The "M" Word

Planned giving as it exists now can be an interesting hybrid of major gifts; mid-level giving; financial planning; direct marketing, and stewardship.  We’ll be looking at each of these in a series of posts.

Let’s start with the most disrespected and ignored element of planned giving– direct marketing.

Yes, folks. We are marketers. Don’t like the sound of that, do you? Aren’t we a rarified breed of professional, with the kind of esoteric knowledge that has nothing to do with marketing? Actually, no. At least, not always. But if you are directing a planned giving program and don’t embrace your role as a marketer – or donor engagement specialist, if you will - your program will fail.

We don’t want to talk about the M word. Go to any planned giving conference and there are panels on obscure gifts like lead trusts; in-depth discussions of estate planning techniques; complex donor fact patterns to dissect. There are almost no discussions or panels on marketing. That’s not “real” planned giving. “Real” planned giving is closing a gift of complex assets with a major donor. Us planned giving folks like to jealously guard our positions as “knowers of all obscure tax codes and weird gift structures.” Organizations that receive the majority of their planned gift revenue from realized bequests are dismissed as mere “bequest shops.”

But – what is the goal? To engage donors in our mission, inspire them, and maximize dollars for our organization. For most of us, where is the money coming from? Bequests. This may not be the case at some organizations. But I’ve spent much of my career in progressive advocacy, and at these organizations – some of which are booking $30 million or more in realized bequests each year – 90-99% of ultimate dollars realized come from bequests.

So as the director of my organization’s planned giving program (and the sole member of the planned giving department!) how do I spend my time? I spent a fair amount of my time on developing marketing strategies (partnering with some wonderful consultants who have challenged me to move beyond the traditional - and really ineffective - planned giving marketing strategies) and implementing donor stewardship programs.

Wait a minute, you protest. Shouldn’t you be spending most of your time out of the office meeting with donors? Well, yes, but it depends, and probably not as much as you think, at least as it relates to qualifying planned giving prospects.

The conventional wisdom is that visits are the best way to solicit and close planned gifts (for the purpose of this discussion, let’s limit the planned gifts to bequests and maybe CGAs). While I do try to spend as much time as I can with my donors, and should spend even more, I haven’t heard of any actual data-driven research that supports the idea that qualifying donors and soliciting these gifts in person works best. In fact, Russell James has found that in-person solicitation is pretty low on the list of favorite ways donors like to be solicited for a bequest. 

Let’s stipulate that major/leadership level donors are an entirely different story, and I’ll be coming back to them and how we’re leaving too much money on the table with them in a future post.

But let’s take a look at your “traditional” planned giving donor: longtime loyal donor, maybe at the membership level, maybe at a more robust mid-level, but not a donor who sees herself as a major donor. Hopefully no grandkids! On paper, she or he looks like a fabulous planned giving prospect. But is she really? How about a visit to find out? You've never actually spoken to her, but you're sure she'd love to meet with you to chat about bequests.

Here’s a news flash – they don’t want to meet. At least not until you’ve done a good job engaging them, getting to know them, learning enough about them to be able to speak to their needs and goals, and even then, maybe they still won't want to meet.

These donors want to feel connected to your organization – but they don’t want to feel that they’ve gotten on a development officer's radar to be solicited for bigger gifts. They don’t picture themselves teetering on the very peak of the traditional donor pyramid where we would like to place them. They are being bombarded by a tsunami of generic direct mail and phone calls from the many organizations they support. They feel hounded. And they don't want to talk about death.

If you’re going to spend a majority of your time in front of donors, don’t you think you’d rather start with the ones who actually want that type of engagement and are also likely to make a planned gift? Or who already have made a gift and need stewarding so you don't lose them? And how do you know that they want that kind of personal relationship? You could pull your list of long-time donors and start calling down the list for visits. With enough calls and persistence, you should be able to line them up. But are they the right visits with the right donors? Probably not. 

Or, you could do the marketing that will help you efficiently identify the donors who WANT a relationship with your organization; figure out (maybe by asking them?) the KIND of relationship they want; and use that information to spark their interest in a planned gift. You could do the kind of marketing that encourages donors to disclose their existing gifts, so you can include them in the stewardship necessary to ensure that you STAY in their plans. 

 It all starts with (good) marketing.  

 Look for my follow-up posts, coming soon:

  • Your planned giving marketing doesn’t work. You’re just not doing it right.
  • Why aren't you using data and new research to drive your fundraising and marketing? Yes, it’s an art. But it’s a science too.
  • Working with your major gift team.
  • Why a mid-level program is crucial for planned giving success.
  • Active stewardship of your legacy donors.
5 responses
Tracy this is brilliant. Well-said! I'm so glad to see this because it's true and nonprofits need to treat donors with more respect when it comes to planned gift marketing.
Tracy, thank you for being a champion of planned gift marketing! Marketing in the donor centered way you have suggested makes tremendous sense. So, like you, I've always been puzzled why more organizations do not share the philosophy. Oh well, that just means more opportunity for wise fundraisers like you.
It all comes down to know your donors well.
What a refreshing and intelligent voice you bring to champion our "corner" of fundraising! Count me as one of your future devoted readers!
1 visitor upvoted this post.