“Dad, you are sitting on Apple stock. Why don’t you donate some, avoid capital gains tax, get a deduction, and receive guaranteed income for life—some of it tax-free?”
“Is that legal?” he asked.
My dad was one of those so called “sophisticated” donors many nonprofits claim they have. He did his fellowship at Johns Hopkins and Surgery for over 40 years at Thomas Jefferson Hospital here in Philadelphia. Yet after 30 years of receiving Gift Annuity messaging from several nonprofits he supported, he never “got it”.
Now he “got it”. Why? Because I ditched the legal jargon and talked in a normal language. I oversimplified. I’ll never understand why some nonprofits, vendors and consultants have attorneys write their copy. Their “marketing” pieces come out sounding like a legal dictionary. There is a huge difference between attorneys and marketers. It’s like comparing architects to dentists.
Our new Gift Annuity Campaign not only gets your prospects’ attention. It also makes your job easier. It is a great marketing tool to expand your reach to donors who love the idea of receiving a “guaranteed paycheck” for life.
My dad is gone, but his words “Is that legal?” still resonate in my head and put a smile on my face. And yes, that is me in the picture above, circa 1957.
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Read more about our Gift Annuity Campaign.
