The Extreme Fundraising Blog

Usually when we do think about estate giving, or so-called “planned giving,” we tend to think of really rich people.

But the AFP reports shares that a new study by Campbell & Company blows this preconception away. According to the AFP:

Most surprising for fundraisers was that income did not affect the likelihood that donors would make a bequest, or consider making one, in their wills. Accordingly, fundraisers should not focus solely on high-income individuals but attempt to cultivate all possible prospects.

This really shouldn’t be much of a “surprise,” the same results show up every time a study is done. Gurus like Robert Sharpe, Jr. have been telling us this for years.
Later on in the study, it says:

This study suggests that individuals aged 40 to 60 and those with at least a bachelor’s degree education were the most likely to name or consider naming a charity in their will.

Unfortunately, knowing something and acting on it, are two different things. Most of us who “know” we should be asking everyone to include us in their wills, still find ourselves limiting our relationship building to elderly, wealthy constituents.

In my opinion, asking for planned gifts is a public service we provide. I’ve been told that 70% of Americans die without a will. Whether or not they end up including our nonprofit in their will, the simple act of asking them to include us gets them thinking about wills. The vast majority of people underestimate the real value of their estate. So our asking them to consider including us, is a reminder for them to be proactive.

We will all be philanthropists at death: voluntary or involuntary. Either we’ll choose which causes our life’s work supports (family, charity, etc.) or Congress and the White House will choose for us (the war in Iraq, Wall St. bailouts, funding Medicare or Social Security).

Asking people to inlude our nonprofit in their will is not asking them to cheat their families. Most planned gifts are simply saying “after my family and other interests are taken care of, I want x% of my estate to go to these nonprofits.” This is called a “residuary bequest.”

If you go to a planned giving seminar, you’ll likely be dazzled by the variety of complicated planned giving tools. Here’s a small list, with links to websites (usually nonprofit’s) that show how to market each:

• life insurance policies
• CRUTs,
• CRATs,
• charitable lead trust,
• gift annuities,
• life estate (gift of a home while retaining life use), etc.

And you’ll probably hear examples of sophisticated estate planning like how Jackie Onastis used these tools to structure her estate to maximize the benefit to her family.

But don’t let that confuse you. The single easiest way to ask for a planned gift is to focus on the “residuary bequest.”

Here are some fundraising scripts, or key phrases, to help get you started:

• Would you consider including the hospital in your estate plans?
• After you’ve taken care of your family, would you consider asking your advisors about leaving the hospice in your will?
• Are we already in your estate plans?

Asking for planned gifts doesn’t have to be rocket science. And we don’t have to be estate attorneys. We just need to consistently invite people to talk to their advisors about their estate planning.

So remember, Fundraising Secret #17: Ask everyone for a planned gift.

[This is part of Fundraisingcoach.com’s “Fundraising Secrets” series. For all the articles in the series, go to: http://fundraisingcoach.com/blog/category/frsecrets/. An executive summary of Bequest Donors: Demographics and Motivations of Potential and Actual Donors is available at the Cambell & Company website. If you want more ideas on possible wording donors might take to their advisors, go to the For Financial Professionals section of inlandfoundation.org.]

In the spirit of the last fundraising secret People give to people, I offer

Fundraising Secret #16: ALWAYS be interested in the donor as a PERSON not as a pocketbook.

Relationships are always our most vital asset. Whether or not people give to us, they are intrinsically important.

That’s not to say we have to pour all our fundraising efforts in the same measure for donors and non-donors. By no means!

But if your only interest in a person is what they can do for you…you’re sunk before you even start.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of such a request? Doesn’t it make your skin crawl?

Back in college, I was one of the students with a car. I still remember the “you’ve got a car and we want to go somewhere” look. One time in particular, two girls sought me out and asked, “Do you want to go to the movies?” Despite their big smiles and their sweet sounding voices, their eyes were clearly saying, “We could care less about you. We’re just interested in a ride to the movies.”

At first, I felt the extrovert’s high of loving to be with people. But that was almost instantly followed by the let down of “I’m just being used.”

