Here’s a simple approach to planned giving that any organization can – and should – implement RIGHT NOW.

The returns on your investment of time and energy can be simply amazing!

Planned giving is the big kauhana in fundraising. That’s where the profit is, says my friend and mentor Penelope Burk.

But it’s always last down the line in terms of priority – after the fundraising events, mailing campaigns, sponsorships, grant applications, and you name it. Somehow we never get around to planned giving.

Why?

It’s so technical, all my friends say.We don’t know anything about it. And it’s a bit weird bringing up the subject.

Balderdash, I say back.

Listen, I don’t know a lot about the technical end of planned giving either. And I don’t need to know it.

But I do know two important things: I know who the best planned giving prospects are and what to do with them.

And that’s all you need to know too.

Here’s a quick and dirty plan you can implement right now. And I can’t imagine a greater return on your effort!

1.  Identify Your Best Planned Giving Prospects.

Guess who they are? They are your most loyal donors over time.They are the most consistent, most non-demanding, perhaps the most silent donors you have.

If you have someone who’s giving your organization $25 for 20 or 20 years straight, you can bet that your cause is in their will.

In fact, many surprise estate gifts come in from those small donors who are ignored by the development staff in favor of bigger donors.

And it’s the long term donor who will leave a major gift as a legacy.

As Target Analytics says, “Loyal giving behavior frequently trumps gift size as a predictor of planned giving.”

2. Communicate With Them Annually.

Simply communicate with your most loyal donors at least once a year, reminding them about estate gifts. “You can leave your legacy to our cause.”

I’m actually not even sure about the word “legacy.” Don’t by all means, remind them of their mortality with things like “when you’re gone,” which is dismal and a downer, says communications guru Tom Ahern.

3.Ditch the Jargon.

In your annual letter to your most loving and loyal donors, pitch estate gifts, not “planned giving.”

People – your donors – don’t know what we mean by “planned giving.”

Don’t throw jargon at them! Throw the words “estate gift,” “leave a bequest.”

4.Add Estate Gift Language to All Your Communications.

Put it in your newsletter, your magazine, your mailings, your annual report. Add a sentence or two into everything you send out.

Include a return card for people to ask for more information.

Remember the old axiom, make it easy for people to give. That includes a simple reply vehicle!

5.  Ask About Donating Their IRA, Tax Free.

Congress has just extended the Charitable IRA Rollover.  This law allows people who are 70 ½ or older to make tax-free gifts of up to $100,000/year from their IRA.

What a wonderful way for your true believers to support you! Don’t be shy about suggesting this.

Just imagine if only one person acted on your suggestion!

Now, if you are lucky enough to be in conversation with someone about donating their IRA, you can also gently suggest other giving options.

Here’s an idea from a Chronicle of Philanthropy webinar yesterday on Fundraising Forecast 2011: Trends and Techniques You Need to Know.

The planned giving expert on the call shared a story: He was meeting with a donor about a possible donation of an IRA, when the donor mentioned millions in his 401(k). It turned out that the donor ended up making a gift of the 401(k) funds too. Can you imagine!

Action Items for You Right Now:

RIGHT NOW, pull a list of long term donors.

RIGHT NOW, schedule an annual “estate/bequest” letter to them. Put it on the calendar.

RIGHT NOW, create two lines about estate gifts to add to all your communications.

You’ll be glad you did!

How about sharing your experience with planned giving? How did you make it work? What were your successes?

Leave a comment and let us all know!

Ah, death by strategic planning!

Don’t get me started on how AWFUL and what a TIME WASTER strategic planning can be. At least the way we do it in the noprofit sector.

I am organizing a “hard-hitting, hands-on planning session” with an organization that has been wandering aimlessly for a few years. They wonder why they can’t raise money? Here’s the answer – their vision is not juicy enough to get excited about.

Here’s our agenda for our planning session: (I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent!)

