Planned Giving Marketing

Did you know that more than 90% of planned gifts are beneficiary designations? And by simply promoting beneficiary designations to your prospects, your organization will see its endowment grow by leaps and bounds. [Here’s a handy Beneficiary Designations Gift Planning Toolkit you can use.] Why? What makes this particular planned gift so attractive? It’s the simplicity. Giving a beneficiary designation is literally as easy as filling out a form. The form names the individuals and charities you want to support,

Testimonials by satisfied donors, or by recipients of your organization’s services, automatically carry more credibility than anything you could say about yourself. They are an important part of your planned giving marketing message because they tell a potential donor what you can’t.

With 30+ years of planned giving successes in my history, I’m now considered a thought leader in the industry. That’s because I learned one crucial lesson: Planned giving is about people. Focus on the people and the rest is easy.

If your administration does not realize the importance of planned giving, your job is to explain it to them. The money is there — and it shows up when people understand the need. Would you ever tell your heart surgeon that his fee is not in your budget?

What’s your biggest planned giving marketing challenge? Here’s what 12 philanthropy professionals from 11 different parts of the country had to say about theirs.

Says the panicked board member… until you show him a better way to lower risk.  Has this ever happened to you? A board member or finance officer who is unfamiliar with gift annuities sees a big liability on the books and panics. “Why are we doing this?” they ask. Their concern is understandable. A charity normally pays a donor around 40-60 percent of the original gift in interest. For someone who isn’t familiar with gift annuities, that seems like a very bad way to raise money. Unfortunately,