CGA Rate Changes: To Promote, or Not to Promote?
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Suggested payment rates for charitable gift annuities will decline effective July 1st, 2008. Many fundraisers are viewing the drop as a marketing opportunity – a chance to prod their prospects into locking in current higher rates by making a gift now.
If you’ve been trying to get this message out to your prospects but haven’t had the time to compose and produce it on your own, we invite you to download one of our sample letters. There’s no charge and there’s no catch: We’re really committed to making your job more easy.
(Letter #1 is somewhat brisk; Letter #2 is softer-edged. Your prospects; your choice.)
But before you download…there’s some debate about whether the decline in CGA rates should be marketed at all. Some professionals whose opinions we respect offer three reasons not to mention it to your prospects:
- The rate differential is small, and the resulting drop in annual payments for most gift annuities in the $10,000 - $25,000 range will be about $100 or less. Work your prospects up with scare headlines, then tell them that unless they act today they stand to lose, umm, $75 in annual payments – and your sales pitch will underwhelm a lot of them.
- You may plant the idea in prospects’ minds that after July 1st, gift annuities will no longer be a worthwhile gift plan.
- You’ll get better results by focusing positively on gift annuities as the solution to current low rates of return and declining stock values.
We’re not taking a position either way – we leave that to your judgment. Clearly, if you’ve been soliciting an individual prospect for a gift annuity, use the impending decline in rates as the final push to close that gift. A broader-scale marketing effort? The decision is yours (and we’d like to hear about your results if you proceed).
Category: Planned Giving Marketing on April 19th, 2008