Noting presumed inheritance

Stephanie Fadorsen

Has anyone tried to note and track possible future inheritance for a constituent? For example, we have someone who is expected to come into some wealthy from a family member passing. This makes then a potential source for a future large gift. I am currently thinking of adding this as a note on the account but was wondering if anyone had a better way to track this?

Alex Wong

@Stephanie Fadorsen
It depends on what you plan to do in terms of fundraising action.

I presume there is not going to be a lot of these. I would record with Opportunity for a fundraiser to action on

Dariel Dixon

@Alex Wong I actually think I disagree here. I don't know if there is much to note outside of just stating that they're a relative of Person XYZ. Presuming anything is not particularly noteworthy itself, as it may take some time for those estates to clear. I don't think it's appropriate to record an Opportunity here as everything is based on a contingency. As notes are just snapshots at a specific time, we can always create a new note when things change.

I'd assume that this individual is in someone's portfolio @Stephanie Fadorsen. As long as the DO is keeping in contact, you'll know when things change and an ask would be appropriate.

Alex Wong

@Dariel Dixon
Note is ok to record, but don't depend on it. fundraiser will forget and querying it will be difficult.

Opportunity or Action really depends on the process this org will do for fundraising.

if someone you know will be getting a large inhertiance (not fundraiser myself), I would not wait until s/he got the inheritance to get involve. There should be move maangement in place for getting this person involve and like your mission and will be thinking to give to your org when he got the inheritnance.

Dariel Dixon

@Alex Wong I think the moves management is fine, but this person can't get past qualification until they receive the presumed inheritance. If they don't receive the inheritance for many years, you'll have an opportunity sitting out there with not change in status for a while. If that is a metric that is being monitored, then that may not be optimal.

At the end of the day, it's the fundraiser's job to follow up on this and build the relationship. Having it as a note or putting the relationship in the constituent summary might be helpful, but the fundraiser has to create an action to follow up, but I wouldn't put the wealth part in the action.