My colleague, good friend, and client, Brent Hunter, Executive Director of Planned Giving for North Orange County Community College District, and I were scheduled to present a workshop on “Establishing a Planned Giving Program in a Small Shop” at the 2020 CASE Conference for Community College Advancement in Anaheim this October. But because of COVID, the conference was canceled. We nonetheless decided to go through with our presentation through this blog post and provide you with our presentation and more than 25 handouts that will surely get you started if you are willing to commit half a day to one day a week for the program. Download instructions are at the end of this post.
Any nonprofit, regardless of size or location, can and should have a planned giving component as part of its overall resource development program.
Let’s break this down a little bit. If you are a nonprofit, you should look at every possibility for raising funds in support of your mission. Planned giving is as equal to your special events, annual membership or fund drive, major gifts, or direct mail program in importance. All of these elements are merely tools in your toolbox. Your overall resource development effort should offer your donors multiple ways to support your mission. How they choose to support you is up to them. Thus, you want to offer choices that are appropriate for all points along their lifetime, from acquisition to annual support, to perhaps a major gift or capital campaign contribution, to a planned or ultimate gift.
Individual giving – 75-80% of all charitable gifts come from individuals. Planned Giving is the ultimate level of individual donor relationships. Only 7-8% of individuals leave something to nonprofits in their estate. Imagine if we moved the needle even one percent! It would make a tremendous difference to your organization.
Financial Stability – Planned gifts can come at any time and are usually the largest gifts individuals will make. If you fill the pipeline with expectancies, you will realize the potential of these types of gifts. And if you place bequests into your endowment, you will stabilize a source of financial security for your organization for many years to come. Donors like the flexibility and the stewardship that they receive, and they like the good feeling of knowing that they have created a legacy.
How many of you have a planned giving program currently? How many of you are looking to improve your existing program or start one?
So how do you get started? The first thing to recognize is that you can’t do it alone; you need to build a coalition of believers. Start with your boss and a key member of the board; these are the people who can make or break your program.
Once you have their buy-in, you need to develop your selling proposition or case for support. Why have a planned giving program? Then, finally, you need a business plan or strategy. That starts with your board.
We have sample policies and procedures, brochure copy, donor seminar materials, bequest and charitable gift annuity copy for marketing letters, and much more in our downloads as well as our session program “Successful Planned Giving in a Small Shop.”
We hope you enjoy our presentation and handouts as much as we did developing them. If you should have any questions or would like some assistance in setting up your programs, please give Brent or me a call. We look forward to hearing from you.
Good Luck
Ron Huddleston, FAHP, CFRE
President
TO REVIEW AND DOWNLOAD OUR WORKSHOP MATERIALS GO TO:
