What’s the ROI of Planned Giving?

TLDR: an investment in Planned Giving made consistently over time could get you a return in the hundreds - if not thousands (400x or more). This article contains examples to show you how it’s possible: 

We HAVE to talk about how St. Jude’s raised $4.5 Billion in bequests over the past 10 years. (Yes, capital B Billion)

That’s $450 Million per year for 10 years.

I don’t know anyone who has worked at St. Jude’s, so all I have to go off of is their article published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy - but it reveals a lot, and there are lessons here for smaller nonprofits.

First, they talk about how Planned Giving intersects with all forms of fundraising and marketing. Donors who leave gifts in Wills deeply trust their charities of choice and believe their gift will make an impact. That’s influenced by every message your charity puts out there and every interaction a donor has with you. 

Investing in marketing, annual giving, major gifts, and even your front desk receptionist will improve your bottom line today AND it will grow your future revenue.

The second lesson is the investment in Planned Giving itself, and there’s a remarkable case study in ROI here that could apply to your charity, even if you’re significantly smaller.

To illustrate this, I’ll get into some numbers (don’t worry - I’ll do all the math for you!)

St. Jude’s mentioned in the above article that they have a 30-person Planned Giving team. Let’s theorize they have an average salary & benefits of $100,000 each. 

That’s $3 Million in staffing costs per year, or $30 Million over this 10 year period.

Now, let’s guess that they have an additional $250,000 per year in Planned Giving expenses. That’s $2.5 Million over this 10 year period.

So the theoretical investment is $32.5 Million over this 10 year period when they received $4.5 Billion. 

But these numbers don’t tell the whole story because Planned Giving takes years of consistent investment to pay off. Let’s say the $4.5 Billion in bequests took 30 years of this level of investment to come to fruition.

That’s $3 million in staffing and $250,000 in agencies every year for 30 years. That totals $97.5 Million.

Spending $97.5 Million to raise $4.5 Billion is a 4,515% ROI!

Now, let’s say my guesses are wildly under-estimating their investment in Planned Giving and they actually spent double. So that could be $195 million to raise $4.5 Billion this past decade.

That’s still a 2,257.5% ROI!

These numbers seem absurd but the lesson still applies to your charity.

Let’s say your a medium-sized charity and you invest $60,000 a year in Planned Giving for 10 years - that’s $600,000

We’ll assume your ROI will be smaller because you don’t have the same resources and momentum that a large household-name charity like St. Jude’s has. 

Let’s take my conservative guess of St.Jude’s 2,257% ROI and assume you can achieve one-fifth of their success. That’s still a 451% ROI. 

That means your $60,000 a year for 10 years ($600,000) could translate to $2,706,000. (And that’s based on my conservative estimates). 

$2.7 Million is a big number, but average estate gifts are $50,000. $2.7 Million is only 54 gifts. 

These results are typical. A medium-sized charity I worked with had a Planned Giving fundraising program for 15 years, typically spending $60,000 - $100,000/ year on it - and by the time I joined they were consistently receiving $500,000 - $750,000 every single year from estates.

You don’t get ROI that’s higher than this - not even in major gifts. 

No fundraiser or consultant should ever guarantee you results. Nothing is guaranteed in fundraising - your success depends on where you start and what you put into it. But effective Planned Giving within an active donor base is the closest thing you can get to guaranteed high returns. 

So, if you’re putting Planned Giving off - let this be your sign. Invest in it now to grow your nonprofit and build financial stability for your future.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with St. Jude’s, nor knowledge of their fundraising budget. This article contains guesses and hypothesized case studies inferred from the article published in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, linked above. With regards to St. Jude’s fundraising expenditures, this article should not be considered factual.

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