We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Privacy Overview
Login
Your Role
Challenges You Face
results
Learn
Resources
Company
Your planned giving offers need to change
It can’t only be about death and taxes.
Stop offering your supporters calculators they can’t understand.
Stop offering them a so-called opportunity to be in your Legacy Society. (Ho-hum… Yawn…) Instead, tell them why. What will they get? What’s in it for them? How will they benefit?
Stop offering ways to save on estate taxes. That no longer applies to most of your prospects.
As replacements, your offers should facilitate the decision-making process by helping supporters think about:
-the meaning of life
-how to deal with their digital inheritance (choosing digital heirs)
-how to pass on their legacy (ethics, morals, lessons learned, etc.)
-how to have a catharsis while thinking about lessons learned
-how to tell your story (memoirs, autobiography)
And besides, at MarketSmart, we’ve found about 18 new, innovative offers that work better. They’re more inspirational and motivational because they tap into your supporters’ emotions. They’re based on new research and science. They’ve been tested and proven effective. [Of course, you can learn all about them if you request a demonstration.]
But most of all, they focus on your supporters’ needs and desires, not on their money.
After your offers compel your supporters to come forward, only then can you partner with them to work out the details of their gifts using your skills and experience. But you need to stop putting the cart before the horse. Instead, give them offers that provide value first. Then you’ll get to roll-up your sleeves and do what you do best.
Related Posts
>> 9 content offers that work well to generate planned giving leads
>> The Ultimate Planned Gift Marketing Strategy (4 simple steps)
>> How to Generate More Planned Gifts with Less Money and Reduced Resources
Recommendations from blogs we follow
>> Fundraising Best Practice Series: Volume 9, Planned Gift Prospecting
>> Raise more money – Talk about the Need, not yourself
LIKE THIS POST? PLEASE SHARE IT! YOU CAN ALSO SIMPLY LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW.
Get the book!
Feeling like your job is getting harder because donor expectations have changed and competition for the charitable dollar is growing?
Finding that the old orthodoxies and conventions espoused by so-called experts in online echo-chambers and at conferences don’t work anymore?
Want to help more people make impact by facilitating their acts of philanthropy but feel like too many obstacles keep getting in your way?
Then this book is for you.
Engagement Fundraising was developed from the perspective of a donor who discovered firsthand that the impersonal, spray-and-pray approaches of his beloved charity were not only offensive but also wasteful and ineffective. So he took action. And now, you can too.
Get smarter with the SmartIdeas blog
Subscribe to our blog today and get actionable fundraising ideas delivered straight to your inbox!
Greg, did you mean to include the word “estate” when you said to stop offering ways to save on taxes, because it doesn’t apply to most of our prospects?
I agree with you 100% if you’re talking about estate taxes. If you’re talking about income taxes, I’d respectfully disagree (c.f., the research Russell James has done on the best way to talk about gift annuities).
Yes! Ah… thanks Sheila. Just changed it now.
Whew!
Greg – cannot agree 100% of your comment that majority of my prospects don’t care about estate taxes. Granted, most do not reach the federal tax level required for estate taxes to kick in, but some of us reside (and a majority of our donors do as well) in states where an estate tax still exists at much lower and easily reached levels. A $675,000 estate can be easily created for someone whose house has greatly appreciated since they purchased it in the 1960’s in many parts of NJ. Combined with smaller pension fund and some savings, estate taxes do kick in. Just a caveat for those who assume “always” means “everyone.”
Excellent points Jim. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
Excellent points. It’s so important that people understand the motives behind planned givers. It’s not all just death and taxes!