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Start Putting These Fundraising Words Everywhere Right Now
The words are listed down at the bottom. But to understand why you should put them everywhere, read this:
Every single one of your supporters wants to have a meaningful life and wants to be remembered fondly after their lifetime.
Many of these same supporters will contemplate the creation of or revision to an estate plan. And, every time they do, your organization has a big opportunity to acquire a gift. But how do you know when the opportunity has arisen? That’s the big question isn’t it?
Here are some of the many life events that trigger this kind of thinking:
- Birth of a child, grandchild, niece or nephew
- Death of a family member or friend
- Illness or injury of a family member or friend (or themselves)
- Weddings or divorces
- Injuries, sicknesses and diagnoses
- Even hearing about a friend’s estate causing lots of problems for others— such as their children
- And any other major events
People might even consider a gift at the precise moment when they are:
- Opening a new financial account
- Buying or selling securities
- Purchasing or revising a life insurance policy
- Buying real estate
- Selling a business
- Or even simply looking at items they own and want to “hand down” such as jewelry or furniture
And
- Viewing old photographs or videos (especially if they somehow relate to your cause)
- Getting a call from an old friend or long-lost family member
- Writing memoirs
Because of every bullet-point listed above, your planned and major gift marketing needs to be ever-present and ubiquitous but at a low cost— not an easy task. Here’s the easiest way to accomplish this. Put the following words everywhere you possibly can:
“Please consider making a gift to {your organization} in your will and financial plan.”
- on emails;
- business cards;
- letterhead;
- mailers;
- reply forms;
- booklets;
- magazines;
- articles;
- photos;
- banners;
- invitations;
- research reports;
- website pages, etc.
Related posts:
>> Increase Charitable Donations with These 5 Words
>> The 5 Most Important Words and Phrases for Your Donors to Hear
>> What are the 3 Most Boring Words in Fundraising Appeals?>>
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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.
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Spot on! I’m teaching a planned giving basics course next week and I’ll be referring to you 🙂
http://www.afpsoco.org
Cheers,
Dianne
Super! Glad to hear it Dianne.
I love that your posts are succinct. You get right to the point without a lot of fluff and blah blah. And, your advice is sound. Thank you.
Thanks Marilyn. We have a NO BLAH BLAH rule here at MarketSmart! 🙂