Are you missing out on big Planned Gifts?

Let me tell you a story of a fundraiser who lost multiple opportunities to gain large estate gifts.

This is a fundraiser who’s great at creating campaigns that convert. 

She uses tactics that drive immediate results.

Then her boss said, “could you do planned giving as well?”

Being a high-achiever, she said “sure!” and dove in head-first.

In annual campaigns, the goal is to get donations, so she thought about the result she wanted from planned giving:

The donor writes the charity into their Will! 

“Alright!” she thought to herself, “let’s get these gifts!”

She immediately started focusing on the “how” of planned giving. She brought in a lawyer to speak on how to write a Will. She filled a Planned Giving website with technical details of estate gifts.

Someone told her surveys result in bequest confirmations, so she added “would you leave a gift in your Will?” to her yearly supporter survey. 

The survey revealed several donors who already left gifts – yay! 

She sent an estate planning guide to those who said they were interested.

Her efforts are deemed a success – but she doesn’t know she’s leaving many 5 and 6-figure gifts on the table.

A donor won’t leave a gift in their Will to your charity because they attend an estate planning webinar.

They will leave a gift because they’re inspired and deeply connected to your cause. 

By focusing on the “how” of Planned Gifts and not cultivating her audience, this fundraiser lost countless donors who might have left a gift.

In annual giving – and even major gifts – we’re focused on getting donations within the next year or two. But in legacy giving, your timeline is over decades.

When you apply the short-term thinking of annual and major gift fundraising to planned giving you will miss opportunities. (And yes, even major gift fundraising is short-term by Planned Giving standards.)

So how do you avoid these mistakes and run an effective planned giving program?

1. Take a deep breath and leave behind the need to see immediate results. Accept you’ll be building relationships for decades.

   Remember: in planned giving, it doesn’t make a difference if a donor leaves a gift in their Will to your charity tomorrow or in 5 years – you’re getting the money at the same time.
   
   By focusing on the long-game and building the relationship, the gift will be much larger than if you rush it.
   

2. Develop an understanding of Planned Giving and how it differs from other forms of fundraising (or enlist the help of an expert if you don’t have time!)
   

3. Make sure you have a Planned Giving case for support that guides how you talk about gifts-in-wills across all your channels. (I’ll write more on this later - stay tuned!)

Confession time: This story isn’t about any one particular fundraiser, but rather a common situation I see all the time. It breaks my heart because you don’t know what you don’t know. 

Fundraisers are already stretched so thin. If they’re dedicating time to Planned Giving, I want them to do it in the most effective way! That’s why I do what I do - for a sustainable future for nonprofits with effective Planned Giving Fundraising!

By Tess Conrad, CFRE
Founder & Principal Consultant
Full Potential Fundraising

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