Making Planned Giving Easier Tips

By Chuck Reynolds, A.B., M.A., CFRE

Welcome to this Tip Sheet to use if your organization is interested in making planned giving a reality. Often we underestimate our capacity to take incremental steps to begin the planned gift process. What research is telling us is that the planned giving area holds great promise for long term growth and yet, perhaps is the most underutilized opportunity for nonprofit organizations. Do not be concerned or stressed about the technicality of a planned gift. There are ways to address this area when the planned gift comes your way.

The 10 steps outlined below should enable your organization to engage the planned giving area. There are a number of ways and vehicles a donor can use to make a planned gift including gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, insurance and bequests as part of their philanthropic plans. Your priority, however, is cultivation and building a relationship with those committed to your mission.  

1. Encourage your donors to prepare a will and consider your organization in their planning — leaving a gift to your organization may be a suggestion welcomed by your donors.
2. Consider giving stocks and other assets in a charitable gift form — some donors would find this an attractive option.
3. Remember a loved one with a memorial gift — a beautiful way to keep a memory alive.
4. Create a program scholarship in the name of a loved one — paying tribute through a memorial gift designated to a service/program interest.
5. Encourage family, board members, friends, volunteers to include your organization in their will — put the reminder about a will in all your literature.
6. Purchase a life insurance policy naming your organization a beneficiary — there several ways to do it.
7. Give an existing life insurance policy to your organization.
8. Consider your organization as a beneficiary of their pension or IRA.
9. Explore charitable giving opportunities in their estate planning.
10. Create a volunteer professional advisory committee (opportunity for volunteer involvement) of your board to:
    1. address policy areas;
    2. assist in the marketing of planned gifts;
    3. handle the technical aspects including the appropriate instruments and vehicles.

There are some important prerequisites as you pursue planned gifts. You are engaged in a longer term process of cultivation and building a relationship established in trust with donors. There are donors able to make a commitment. Some of your volunteers may be open to a conversation involving a long term and lasting gift. Do not expect overnight success! You should assess your current giving and determine what gifts are at risk (loss through attrition) in the near future from such things as health and age. Talk to your donors with no surviving family members. Often the most difficult step to take is beginning the conversation.

Once you begin talking to potential planned giving donors it will become apparent when and if they are ready to be engaged. Involve both spouses in any decision making events. It takes time and patience.

Donors are interested in ways they can leave a lasting legacy and doing it during their lifetime is often important to them. You are helping them with decisions to make a lasting investment in the good works of your organization and be a partner in keeping your mission alive and well.

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Chuck Reynolds is a Senior Consulting Associate at CAPITAL VENTURE. He has over thirty yeas of fundraising experience with an estimated 45 million dollars to his credit. His most recent responsbility was the Director of Planned and Major Gifts at Marywood University. His career has included the United Way, Volunteers of America and mentor and a consultant to nonprofit organizations. Named " Outstanding Fundraising Executive of the Year” by the Pocono Northeast Chapter of AFP in 1992, Chuck successfully completed the Executive Management Program, Harvard University and the Kellogg Executive Program, Northeastern University.

Click here to read more about Chuck or to contact him.

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