Craziness you say, that would never happen? Well, it might not be $11M but it could be $1M or $1.5M or $50,000. Please tell me more you say. I offer two words:

Planned Giving

Yes, you read that right, planned giving. Two stories illustrate the potential impact of planned gifts.

1. Did I hear you correctly, did you say $1.5M?

One quiet day when I was a DoD at a nonprofit the phone rang. It was a local attorney calling to inform me that our nonprofit was one of the beneficiaries listed in the will of one of his recently deceased clients. Receiving the occasional gift in a will was not unusual but the next part was — the attorney said that the potential gift would be as much as $1.5M.

I sat in stunned amazement. Fearing seeming unprofessional I did not ask the question which was racing through my mind “Did I hear you correctly, did you say $1.5M?”

I had heard correctly as proven by paperwork, several additional conversations with the attorney and checks which arrived as portions of the estate were settled. In fact, the gift was several thousand dollars more than the original estimate.

What did that very generous gift accomplish? It helped bolster a fund designed to help elders who through no fault of their own found themselves unable to pay for healthcare. Now that’s lasting impact!

2. The little mission that could

This story comes from Data Driven Nonprofits penned by Steve MacLaughlin from Blackbaud. In a chapter about nonprofits that have a growth mentality, Steve speaks about a small nonprofit which began to use data to grow both annual and major giving.

Eventually, the organization hired a planned giving staff member. Again there was a focus on using data to identify prospective planned giving donors. As a result of using data and direct mail to market planned gifts the planned giving officer has been so busy that she can hardly keep up with visits.

What’s the potential value of that future giving? It could be as much as $11M or even $12M dollars.

What are your takeaways?

1. We are in a golden age of potential for planned giving – check out this post about legacy giving.
2. Planned giving does not have to be difficult — see this piece with a link to Words that Work, by Dr. Russell James.

Go, ask, be surprised and even amazed! If you want to market planned gifts check out resources such as plannedgiving.com, Robert Sharpe Co., Stelter, or send a shout out to me here.

Sophie is the President of i5 Fundraising where she serves as a teacher, coach, and consultant. Her teaching activity includes courses which are part of Penn State’s two all online certificate programs in fundraising (one graduate and one undergraduate). 

I was recently reminded of this article about nonprofit sustainability which I posted on my blog a couple of years ago. Upon reviewing it I realized that some of the lessons and information are as relevant today as they were back then so I’m sharing this again.

Are you a nonprofit leader or board member who has been part of conversations about sustainability? If you are shaking your head yes you might find the responses from this Bloomerang survey of interest:

https://bloomerang.co/blog/infographic-nonprofit-health-and-sustainability-benchmark-survey

Over 50% of nonprofits are:

1. Identifying priorities,
2. Ensuring that job descriptions are in place, and
3. Utilizing a fundraising plan.

While a majority of nonprofit respondents are utilizing a fundraising plan, a surprising 72% did not have a communications plan in place to make donors aware of planned giving opportunities. Planned giving, why would marketing planned gifts be a factor in nonprofit sustainability? We need money today!

What if you wanted to build a facility that would enhance the quality of life of your clients, but your nonprofit had only a portion of the money needed to do so? What if your board agreed to borrow money toward the project, but it would still not be enough to bring the project to fruition? How would a planned gift factor in?

If your nonprofit had a fund to which unrestricted bequests or other unrestricted planned gifts could be directed, you could potentially employ those funds to support the construction project. You might even consider using the monies in that fund to match $1 for $1 every gift made to a capital campaign that would finance the new facility.

That was precisely the scenario employed by a continuing care retirement community that wanted to build a therapy pool on its campus. When I was Director of Development at that nonprofit we developed a capital campaign, the first ever for that nonprofit, which employed $600k from an unrestricted gifts fund to match $1 for $1 new gifts toward the therapy pool.

The board agreed to either draw down on reserves or borrow the remaining $600k needed to bring the project to fruition. However, the board never needed to take either of those steps thanks to the generosity of donors who together contributed $1M. By the way, the $600k came from a $550k unrestricted bequest, plus a bit of income that had accrued on that bequest while it had been invested.

Note: The pool was built and has been in place for several years. I was recently told by a resident of the retirement community that it is making the kind of difference in the lives of residents for which the organization hoped.

Thanks to @vikenmikaelian from plannedgiving.com for the reminder. How about you, have you launched a planned giving program? If so, how has it factored into your nonprofit’s sustainability? If you haven’t launched a planned giving program, what is holding you back? I hope to hear from you because we can all learn from one another.

Sophie wears several hats, she is the President of i5 Fundraising. Sophie is also the Senior Program Coordinator and a Lecturer for Penn State’s all online certificate programs in fundraising (one graduate one undergraduate).