“People commonly use statistics like a drunk uses a lamp post; for support rather than illumination.” (Mark Twain)
“People commonly use statistics like a drunk uses a lamp post; for support rather than illumination.” (Mark Twain)
After a long and fruitful life, Age-Based Marketing is dead. Cause of death? The New Economy, youthful Baby Boomers and just plain old age. Once upon a time, Americans marched a predictable path: From high school to college to career to marriage to family to retirement and then the golf course in Florida. That’s all changed. Today, many 50- and 60-year-olds are launching businesses, reinventing their careers and some are even starting new families. It used to be we could market products and services based on the age of our target audience, but that strategy, like your Filofax, rotary phone and pager, is old school. It’s time to retire Age-Based Marketing from your planned giving program and promote a savvier, much more energetic strategy. It’s called … Segmentation. Segmentation and message-to-segment marketing is crucial in planned giving, the most personal type of giving. Smart segmentation involves sending a specific message
With the recent plunge in the value of investment portfolios, some chief financial officers and development professionals are wondering whether they should remain “in the business” of offering gift annuities to their donors.
Many development officers are wondering where to focus their efforts during these uncertain times. Whether times are good or bad, the answer may surprise you: It's planned giving.
People give when they are ready to give, not when you are ready to sell (i.e., "ask"). So, just because your lead is not ready to buy (donate) today, doesn't mean they aren't important. That's why we develop relationships.
Helping your donors meet the December 31 tax deadline means that you can plan on staying longer and doing more than just about everyone else — except for your office’s gifts processor. So plan a nice rest in January (Isn’t there a planned giving conference in the Caribbean, then? There should be...) and get ready for the year-end sprint.
“Response rates from newsletters are down! Attendance at my annual seminar is way off...” fundraisers tell us.
It’s my experience that your audience is the single most powerful and most important element in the mix. If your marketing campaign is to get results, whether you use direct mail, print pieces, or e-mail, you must first make certain that the right audience is getting your message. As I see it, finding the right audience determines 60 percent of the outcome.
In planned giving marketing, it's virtually impossible to guess direct mail response rates unless you've had a control group you've been experimenting with for years.
With improper messaging you'll become an unwelcome pest instead of a welcome guest in your donors' mind.
Your organization helps teenagers with substance abuse. One of your board members announces he’s received a large inheritance from his grandfather and is going to donate $250,000 in his grandfather’s name. The local paper discovers granddad made his money from the sale and distribution of alcohol.
Using spam for planned giving marketing? Think again.
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. This post explains why and how.
You Don’t Need to be a Lawyer to Succeed in Planned Giving Most of us in planned giving started out doing something else. We were volunteers, annual giving officers, ministers, financial planners, insurance brokers, teachers. And some of us (including one of the authors) were — yes — lawyers. Initially, we faced an unintelligible jumble of arcane terminology and obscure tax regulations (Contingent bequests? Four tiers? Interpolated terminal reserve? You value a racehorse’s stud services how?) We never imagined that planned giving would eventually be simplified. Eventually, we became proficient at this second language. We could hold our own at the lunches of the local planned giving council. We ventured our first posting on Gift-PL. And then came The Disconnect … We forgot how boring planned giving is to most civilians. We began telling donors every Postal Service detail regarding placing securities and stock powers in the mail. We
Did you know that most companies base 80% of their hiring decision on technical skills, yet 85% of turnover is due to behavioral incompatibility?
Marketing noise: every day the average prospect is inundated with over 3000 marketing messages. In a large city, it’s over 5000. A battle is being fought for the eyes and ears of the world, and in most cases the enemy is an overstuffed mailbox.
Some vendors advocate sending out "weekly generic emails" to prospects and financial advisers. "Stay in their face," they say..
Most in philanthropy are not that tech-savvy. And if one does not understand the basics, it's much too easy to go down a misguided path by taking advice from someone not as much interested in his or her institution's long-term interest.
A few weeks ago, I was approached by a charity with a donor who, at the end of 2021, had just retired from farming. That means he has a harvested grain crop in the bin, which has yet to be sold to produce taxable income. But because he is no longer farming, he will not receive tax deductions this year for expenses such as seed, fertilizer, and fuel. As a result, he will have a pile of taxable Ordinary Income to report for tax purposes when he sells the grain, with no offsetting deductions. He really doesn’t need the income this year because he sold some machinery. He would like to spread the grain profits out over his lifetime for tax and cash flow purposes. I offered to help him set up a CGA funded with 45,000 bushels of corn. At a market price of about $6 per bushel for
Successful people never “find” themselves; they create themselves by tapping into their potential. Everything in life exists in potential, and those who recognize its power achieve more than those who ignore their influence over events. You always have a choice: be intimidated or inspired, let obstacles stop you or use them as setups for a comeback. The key to success is not about finding yourself but about continuously creating and refining who you are through mindset, effort, and action.
Making Estate Planning Accessible, Simple, Personal, Secure and FREE!
Bequests are up, cash is down. Empower your donors to plan their will and invest their legacy in the cause they support the most.
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