Planned Giving Marketing

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. Below are some steps that may help.

First, understand that you do need reliable data, and it is easy to end up with misleading data.

“How?” you ask. Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on September 10th, 2007

Have you ever asked yourself: Who Are We? (All us fundraisers, that is) …

<<< … and that includes you … >>>

We’re embarking on a survey… with questions that have never been asked before… a survey to discover Who We Are.

We don’t just want to know how many bequests you close, what your operating budget is, or how many people work in your shop. We want to know your personal likes, dislikes, ethics and opinions; whether you prefer beer or wine; if you vote Red State or Blue State; and just how far you’re willing to go to close a gift.

For those of you who are a little sensitive, relax. The survey is completely confidential. Even we won’t know who the respondents are. And looking at some of the responses we’ve received so far, we’re glad we don’t.

Take the survey now.

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on August 25th, 2007

Keep your planned giving correspondence and marketing materials simple. Prospects won’t respond if they do not understand what you’re telling them. And if you are a lawyer, please read this paragraph twice.

Here are two simple statements that get your point across:

1. You don’t have to be wealthy to make a significant gift.
2. You can make a gift that costs you nothing during your lifetime.

Simple? Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on July 25th, 2007

Most of us in planned giving started out doing something else. We were volunteers, annual giving officers, ministers, financial planners, insurance brokers, teachers. Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on July 18th, 2007

What fundraiser has not faced a boss who:

1. doesn’t understand how planned gifts work,
2. doesn’t want to learn, and
3. thinks that planned gifts are an “easy out” for donors who should have made an outright gift?

Sorry, but that boss is not going to smack his forehead one afternoon and exclaim spontaneously, “Where have unitrusts been all my life?”� Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on July 13th, 2007

Did you know that most companies base 80% of their hiring decision on technical skills, yet 85% of turnover is due to behavioral incompatibility?� Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on June 26th, 2007

We hear it all too frequently; “I don’t want to mail my prospects too often because
I may annoy them.” If you are that sensitive, Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on June 17th, 2007

Not at all… because your planned giving website is not Time Magazine and your prospects will not re-visit your planned giving pages for the “exciting planned giving news” of the day. Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on June 6th, 2007

If you’re not sure, maybe it’s time to forget Conventional Marketing Wisdom (CMW) and start thinking strategically.

When you market planned gifts, you are trying to persuade people to do something that most of them don’t even want to think about – permanently transfer assets away from their control and that of their families. Even your simplest promotion (“Remember us in your will”) bogs them down in thoughts of mortality. Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on May 28th, 2007

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. Read more »

Category: Planned Giving Marketing on May 25th, 2007