Don’t use your donors. Get engaged with them.

It can be as simple as asking little questions about their family (if appropriate) or about their business. Just something to get to know the other person as a person.

They know your job is to raise money. And they’ll probably give. But do them the honor of treating them like people.

I gave the girls a ride. But I certainly didn’t stay for the movie.

We want our donors to stay with us. To get more involved with our organization.

This is especially important if we really are moving into an economic downturn. Donors that are engaged with us in a relationship will be more likely to stay with us through the tough times. They’re more likely to become our donor evangelists.

So please, be sure to always be interested in the donor as a person!

Just read this in MaineBiz:

Report: Maine philanthropy has grown
Maine philanthropy has increased dramatically in recent years, according to a new report from the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Philanthropy Center.

“Giving in Maine: A Report on Philanthropy 2008″ found that individual giving has grown sevenfold over the last 22 years, from $67 million to $482 million. The report also says 27% of Maine estates over $1.5 million donate to philanthropic causes, versus 20% nationally, and total giving and average giving by individual Mainers has increased 25% over the last five years.

The state’s charitable foundations are strong, according to the report, with assets almost doubling over the last five years, to $1.5 billion, and giving increasing by 74%.

The economy hasn’t been great here in Maine. But our residents are growing in generousity!

I hope that’s encouraging as we navigate our current economic waters.

Reading Stephen Hitchcock’s Open Immediately: Straight Talk on Direct Mail Fundraising, I’ve been reminded of one of the great truths of fundraising, one I’m calling Fundraising Secret #15: people give to people.

This is one of the reasons fundraising letter templates don’t work. They’re like a fundraising version of Mad Libs: easy to fill in the blanks but sort of funny sounding when they’re read.

And that’s why impersonal “Dear Friend” letters don’t work well either. But even if you insert a donor’s name, it’s really easy to sound impersonal in fundraising letters.

According to Hitchcock’s extensive research, fundraising letters get better response rates without brochures. I’d imagine this is because brochures are, by their very nature, impersonal.

So don’t include a brochure and don’t let you letter sound like a brochure! To help resist the temptation to become impersonal, Hitchcock advises using conversational language and having only one signature at the end of a solicitation letter.

A technique I use for overcoming impersonality is doing demographic research to find out who my typical donor is:

• how old,
• what gender,
• where she lives,
• how big her family is, etc.

Once I’ve done the work, I write to that person. It’s helpful to get a picture of what that person might look like to put on your computer monitor. And I always give her a name.

However you fundraise for your nonprofit–whether you’re asking for money in a fundraising letter, on the web, or in person–remember this timeless truth: people give to people.

[For the prior “Fundraising Secrets” posts, go to: http://fundraisingcoach.com/blog/category/frsecrets/]

I’m not an “events” person but they do seem a necessary evil in our field.

And to be fair, they do have lots of other benefits: visibility, engaging volunteers, etc.

So when I saw that this month’s Giving Carnival topic was “Tips For Successful Fundraising Events,” I knew I had to chime in.

The best tip I ever got about events (other than don’t do them if at all possible!) was: give the event three years before deciding to continue it or not.

Fundraising events are time and labor intensive. And they take time to mature. Often by the third year, you and your team are in a groove.

So if you or your board is contemplating doing a fundraising event, be sure to ask yourself if the organization can commit to doing it for the next three years.

[Check out the other great ideas at the March Giving Carnival.]

I just had the privilege of speaking at the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes’ annual meeting. What a fun group of people!

As a pastor, it was a blast to speak with people who’s job is to help people in their parish grow in giving. These people were passionate about what they do, and about Who they do it for.

Which brings me to Fundraising Secret #13: Fundraise for causes you’re passionate about.

Nonprofits engage values at a visceral level. People want to get passionate about the work of their favorite charity.

You need to be passionate too.

If you’re just doing time at a job–just punching the clock to pay the bills–you’ll have a very hard time raising money.

Passion is exciting. Passion is contagious.

Complacency is contagious too.

If you’re disinterested in your nonprofit, you’ll communicate that to the people you’re soliciting.

