The Planned Giving Moment, Part 2

One of our blog readers remarked about the previous blog post:

"made me realize that we keep doing ______ seminars because they work: he attracts about 100 older supporters--including some known planned giving donors--each and every time he comes. It's like fishing in a barrel and one of our most reliable sources of prospects and new donors. And the way it is conducted, also educational (no hard pitch), so entirely consistent with our mission."

I think the point is not actually about which seminar (that's why I left out the name of the speaker), but finding a venue at your institution that makes sense for your organization and happens to draw a planned giving crowd. I am not sure that the actual time of day of these events but he did tell me that they were doing another one tomorrow early evening. In Manhattan, I usually stay away from night time planned giving events but this one worked for them (maybe based on location, type of institution, etc..)

Part two of this concept of seeing the "planned giving moment" was inspired by another community college event I attended last week.

Working with different community college, I had my doubts as to whether this one could really step up their planned giving efforts past what that they had already accomplished.

Here is summary of their last 5-10 years of planned giving activity of the community college: a planned giving committee of board members with a few active members; launched a gift annuity program with limited success; and got off track during the last 5 years or so with focus on a building campaign.

When the development person (who spends probably less than 10% of her time focused on planned giving) told me that she was planning their first legacy society event, I felt the need to give her a bunch of my secrets to a successful legacy event (i.e. to avoid an embarrassing non-success - a subject for an upcoming post).

Actually, with not much help from me, the fundraiser did all of the right things for a first time legacy society event with a small society (around 10 living members). She created a very classy invitation, invited board members, faculty, and long term consistent givers. Picked a nice location (historic building on campus) and a good time for their location (2 to 4 pm) - easier without a full lunch - just coffee/tea and a few snacks.

To their credit, they also picked a beloved, long time professor (also a new member of the society) as a speaker on a topic that had nothing to do with planned giving or fundraising - just an interesting speaker on a topic of interest related to her teaching at the campus.

And, they "hit it on the nail" (i.e. they got everything right about the event). About 30 attendees (just right for the space), many knew each other for many years, really friendly, fun atmosphere, lots of good rah rah stuff from the President. Everyone got an award (for being a member of the society or long term giving).

The speaker also happened to be one of the funniest people speakers I have ever seen and was a walking advertisement for the campus.

Lastly, even though the president's campus update and the speech were the principal parts of the event, the planned giving message was broadcasted very clearly throughout and people really understood the importance of including the college in their estate plans.

It was definitely an event which those who attended will want to come back for more and the real start of their planned giving program.

And, amazingly, they had immediate "results." I hate to focus on immediate results because there are so many intangibles that are important about legacy society events (if done well). But, they were able to report an unexpected $5,000 check on the spot, a seven figure bequest revealed, and a few non-society attendees asking for meetings with development staff about becoming members.

And, it hit me again, the "planned giving" moment. This community college had a significant group of older supporters, professors, neighbors, etc.. who were ripe for this message and would come back regularly (if invited) and tell their friends. It has probably been there for many years but this was the first time they were taking steps past creating a committee and placing a few advertisements.

Find your "sweet spot" when working on a planned giving plan. Ask yourself about the relationships older individuals have with your organization. Figure out where you org serves an older crowd. Or, even devise a plan to get older individuals involved with your institution of it makes sense (mission-wise).

Years ago, I told a cutting edge outreach/educational organization in Manhattan to consider offering classes during the day (morning or mid-day) to see if they can develop a constituency of older attendees. The typical lectures they offered were of interest to retirees and seniors, too, so why not have a special program serving the elders in their community? They wouldn't listen to me - it didn't have enough ROI and they claimed that they needed to focus on younger adults. Too bad for that organization because they had a "product" of interest that they could easily have brought to an older crowd - all well within their mission - and start a planned giving program.

And, they would have provided a great service to the individuals attending the lectures for the planned giving prospects.