Deep Dive: Planned Giving Cultivation
When I was co-chair of my local AFP chapter’s Professional Development Committee, our most popular event was “The Art of the Ask”.
The Ask is the most emotion-inducing part of fundraising. It’s what makes your friend clam up at a dinner party when you mention your job saying “I could never do that.”
It gets seasoned pros excited - bringing in millions for programs their community needs.
And it’s largely what fundraisers are evaluated on - how much revenue did you raise?
Yet in fundraising, The Ask only makes up about 10% of our activities - the rest of the work is building relationships, trust, and inspiring donors with meaningful story telling.
The same goes for Planned Giving Fundraising.
Yet the “cultivation” stage of the Estate Giving Donor Cycle is usually the one charities skip - and it’s costing them millions in future revenue.
Usually when a charity first dips their toes into Planned Giving they:
Put check boxes on their donation reply-forms that ask donors if they would like information on gifts-in-wills, or to inform them of an existing gift.
Launch a campaign for their donors to write their Wills for free (online or through a network of lawyers).
Host an estate planning webinar with a financial advisor.
But all of these are The Ask. They skip cultivation.
It’s either straight-up asking for the gift, or talking with donors about how to make the gift.
There’s nothing to inspire the donor to leave a transformational estate gift. If a donor isn’t already thinking about leaving your charity a gift-in-Will, they won’t be more inclined to do so after the above tactics.
Here’s the thing - you have the power to influence your donors.
You have the power to inspire them to leave a gift in their Will, when they wouldn’t have done so on their own.
It’s about motivating donors to give and aligning their goals with your organization. (The same way you would with annual giving or major gifts.)
The difference is in Planned Giving, the timeline is much longer. While a major gift may take 12-18 months to be realized, a gift-in-will may require years of cultivation before a donor makes a commitment.
It’s the long game - an effective one. One that will bring you a steady stream of 5+ figure gifts if you do it well.
There’s also a key difference between how you inspire a planned gift compared to an annual one.
Instead of focusing on your current programs, you need to focus on your values and future. Create a solid Planned Giving Case for Support, then share it throughout all your communication channels. Your audience should be warm to Planned Giving and inspired by your marketing of these gifts before you make the ask.
This is part 2 of a 4-part series diving into the new Estate Gifts Donor Cycle model - a training tool developed by Tess Conrad, CFRE for understanding gifts-in-wills best practices. Sign up for our newsletter below to ensure you get the next 2 deep dives!
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