So if you’re in that situation, start looking for a new job. Or find some aspect of your job to get excited about. Talk to your spouse and close friends. Take assessment like the Highlands Abilities Battery. Hire a coach. (Talk to your friends and social networks to find a good one.) Do something today.

I’m not encouraging you to work 24/7. Boundaries are healthy. But you need to at least get excited about the cool things your nonprofit is doing. Because, to the donor, that means you’re excited about the cool things their donations are doing.

You can punch a clock anywhere. But your nonprofit deserves more than that.

And so do you.

Life’s short. Live passionately.

I’ve been very “aware” of my blog reading habits since Fundraising Secret #10: Read Blogs.

And I realized I’d signed up for too many.

So many people are writing so many good things.

But I don’t need to read them all.

I just went through my 112 subscriptions and purged. I’m now 50 subscriptions lighter!

Wish I could lose weight that fast!

Check out this Reuters story : Frugal librarian amassed $8 million art trove.

With a The Millionaire Next Door feel, librarian Jean Preston ate frozen meals and took the bus.

But she’d collected art work worth more around $8 million.

The lesson I get from this? Any fundraiser that had visited her would’ve noticed the quantity of art in this little home.

But I bet none visited her.

All these treasures were left in her house when she died. I bet she’d have loved to donate some to museums or other groups, if she’d only been asked.

Don’t neglect even modest donors. (If you’re not convinced, look at my “$100 donor or millionaire” blog post from last week.)

Quite often, the donors that “look” rich are in debt up to their eyeballs. And quite often, the modest, unassuming people have hidden treasures that they’d love to share with your nonprofit: memories & stories, art, antiques, or even estate gifts.

This year, why not committing to visiting ten of your more-modest-but-consistent donors?

You may want to start with your local librarian!

In the spirit of my Fundraising Secret #11: Don’t be a Ned, I offer this from YouTube.

With Ground Hog Day right around the corner here in the US, I thought we’d learn Fundraising Secret #11 from the perspective of the classic movie Ground Hog Day:

Fundraising Secret #11: Don’t be a Ned

Does this sound like your fundraising efforts?

Ned: Phil? Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you!

Phil: Hi, thanks for watching. [Starts to walk away]

Ned: Hey now, don’t you tell me you don’t remember me ’cause I sure as heckfire remember you.

Phil: Not a chance.

Ned: Ned… Ryerson. “Needlenose Ned”? “Ned the Head”? C’mon, buddy. Case Western High. I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing. Ned Ryerson, got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn’t graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson, I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple of times until you told me not to anymore? Well?

Phil: Ned Ryerson?

Ned: BING!

Phil: Bing.

Ned: Do you have life insurance, Phil? Because if you do, you could always use a little more, I mean, who couldn’t? But let me tell something - I got’s a feeling [whistles] you ain’t got any. Am I right or am I right or am I right? Right, right right.

I crack up every time I see this scene!

Phil is so completely self-absorbed and utterly uninterested in Ned, let alone what Ned’s selling. And Ned’s so completely absorbed with selling insurance, he’s not reading Phil’s very clear signs of indifference.

Please, don’t be a Ned.

Our donors have had it “up to here” with marketing and sales and promises from people that don’t care about them.

Learn to care.

Our donors, like us, are real people with real concerns about real lives. And your nonprofit isn’t at the center of their real lives. Nor should it be.

It’s our job to help get our organization on their radar screen. But rather than going after anyone that can fog a mirror, it’s more helpful for your fundraising efforts to figure out what type of person already gives to you.

• Men or women?
• WWII generation? Silent Generation? Boomer? Xer? Millenial?
• What draws them to your mission?
• How are they first introduced to your organization?

I’d venture to guess it’s not by accosting them on the street in the middle of a cold February day. (Or on the phone. Or in the mail.)

So as you start this new year, commit to taking the time to do the hard research to get to know your current donors. And commit to engaging with donors and donor prospects to get to know them, and to let them get to know you, before you ask.

And whatever you do, please, don’t be a Ned!