In my last post, I hope I convinced you that good planned giving officers have to be great marketers. But that’s not all they need to be….
At some organizations, planned giving is seamlessly incorporated into major giving. At other organizations, it’s a rockier road.
Some organizations merge their major and planned giving departments with very mixed results. The marketing side is either neglected or foisted off on their general direct response folks, who don’t have the expertise in planned giving marketing to be effective. And often, following up on leads generated through marketing is perfunctory at best. Because of the pressure to raise immediate funds, they focus on their major donors to the exclusion of those whose major gifts can only come through an estate gift. This leaves an awful lot money on the table, and even worse, their longtime and loyal donors are ill-served and left out in the cold.
Sometimes (too often), planned giving and major gifts departments (and direct response, for that matter) are impenetrable silos, their officers ships passing in the night, guarding their portfolios and their gift credits with sharp claws. Donors, if they have both immediate and deferred strategies, are punted back and forth like footballs, with the planned giving officer never discussing an outright gift and the major gifts officer never discussing a deferred gift. Or maybe they never have a chance to have the missing half of the discussion.
Some organizations are lucky enough and big enough to have very talented and well trained folks in complementary roles: they may have planned giving officers focusing on their loyal and longtime donors, following up on leads from their planned giving direct marketers; they may have philanthropic advisors to help major gifts officers and donors develop multifaceted, multi-asset, and often multigenerational current and deferred giving strategies. They may have a principal gifts team with deep knowledge of complex, asset-based, investment focused giving.
Sigh. A girl can dream.
That’s not most organizations. But donors deserve more than they get from most of us. They are fascinating, complex individuals with shifting and changing financial, planning, business, family, health, and even spiritual needs that an excellent fundraiser who wants to be of good service to their donors needs to understand. Even in a single-person development shop, it’s possible and necessary to know how to provide donors the partnership and opportunities they want and deserve– it just requires a talented fundraiser who values deep and authentic relationships with donors and who has the willingness to learn and grow to meet their donors’ needs.
Are you that kind of fundraiser?