Planned Giving

Planned giving is an essential part of most if not all nonprofit organizations. It is a unique way for individuals to be able to make substantial plans, usually in advanced and for a longer amount of time, for their philanthropic needs in relation to their overall financial portfolio. Planned giving may happen during ones’ lifetime but in the case of death as well. This process typically can take more time in stewarding a donor and setting the plan up but in most cases it definitely pays off in the end.

With that said, in a blog from PlannedGiving.com, it discussed to over simplify. At first I didn’t really see the line of thought in that, with how much competition there is these days with donors and who they decide to give their money to. However, after reading into it a bit I can see their point. One of the main premises behind their thought is if a donor has to read things more than once or requires actual analysis for the communication to process, it shouldn’t go out to the donor. It got me thinking about my original thought, with the high competition of organizations for donors to donate to and it made sense. Due to this fact, an organization wants to make it as easy as possible for the possible donor to get involved and really just want the information that directly relates to their values for giving. Donors are smart and they are going to know when an organization has to oversell them on their organization. That is where mission and programs come into play.

As stated earlier, stewardship is a very important part of any type of giving but specifically with planned giving. One of the mainstays of that relationship is trust and that takes time. Once a gift is given or pledged, the donor should go right into the stewardship process. As Tempel states, it’s the organizations job to do whatever it can to keep the donor informed and well communicated with, in whatever means that fits that individual donor, to ensure that donor regret doesn’t take...