CharityVillage® Research: Ten steps to a successful planned giving program

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Ten steps to a successful planned giving program - A basic strategic plan
By Leslie Howard, founder of Planforgifts.com
September 24, 2007

Why does your organization need a strategic plan?
A well designed planned giving program should be set up in such a way that every aspect of the program is integrated to promote donor education, commitment, connectedness and volunteerism. If all these areas are addressed, strong relationships between the organization (its staff and volunteers) and donors will develop and future gifts through planned giving will be the result.
A planned giving strategic plan should blend seamlessly with your overall organizational strategic plan so that there is no conflict with established policies and procedures and all fundraisers are working in tandem.
The ten steps
1. Get started with the simple and the obvious. Educate all staff (especially the front lines) to be on the lookout for signs that a donor may fit the demographic of a legacy donor. Staff should scrutinize direct mail response pieces and donation cheques as well as telephone calls and meetings with donors. The indicators that can help to identify a potential ideal legacy donor include:

A shaky signature on a cheque or handwriting on a note
The use of the title “Miss”
A cheque that is issued on a private banking or VIP special account
A cheque that shows a home address in an affluent postal code
Conversations where donors self-identify as:

widowed/single
childless
“snowbirds”
small business owners
multiple property owners
connected and committed to your organization
2. Write policies that are simply a list of dos and don’ts that your organization (staff and volunteers) will adhere to. Written policies need to be in place at the beginning to guide and govern the actions of those who come after us. Ultimately these policies are in place to act as guidelines for accepted protocol and to prevent future harm to the organization from the unintentional but imprudent actions of staff, board members and other volunteers. The policies include standard will clauses, gift acceptance policies, a code of ethics, investment policies, and endowment policies.
3. Develop a tracking system that is an effective system for recording all paper, e-mail and telephone interaction (and hopefully personal visits) with donors and professional advisors. This will allow your organization to carry on meaningful relationships with these people over the long term and to withstand critical staff changes. One of the most important long term assets a charity has is its knowledge and understanding of its donor base. In both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, the success of the organization comes down to the relationships it builds between the organization (staff) and donors/clients.
4. Measurement criteria needs to be established early on. Unlike cash donations that are easy to determine with an annual calculation, planned gifts are usually made now but realized in the future. It is important for the board and staff to have an accurate measurement of how the planned giving program is proceeding in the absence of hard dollars in the door by fiscal year end. Measuring activity that will lead to future planned giving successes is an important yardstick early on.
5. Mine your database by taking advantage of the segmenting work that other charities have done with respect to determining which donors are most likely to become gift planning prospects and eventually confirmed bequest donors. Other charities have discovered through experience, donor focus groups and surveys, that a certain definable demographic make up the donors that are inclined to make a charitable gift through their will. By focusing on this demographic, any organization can use its limited resources to effectively work with those donors most likely to have the ability and the desire to make planned gifts. Generally speaking, ideal planned giving donors are:

Elderly (preferably at least age 70+, ideally age 80+)
Single, widowed, divorced
Wealthy (or have capacity to give)
Homeowners
Connected and committed to your organization
6. Recognition is very important and often underrated. For small organizations, however, recognition must be kept simple so as to not become too onerous for staff. The planned giving recognition policy must blend seamlessly with the overall donor recognition policy. If your organization does not have a general recognition policy, the first step would be to develop one, and then develop a separate but aligned recognition policy for planned gifts.
7. Estate administration can’t be overlooked. Every charitable organization has a fiduciary and moral obligation to the donor and to the charity’s supporters in general to make certain that the gift to the charity is maximized and not diminished or lost due to an inexpert executor or to unsubstantiated estate administration expenses. It must be remembered that the donor made the gift to benefit the organization and their wishes must be honoured. Many executors (both lay and professional) require guidance in the estate settlement process as it is an increasingly complex field. By monitoring the estate settlement process, your charity can maximize the gifts received through estates and shorten the time it takes to receive the funds.
8. Marketing programs come in all shapes and sizes. Here are some planned giving marketing basics for all organizations:

Self-identification form: This is a card (or buck slip) that can distributed to supporters and easily mailed back to your organization. It allows donors to self-identify that they have left a future gift to your organization in their will or through life insurance.

Piggybacking on all current marketing materials: All marketing and communication materials associated with your organization need to contain a reference to the opportunity for donors to leave future gifts through their wills, etc.

Develop a bequest brochure: The brochure should focus on the “why” of giving with some simple instruction on how to make gifts through a will (with only a mention of other forms of planned gifts). The brochure can be distributed to supporters and professional advisors and can be sent in response to donor enquiries.

9. Stewardship, the process of continued relationship building with established donors, is an important element of engaging donors. A well developed stewardship program will enable established donors to be educated about the work that an organization does, keep the donors committed to the cause and connected to the organization through relationships with staff and volunteers.
10. Networking is an integral part of a healthy and growing planned giving program. The idea here is to establish a presence in the professional advisor community, not to expect advisors to convince their clients to leave gifts to your organization or to recommend your worthy cause over a multitude of others. The goal is twofold: it is to educate advisors as to what it is that you raise funds for, and to make your organization top of mind with the advisors. By educating in this way, you will enable advisors to be in a position to respond to client enquiries with accurate and knowledgeable (and hopefully enthusiastic) responses to questions that ultimately will lead to increased opportunities for planned gifts to your organization.
Leslie Howard is founder of Planforgifts.com, one of Canada’s premier web-based planned giving resources for charities, nonprofits, professional advisors, volunteers and donors. For more information on planned giving strategic plans, visit www.planforgifts.com and become a member.