Technical. Less is More.

If you want your planned giving website to do more than just take up space – if you want it to actually communicate with your prospects and motivate them to plan a gift – here are the features to look for, and the ones to avoid:

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The Planned Giving Council That Lost Its Mind

I get around. My latest encounter was with the South Carolina Planned Giving Council and I think I caught something… Read more »

Find Your Audience, Then Find Your Money

This is a great article originally published in Planned Giving Tomorrow.

The 40-40-20 Rule

An old secret in direct marketing was, “Never, ever forget the 40-40-20 rule!”  The Rule dictated that: Read more »

Cocktail Party Test

Fundraisers can make “civilians” a little nervous when they’re around (see Dan Rice’s article in the Spring 2008 issue of Planned Giving Tomorrow). What comments do you get when you tell folks what you do for a living? “Ugh, I could never ask strangers for money!” “Well, I hope you didn’t bring your begging bowl with you tonight – this is a friendly party.” Read more »

Prospects are telling me that they can’t make a bequest because they’ve already written their will. What response can I give them?

Suggest a codicil, a document that adds a bequest to your organization, then confirms all other provisions of the existing will.

It’s simple and inexpensive to prepare.

First class mail or pre-sorted “bulk”?

In this discussion we must assume that the mailing is not going out late and does not have a deadline for response. In this case use First Class or do not mail at all. Read more »

Why are my planned giving newsletters getting less response?

Marketing noise: every day the average prospect is inundated with over 2500 marketing messages. In a large city, it’s over 3700. A battle is being fought for the eyes and ears of the world, and in most cases the enemy is an overstuffed mailbox. Not only is your mail competing with the Legacy Newsletter of the hospital next door, but your prospects’ mailboxes are full of so much junk that it levels the playing field. Read more »

We need the money now. Why should I pursue planned gifts?

The average time from inception to maturity for a planned gift is 7-10 years — only a few years longer than most campaign pledge periods.

Do the math yourself: Read more »

My planned giving website is getting old and boring.

According to whom?

Marketing guru Dan Kennedy says, “A funny thing usually happens in the advertising business - a client will cancel or change an ad campaign that’s working perfectly well just because they got bored with it and assumed everybody else was, too. That’s a bad assumption. Read more »

They’ve Done It Again

A while back we wondered whether fundraisers really received much benefit from the much-hyped IRA Rollover.

A lot of sales materials were sent urging non-profits to get in on the coming bonanza in gifts; vendors sold seminars explaining the rollover and marketing pieces promoting it. But our survey data found that the actual number of new gifts inspired by the rollover opportunity – gifts that non-profits wouldn’t have received in another format if rollovers weren’t available – was modest at best.

It’s a few months later and we’re looking at another example of marketing hype and get-on-the-bandwagon optimism.
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