• Reconfirm Good Cause’s vision and mission.
• Reach consensus on what Good Cause wants to do in order to implement its vision and mission in the coming year and in the next 5 years. (broad framework here for the longer time period.)
• Identify strategic directions and set some firm goals around each direction.
• Answer the question: “how will we know if we have been successful?”
• Determine the critical success factors that will make or break the new goals.
• Agree on the board’s role in creating success for Good Cause and what each person is committed to doing.
• Set next steps so that the staff can flesh out a complete operational plan for the coming year.

I had to tell the staff – you can TRUST me that it will not be a WASTE of time. I told her that I will not facilitate a meeting that I wouldn’t attend myself. : )

This board has GOT to pull itself together around a plan or the organization probably doesn’t have much of a future.

Do you know what the critical success factor is in this meeting? The facilitator. He or she is the person who will challenge, direct, pull together, referee, and ultimately ensure actual results. I take this role very very seriously! It’s an honor and a burden at the same time.

I’ll let you know how it comes out!

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I am the chair of a board governance committee charged with creating a strategic plan this year.  (lucky me!).

And I am determined to create a compelling, engaging, even exciting planning/visioning process that everyone will actually enjoy!

Here’s the process that I’ve sketched out this year:

September:
1. Board Self Assessment Survey
2. Set strategic planning timetable and process

October:
1. Form Task Force
2. Identify our organization’s stakeholders
3. Determine if and how we want to get feedback and input from the stakeholders
4. Create a plan/process for receiving their feedback

November board meeting:
1. Discussion of board self assessment survey data and determine any action items that need to be taken
2. Vision discussion with full board – what is our vision for our organization.  How much money would it take to achieve our vision?  (this is a “high impact – big picture” discussion that can draw additional people and resources to a big vision, as opposed to starting with “what can we accomplish within our resource constraints?”)

December

January and Feb: Focus groups of key players/stakeholders discussing what is our vision and how much money would it take

March:  WHERE ARE WE?
1. Complete environmental scan at a board meeting.
2. Provide input from the stakeholder focus groups that were conducted in Jan and Feb.
3. Conduct SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

April -  May – June: WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO?
1. Based on all info and data gathered to date, create several scenarios of LL’s future.
2. Assess each scenario re its pros and cons
3. Determine the right path for LL’s future and set goals.

July – August – September  HOW DO WE GET THERE?
1. Staff and committees create plans for accomplishing the goals.  Plans will include objectives, tactics/strategies and who’s responsible

What do you think?  Want to comment?

Have you ever seen the energy sink out of a group of people when the words “strategic planning” are mentioned?  I’ve actually seen people shudder!

The problem is that board members have had bad experiences with this thing called “strategic planning.” They have sat through laborious planning discussions that went nowhere and wasted their time. (The last thing you ever want to do is ask a board member for a full day of their time and then have them feel like it was wasted.) Even if the experience seems helpful at the time, NOTHING ever happens or changes afterward.

Why is it that many nonprofit planning retreats end up focusing on the wrong things?  The wrong trends. The wrong information. The wrong discussions.

This is why people dread “strategic planning” it’s a lot of time and talk with little or no results.

I once served on a board that held a strategic planning retreat one Saturday from 8am till 5pm.  Our icebreaker was to share the name of our favorite pet in a mingle exercise.  (dumb).  Then we labored over the mission and spent needless time wordsmithing the mission, vision and values.

I just couldn’t stand it – I just had to leave in mid-afternoon because I ran out of patience.  At the end of the process, nothing really was accomplished, and the key critical “elephants in the room” never even got discussed.

I am the lucky chair of a board governance committee who is charged with creating a strategic planning process for our organization. You can bet that I’m going to create a powerful, compelling experience that our board members will enjoy. I’ll chronicle my experiences with our process over the next year as we progress.

Have you had a strategic planning process that really worked for your organization?  Why don’t you share your experience?