Welcome back to Ask a Responsive Fundraiser, where we tackle some of the most pressing questions nonprofit organizations face in their quest to make a difference. This week, we welcome Brantley Boyett, President and Co-Founder of Giving Docs, with another video edition! Brantley offers incredible insights on planned giving, from introducing donors to planned giving to using donor data to determine who to approach for planned giving.
Be sure to check out past editions of Ask a Responsive Fundraiser and leave us a comment on LinkedIn so we can answer your questions!
Letโs dive in and see how you can transform these common hurdles into opportunities for growth!
Dear Responsive Fundraiser: We’ve never focused on planned giving before, and it feels overwhelming to start. What’s the best first step we can take to learn more and introduce our donors to this type of giving?
โPrepping for Planning
Dear Prepping: There are a bunch of planned giving consultants, many planned giving marketing companies, and there are also a number of platforms, like GivingDocs, where I work, that can help people build planned giving programs.
But none of those I think are a first step. For many people just starting out, I think it’s most important for you to know that if you’re going to start a program, you need to have human resources to commit to the effort. Planned gifts are very emotional gifts and donors often want a relationship with the people at the organization to get started.
If you’ve determined that your organization has someone who can actually talk to people about planned gifts, then the next step is making sure that you have organizational buy in. You need to get leadership on board support the program over the long haul, because it does take a while for planned gifts to come in, even after you’ve started to get commitments. You’re going to want to also, you know, get people at the organization involved and interested and excited about this.
The last thing that I always tell people to think about when they’re starting a program is that they’ll need to create a legacy society to recognize donors and make them feel like they’re part of a community.
I’ve seen the organizations get caught up on the name and I don’t think it’s all that important. You can pick a famous donor or something that relates to the organization, but getting that in place and then getting that lead donor to help start the society is really kind of that first integral step to moving forward.
Dear Responsive Fundraiser: We’re finding it challenging to make planned giving a natural part of our current fundraising approach. It often feels separate or like an afterthought. What are some strategies to integrate it more into our existing efforts?
โExcelling Efforts
Dear Excelling: I think the most important thing in the really successful planned giving programs that we work with have buy-in across all the departments at the nonprofit. So coming from the top, the finance team is going to need to see the value in it in order to commit resources long-term.
Annual giving is also going to have to see it as a valuable add on to their efforts so they can identify shared marketing opportunities. They can also farm out interesting prospects for you. I think the most important relationship with the organization will be with the major giving team. Major giving and planned giving are often siloed at organizations, and they’re not communicating like they could.
But if you think about it, the most likely planned giving donors are also major donors and vice versa. So sharing marketing efforts and prospects between the two departments should come more naturally than it often does.
Organizations often have a marketing calendar that applies to all types of giving. Fighting for space in that busy calendar is part of the challenge of getting a planned giving program off the ground.
They can append it to the end of a survey. It can be an option as an alternate way to give instead of an annual gift task. They can announce it at galas, bring it up in meetings with individual donors. And when it’s really integrated everywhere at the organization, that’s when planned giving is going to be most successful.
Dear Responsive Fundraiser: Our supporters want to include us in their estate plans, but many feel unsure about how to take that next step. How can we guide them through the process in a way that feels approachable and clear?
โGuiding Generosity
Dear Guiding: If someone’s indicated intent to leave a planned gift, we call those hand raisers over here and thatโs great news. I think the thing that we are careful of over here and that we always tell the people we work with to be careful of is: You’re not their attorney. We’re not their attorney.
You can’t give these people legal advice. And I think it’s always important to let donors know that it’s a great idea to consult with a local attorney about their estate plan. People might not want to go to an attorney, so they might use an online service like ours, but I think it’s always good to encourage that behavior.
Even when people come to our platform, we encourage them to consult with an attorney. If they’re not planning to use an attorney or a service, I think it’s fine for you to share your organization’s EIN and let them know if your organization has specific language that they’d like to see included in someone’s will related to gifts to the organization.
And I think it’s also a great time to have a talk about how they want their gift to be used by the organization. Some people are totally fine with it going to the general funds. Other people may want it to go to a specific program, and that is something that needs to go in their plan, whether they’re creating it on their own or working with an attorney.
You’ll want to share the language that the organization requires to distribute the funds to a certain specific program. If you do that, you can direct them to a list of local estate planning attorneys or the state bar website to find attorneys.
You have to be a little careful there and not create problems with families later on. Essentially you want to be as hands off as possible in that process after giving them all the information they need. Of course, there are online estate planning tools that people use, like I mentioned earlier.
Ultimately we want to be encouraging people to take control of their legal identity. And often that means consulting with an attorney or educating themselves.
(Editor’s Note: Brantleyโs answers have been lightly edited answers for readability and clarity.)
