How To Stay in Your Donor’s Wills
Dr. Russell James’ research shows that most realized bequests to charities (i.e. bequests that actually land in your charity’s bank account) are made in the final years before death. Even more damning - by the 10 year mark, more than 30% of donors remove their gift-in-Will to charity.
Many fundraising leaders see this data and take a reactive approach to it. They say “well, that’s the way it is”, and ignore any donor who is younger than 75 when it comes to gifts-in-Wills.
Yet I - and many other legacy giving experts - have a different philosophy. In fact, I tell my clients that our ideal age range for legacy giving messages and conversations is about age 60-75. This is for two reasons:
The decision to leave a gift-in-Will takes years. We need runway.
Even though 30% of donors change their bequests after the 10 year mark, the majority of donors over age 75 typically have made their final Will and are unlikely to change it. People typically change their Wills due to major life events (i.e. a death in the family, buying a home, etc), and hardly ever go to a lawyer’s office simply to add a charity. Getting in the Will sooner is better - as long as you can stay there. Which brings me to our next points…
The real question here is why 30% of donors are removing bequests to charities after 10 years.
The default assumption I’ve heard from fundraisers is that these donors are upset with the charity in some way. But the reality Dr. Russel James has pointed out is that many of them simply forget.
If a donor is updating their Will with a new lawyer (even if it’s at the same office), that lawyer often won’t refer to the previous Will. They’ll simply give them the standard questionnaire to start from scratch. So if it slips your donor’s mind that they have a bequest for you, it will be forgotten. Not to mention not all lawyers ask their clients if they’d like to give to charity - it’s on your donor to bring it up.
Yet so many charities exacerbate this problem by removing legacy donors from communications lists out of fear of "bothering" them.
If a donor gets ghosted after they leave their gift, why would they continue to remember your organization?
Dr. Russel James’ data is true, and it’s bleak. But a lot of data on fundraising trends are bleak. We continue to barely surpass a ~50% retention rate, and the vast majority of nonprofits are under $1 million in revenue.
Many charities I work with far exceed industry standards, with 60-70% retention or higher. They have strong monthly giving programs and have shot past the $1 million mark years ago.
Not to mention:
Any stat about realized gifts-in-Wills is retroactive by nature - it only applies to a few years ago, at best. So, that means this past trend doesn’t have to continue - if we change our actions.
If many charities beat the industry standard of a ~50% donor retention rate, there are things you can do to beat the standard of 30% of donors removing charities from their Will.
The key to beating the 30% standard is stewardship - because truthfully, good Planned Giving stewardship isn’t the norm. Many charities focus heavily on getting “hand raisers” (i.e. the acquisition), then call to thank those who have left a gift in their Will and send them an annual report at best.
Effective Planned Giving stewardship means you’re regularly communicating with your “hand raiser” via touchpoints that are different and more personalized than what your annual giving list gets.
And this stewardship MUST be based on their pledge - not their annual giving. And you need systems and processes to maintain it even when there’s staff turnover.
This is why running a Planned Giving program is about so much more than marketing.
You need comprehensive strategies and processes to effectively run it. A pledge is only a pledge - it needs to be cultivated for decades to get the cash. A Planned Giving program is bigger than any one staff member or any one “campaign”.
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