Old-School Communication
While technology can help us be efficient, it is constantly pulling us away from real human interactions.
Would You Like to Join the Top 1%?
The most successful charities (only 1% of all nonprofits) know that the road to success is paved with planned gifts.
2024: Year-End Deadlines for Charitable Giving
If you’re making a charitable donation to your favorite nonprofit, make sure you’re eligible for an income tax deduction for the current year by meeting these important dates. Some other criteria apply, too.
Luxury Motor Coach Donation
Owners of luxury motor coaches and RVs, such as Marathon Coaches and other high-end brands, can have the best of both worlds: a vacation with all the comforts of home, and an opportunity to shape their philanthropic legacy that also provides a current charitable tax deduction.
Stop! No, Wait! No, Go!
Several times a year, I hear from clients who have questions about other vendors’ latest products. Usually, those questions go something like this: “Did you see the new Widget that Company B is offering? It practically guarantees donors will be knocking down our door. My boss wants us to buy it. Why don’t you offer it, too?” The Widget never turns out to be anything ground-breaking. It’s usually just a slightly new spin on an old tool. It’s a “new” calculator that lets donors estimate annuity payments and tax breaks. Or it’s an app that lets someone make monthly annual gifts from their smartphone. It might be a “new” eblast template, or even an online will maker. The truth is, there’s really nothing new that’s going to make your planned giving program an overnight success. There are no new products or services that are going to have donors breaking down your door to help. No new “get rich quick” techniques to build your endowment. What does work is what’s always worked: patience, persistence, and people skills.
Deb “Got It”
The nonprofit world needs more Debs—people who say it like it is, who recognize planned giving is for average ordinary people, who aren’t afraid to say the hard things when they need to be said.
Goldfish & Videos
Did you know that people now have shorter attention spans than… goldfish? As wild as that sounds, there was a study by Microsoft suggesting just that. Whether it’s true or not, one thing is clear: human attention spans are short. This creates a big challenge for anyone trying to build an online presence for their giving programs.
Nothing New Under the Sun
A client told me recently that we should be publishing more about what’s NEW in planned giving. Seems reasonable, right? Everyone likes new stuff. We all want to know the trends, be on the cutting-edge, sound knowledgeable at professional events.
Storytelling is Old. You Need Storyselling.
Storytelling is your nonprofit’s most powerful marketing tool. But everyone else is using it, too. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need storyselling—a strategic form of storytelling designed to motivate your donors and prospects to action.
Forget What You’ve Heard About Planned Giving
Forget what you’ve heard about planned giving. Just do the math. Baby Boomers, who are among the wealthiest and most charitable Americans, are dying at a rate of about 6,000 per day. And unless your nonprofit has a planned giving program, that means about $6 billion in estate dollars is being lost every day. Unless you’re planning to fail, it’s time to reprioritize that marketing budget. By the way, we also “explain” what’s a billion. It’s an eye-opener.
