Suggested payment rates for charitable gift annuities will decline effective January 1, 2012
Suggested payment rates for charitable gift annuities will decline effective January 1, 2012. 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 (download at the end of this post). There’s no charge and there’s no catch: We’re 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 ACGA is reducing the rates to protect charities against risk. If a charity closes a large number of gift annuities between now and year-end, those gift annuities have a high risk of running dry or leaving less for the charity than the donor intends. Since your donors want to see you succeed, this may not be donor-centered or in your charity’s own best interest.
- By suggesting that your prospects need to act right away, you also plant the idea in prospects’ minds that after December 31, 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 in support of your mission.
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. If you have existing gift annuitants who frequently set up new gift annuities, you will also want to notify them of the change. A broader-scale marketing effort? The decision is yours (and we’d like to hear about your results if you proceed).
See how our friend Jack Miller customized the above two letters and took a more aggressive approach. You can download his version here.
Write a Reply