Planned Giving: 4 Tips for Launching Your New Program
From passive fundraisers to recurring gifts, utilizing varied sources of revenue provides your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy with needed stability. In the event that one revenue stream falls short, another may be able to make up for it.
One important but often overlooked revenue source is planned giving. While it might be a delicate topic, your nonprofit’s planned giving program can bring in reliable fundraising to fuel programs for years to come. Of course, to get your program running, you will need to learn how to gracefully broach the topic with your supporters and educate them on how and why they should enroll in your program.
To help your nonprofit launch its new planned giving program, this article will walk you through four essentials for getting started, including how to:
Conduct prospect research.
Create targeted marketing materials.
Cultivate relationships early.
Plan donor recognition strategies.
As you begin to outline your planned giving program, remember that it can be a time investment and you are unlikely to see immediate results. However, once your planned giving program does begin to attract interest, it can more than make up your return on investment with continual, reliable support.
1. Conduct prospect research.
Some of your supporters will be more inclined to enroll in your planned giving program than others, and the ones who are most interested might not be the donors you first suspected. This is why it’s necessary to collect data on your donors and conduct prospect research.
The more you know about your donors, the better you’ll be able to align your marketing efforts with their interests. Prospect research can help you uncover several key factors about your donors that are directly related to their capacity and affinity to enrolling in a planned giving program. These factors include:
Wealth indicators. Planned gifts tend to be large donations, meaning that your major donors who you already have a close relationship with can be strong prospective candidates. However, planned giving provides moderate donors with more flexibility, which means you should also reach out to and educate your moderate donors about the benefits of planned giving.
Demographic information. Most donors who enroll in a planned giving program will be middle-aged or older. While some of your supporters may express interest in a planned giving program earlier in life, donors who are older, have stable finances. They are already planning for the future, and are more likely to be open to conversations about planned giving.
History with your organization. Few donors will provide a planned gift to an organization they do not have a previous connection with. Enrolling in a planned giving program requires a high degree of trust on your donors' part as your nonprofit will be responsible for using their money in a way their family finds respectful. When reaching out to donors about planned giving, start with those you have a long-term relationship with, ideally lasting a decade or more.
As you gather this information about your donors, make note of it in your organization’s CRM. Furthermore, given that relationships with planned donors can often span decades, you will likely accumulate a lot of information over the course of their engagement which will need to remain consistently managed. Be mindful to effectively organize and update this data even as your nonprofit changes databases, onboards new hires, and generally grows as an organization.
2. Create targeted marketing materials.
Like any other fundraising initiative at your nonprofit, you’ll need to create a dedicated marketing push behind your planned giving program to get it off the ground. For planned giving, specifically, these materials will need to be highly targeted to the appropriate audience and have an educational bent.
In NPOInfo’s charitable giving statistics report, it was noted that approximately 40% of donors who enrolled in a planned giving program first learned about it from a nonprofit. These reports also emphasized the importance of having conversations about planned giving with donors in their 50’s and 60’s, rather than targeting younger supporters who are unlikely to consider planned giving.
When designing your marketing materials for your planned giving program, be sure to include the following elements:
What planned giving is and how your program operates. As some donors may be unfamiliar with the concept of planned giving, be sure to explain how your program works and how it will make an impact on your organization’s mission.
The benefits of planned giving for donors. While the benefits of planned giving to your nonprofit are obvious, donors can also benefit from joining a planned giving program. In your marketing materials, emphasize your donors’ ability to cement their legacy and create a lasting difference for a cause they are passionate about.
How to enroll in your planned giving program. At the end of your marketing materials, you should provide next steps for interested donors. In general, these steps for enrolling will likely direct donors to more detailed information on your website, an enrollment form, or someone at your nonprofit they can talk to and get their specific questions answered.
If you’re having difficulties determining who your target audience for your planned giving program should be, consider bringing in a consultant experienced in fundraising and prospect research. The right consultant will be knowledgeable about key signs to look for in donors and how to first approach them with the topic of planned giving.
3. Cultivate relationships early.
Planned donors need to be invested in your nonprofit before they’ll consider making a gift. This means your nonprofit will need to make a long-term investment in prospective planned donors to maintain a strong connection for years to come.
Planned giving is often a donation option used by donors of more moderate means as it allows them to make large donations without taking on a significant financial burden. This means that unexpected donors might become interested in your planned giving program, making it worthwhile to forge strong relationships with all of your recurring donors. You can do this by:
Offering multiple ways to get involved. Supporters who have a strong relationship with your nonprofit will want to do more than just quietly make donations. Give them a variety of ways to get involved such as volunteer opportunities, advocacy campaigns, events to attend, and more. CharityEngine’s page on event management software recommends taking a “plan, run, care” approach to donor events. This means focusing on the donor experience throughout each step of your event, including a thorough follow-up process that encourages donors to return for your next event.
Saying thank you regularly. Let your donors know that their support is appreciated and meaningful by saying thank you on a regular basis. A strong thank-you message is personalized to each donor and discusses the impact of their gift. This can help your donors visualize how their gift is making a difference, which might influence their later decision to enroll in your planned giving program.
Discussing your planned giving program as appropriate. It’s a relatively well-known fact that there are times to ask donors for additional support and times to wait. For example, in a thank-you message for a donation, you would want to focus on appreciating the gift you just received instead of immediately asking for another one. For your planned giving program, take a similar approach to when you ask donors for additional contributions and even consider creating a unique donor mailing list in your CRM for your planned donors.
Your donor management software should help you navigate and stay organized as you track every step in each supporter’s donation journey. This will help you stay more organized and provide a streamlined way to make note of important interactions in your engagement.
4. Plan donor recognition strategies.
Recognizing and appreciating your donors is a fundamental part of planned giving for your donors, their families, and your prospective planned donors. While you should regularly thank all your supporters, planned donations often require a higher level of continued appreciation as you honor your donors’ legacies and show your other supporters your deep respect and gratitude for your planned donors.
There are many different ways that a nonprofit can show their appreciation for donors but some strategies are more appropriate for planned donors than others. For instance, while small gestures of appreciation such as thank-you cards and free branded merchandise is perfectly fine for your average donors, planned donors and their families will likely be expecting more permanent displays of appreciation.
For example, your nonprofit might consider creating a donor wall. Donor walls are created for a nonprofit’s top supporters such as major donors, capital campaign contributors, and planned donors. As a permanent structure, a donor wall can be a longstanding testament to your planned donors’ support that their friends and family can continue to visit for years.
When determining your donor appreciation strategy, be sure to include your planned donors in the conversation about how their gift will be recognized. This ensures that their contribution and legacy are properly honored the way they and their family most prefer.
Planned giving plays a vital role in many nonprofits’ sustainable fundraising strategies, while also providing a more flexible, inclusive fundraising option for some donors. Your planned giving program will require time as well as some investment in the proper donor management tools to help kick off supporter relationships the right way.
However, with patience and a strong initial push, your nonprofit can begin decades-long donor relationships that will bring your nonprofit value for years to come.
Philip Schmitz
Philip Schmitz is the CEO and founder of cloud-services leader BIS Global, creators of the CharityEngine fundraising & communications technology platform. Founded in 1999, Phil has managed the vision and strategy for BIS's suite of integrated business applications & hosting tools used by more than 400 businesses & non-profits.
