Deep Dive: Planned Giving Stewardship
I once worked with a charity who had over 300 “expectancy” donors. (I.e. Donors who have informed them of a gift in their Will.)
They had a solid Planned Giving program in place for years. In fact, they had a steady stream of estate revenue they budgeted for every year.
But I discovered a ticking bomb – one-third of these future estate gifts might be lost.
That’s 100 gifts. With an average gift-in-will of $50,000, that’s $5 million in future revenue down the drain.
Why?
One third of the portfolio weren’t stewarded for their Planned Gift.
Several years ago, they moved their Planned Giving stewardship to only be through email.
Yet 100 of these donors did NOT have an email address on file. They only gave through direct mail.
That means if they stop giving an annual gift, within 2 years they wouldn’t receive any communication from the charity (except the occasional “lapsed donor appeal”) - despite having a 5 or 6 figure gift commitment in their Will. 😲
This past April I attended the CAGP (Canadian Association of Gift Planners) conference. Dr. Russel James was a keynote speaker and discussed an alarming trend – an increasing number of donors are removing or replacing charities in their final Will (typically written in their 70s).
This happens because when they stopped giving their annual gifts (which is common in later life stages) the charity stopped communicating with them. They didn’t feel valued. Their relationship was cut off.
And this is why the final part of our “Estate Giving Donor Cycle” is arguably the most important – stewardship and lifelong relationships. You could have the best cultivation and acquisition in the world but lose your gifts if you don’t have effective stewardship.
The best Planned Giving stewardship happens across multiple channels – email, mail, and yes, even phone and small events. Otherwise you could miss donors who opt out of any one communication channel - like the charity I worked with.
And you must have systems in place to ensure this stewardship happens regardless of their last year of giving.
Personally, this is my favourite part of Planned Giving. Most fundraising forces you ruthlessly prioritize donors based on what they gave last year, and what they could give in the next year or two. Yet Planned Giving shifts the focus to a lifetime relationship – and a lifetime value. That’s why Planned Giving donors will increase their annual gifts by an average of 77% once they leave a gift to a charity in their Will!
This is part 4 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.
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