Launching a Bequest Program

Crescendo is one of many educators and providers of planned giving software and workshop.  Here is a good overview and/or review in getting a bequest program going.

​​ ​​​ Do you have a strategy for securing bequests to your organization? As the most popular planned gift, bequests can build your organization’s endowment and create a sustainable source of current revenue for the future. Learn how to launch a bequest campaign using your website, print, email, social media and other marketing tools to reach your donors and motivate these transforming gifts. To join us for this free webinar click here to register.   April 16, 2015 9:00 am (PT) ​ ​

N Michigan Fundraising Professionals Session - 12 Nov 2014 - 830 am - TC Chamber

Northern Michigan Fundraising Friends,

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, November 12^th, 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Steelcase Room, TC Chamber.  This month we will be presented with the basics of what we need to know to establish or jump start our planned giving conversations and efforts for our organizations. Whether the world of finance is understandable to you or not, our guest is for you! A  Wealth Management Specialist will join us to present:

Giving. Simplified.

Robert J. Fenton | WMS

Financial Advisor

Wealth Management Specialist

Raymond James & Associates, Inc.

Come with your questions!  He plans to speak and leave time for Q & A.

See you Wednesday!

Sherri and Emilee

Sherri Fenton, C.F.R.M.

Development and Marketing Director

Traverse Health Clinic

Estate and Gift Planning, Tip # 9

Check out "The Ultimate Quick Reference Planned Giving Pocket Guide" by PlannedGiving.com .

It is the best overview guide with "elevator pitches" included.  They have variations on this guide for volunteers, board members, and professional advisers.

A nice tool to give every gift planner you know!

I do also like their "When, how, and why to plan a gift." one page chart on the major gift strategies.

Again this is a tool.  Tools have to fit donors needs and goals. Not the other way around.

Turing Myths into Gifts

Greg Lassonde, www.greglassonde.com, is demystifying legacy giving to make it accessible to all including our staff and volunteers making legacy gift solicitations.

He defines then breaks 10 paradigms of "old school" planned giving and prefers the focus to be "legacy giving". His reshaping of the estate giving allows for many to be involved in the process and volunteers comfortable in asking for these kinds of gifts.

Check out his white paper of Legacy Giving - Click here

Estate and Gift Planning, Tip #7

The Planned Giving Design Center is one of the best on-line resources and newsletters for the issues, topics, and concerns for gift planning. Sign up for their e-newsletter today. http://www.pgdc.com/ 

Estate and Gift Planning, Tip #6

This might seem very basic.

I had the good fortune in the first week of my professional philanthropy career to literally sit at the feet of the master. I attended a Hank Rosso Fundraising School session in Minneapolis where I had the good fortune of speaking with him directly over the coarse of a week workshop.

Hank's advice was always, "The first gift to any campaign is yours."  Americans in their DNA know if someone has "put their money where their mouth is." So yours is the first gift to any appeal that you make including estate and planned giving.

Yours is the first planned gift to your organization in your new post.

Go through the estate planning process first before you go out and talk with people so that you know what they will go through.  Plan your planned gift to your organization.  Either a bequest or beneficiary designation works fine.

Then you can look people in the eye and say that you have already have done this kind of gift.

peace+

Estate and Gift Planning, Tip #5

MarketSmart.com are creators of marketing tools for all kinds of fundraising.  They put out insightful white papers and presentations on a variety of fundraising topics.

In the Planned Giving area, their download "Inside the Mind of a Planned Giving Donor" using Russell James's research is insightful.

Check it out at:

http://imarketsmart.com/russelljames/

Estate and Gift Planning, Tip #4

Jeff Wolf from the National Church Residences recommends the following books for start up gift planners:

My “go to” expert on planned giving recommends the following:

Robert Sharpe’s book:  Planned Giving Simplified: The Gift, The Giver, and the Gift Planner  (AFP/Wiley Fund Development Series)

Many people like Debra Ashton’s book The Complete Guide to Planned Giving.  It is probably more technical.

For real technical stuff, Planned Giving: A Guide to Fundraising and Philanthropy, by Katelyn Quynn and  Ronald Jordan

Estate and Gift Planning, Tip #3

Writing about this kind of giving need not be complicated. Here is a short piece on my parish's website talking about estate giving.

http://www.gracetraversecity.org/serve/stewardship/estate-giving/

I posted it on the parish's Facebook page and put it out on my Twitter feed.

Estate and Gift Planning, Tip #2

Here is the best overview on starting a planned giving program that is not a book:

http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/files/course_resources/establishing_a_planned_giving_program_regenovich.pdf