Planned or Legacy Gifts: Best Practices to Secure Future Giving

Target your annual gift donors. When searching for donors who may give as part of their estate planning, look for those who dependably give year after year. To help identify likely candidates and distinguish your bequest prospects from your charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust prospects, consider these annual gift donors:

• Older retirees on fixed incomes who still give to your organization. While their annual gift amount may have shrunk over time, they're likely to consider a charitable bequest as a final gift to the cause they care about most.
• Married couples in their 40s and 50s. These donors typically have kids at home, earn moderate to upper-moderate incomes, and are often consumers who use and get credit more than retirees, which makes them good bequest prospects.
• Single females over 65, who may have outlived their spouses. As they tend to live on fixed incomes, they make good prospects for charitable gift annuities, which guarantee an income stream for the rest of their lives.
• Wealthy people between their mid-50s and 70. They are typically fiscally aggressive and make good charitable remainder trust prospects (and some may make a major gift before they establish a trust).

After you identify your faithful annual donors, build ongoing relationships with them, especially once they turn 40. Assign them to attentive fundraisers who can reach out with personal phone calls and meetings to help establish relationships with your organization. While these high-value interactions may be time-consuming, the long-term payoff can be substantial.

Keep your message simple. When you solicit these donors for a planned or legacy gift, keep it concise and focus on only one vehicle at a time. Avoid the technical jargon of the vehicle itself — such as "charitable remainder annuity trust" or "charitable remainder unitrust" — and use plain language and terms they can easily understand.

Time the appeal based on their annual gift. It's best to solicit a planned or legacy gift when the donor is already most likely to donate. Analyze their giving history to determine the particular month or quarter when they usually give, and gear your appeal to that time of year.

Educate your annual fund staff on planned or legacy giving. As your relationships with annual donors are key to securing planned or legacy gifts, make sure those who manage your annual fund understand the importance of promoting long-term relationships and how their effort can lead to larger gifts over time.

Planned or legacy giving can bring significant donations and secure a future income stream for your organization. The success of appeals for these gifts requires research and analysis of your donors, savvy marketings, and understanding the traits of a good planned or legacy gift donor. For more information about the details you can track about your planned or legacy gifts in Raiser's Edge NXT, see the Planned Gift Help.