Posts Tagged ‘Planned Giving Marketing’
Thursday, March 7th, 2013
I give you permission to read this list but only if you’ll count to three afterwards. Let it sink in. Then DELETE IT! Forget about it.
Why? Because your organization will probably never get a gift as large as any of these.
So why am I showing it to you? Two reasons.
1- It’s fun to think about the potential of your planned giving program.
2- It’s important to come back to earth with the realization that most planned gifts come from ordinary people— NOT THE WEALTHY.
So go ahead and dream for a moment. Then get back to work. Call, write letters, send emails and meet with regular folks who care about your mission so deeply that they are willing to make your organization a member of their family by including you in their estate plan.
Here’s the list of some very large individual bequests:
Note: These are nominal values and have not been adjusted for inflation. This entire list was found on Wikipedia.
Tags: philosophy, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy
Posted in Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
I found a really interesting little nugget of information buried in an old report. Back in 2007, The Journal of Gift Planning conducted a survey finding that 73 percent of survey respondents who work for charities reported that they have made some type of planned gift themselves. Also the survey reported that almost 75 percent of advisers have made planned gifts.
So, if you’re marketing budget is tight and you’re looking to uncover hidden gifts, why not target your staff and you network of estate planning advisers first? Keep in mind that donors rarely take a charity out of their estate plan. And, they usually increase the size of their gift if they are stewarded properly.
It’s interesting that they didn’t survey Board Members or volunteers too. But they are great targets as well.
Bottom line… if I had virtually no marketing budget but wanted to generate some disclosures so I could steward them properly, I’d target the following groups in order of importance:
- Board Members
- Staff Members/Volunteers
- Advisers that have a passion for the organization’s mission
Tags: 80/20 rule, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, smart, strategy, Target marketing
Posted in Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Target marketing | 3 Comments »
Sunday, February 17th, 2013
Recently a client asked me to review and critique a fundraising letter. It was written by one of her committee members. Can you say, “awkward position!”
To say that the author and the target audience is highly educated would be an understatement.
Well, as you might have guessed, I did it anyway. And here’s what I told her:
- The sentences are too long
- The sentence structure is too complex
- The words are too sophisticated (lots of 3 to 4 syllable words)
- There’s no emotional story
- There’s no call all to action
- And, there’s no urgency
“Bottom line,” I told her, “the letter is just too difficult to understand.”
“But the audience is very highly educated,” she replied. “They have graduate degrees and doctorates.”
“So what?” I told her.
Here’s the thing folks… You should write your appeals at about a 4th – 6th grade level. Simple sentences. Simple sentence structure. Simple words. Add a story. Add a call to action. And add some urgency… and you have a solid letter.
Why? Simply stated… it’s a matter of courtesy. Supporters of you mission can get sophistication from a bottle of wine or a good book. But when it comes to your letters, they just want to know what the problem is and how they can help.
You won’t impress anyone by complicating your appeal. And you won’t insult them if you make it simple. In fact, simplicity will actually help you deliver your message more effectively. Then, your donors will respond because you made it easy to understand.
Take a look at Google— arguably the most successful advertising business in the world. And how many characters are you allowed when you advertise there?
- Ad headline- 25 characters
- Description lines (you get 2 lines and that’s it!)- 35 characters per line
The Red Cross uses Google AdWords all yearlong (see a sample below on the right).
How about Twitter?- 140 characters to get your message across
You can’t argue with success. These new media are successful because they keep it simple so people will respond. You should do the same. Even when you are marketing planned gifts.
Save all the legalese and confusing babble about the benefits of a sophisticated, tax-saving gift instrument. Focus on bequests. Speak in plain English.
Your donors will thank you by responding and leaving gifts.
Tags: internet, online marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Simple, solve problems
Posted in Advertising, Fundraising, marketing, Pay-per-click marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, ppc, strategy | No Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2013
I don’t think this is a stretch at all. Planned giving marketing is a lot like selling new cars.
Car companies spend billions of dollars each year to market their goods. They know the following is true:
- You never know when a person will need a new car
- The average investment in a new car in 2012 was $30,303 (according to Forbes)
- A car is obviously not an impulse purchase
- Rather, it is a “highly-considered” investment
- So marketing messages for automobiles must be ubiquitous (everywhere) in order to build awareness
- Leads must be generated
- Relationships must be cultivated
- Fears need to be addressed
- Questions need to be answered
- Deals need to be closed
- Buyers must be treated like gold so they’ll buy again and refer their friends
Bottom line, planned giving marketers can learn a lot from car companies. Take a look at the pdf below to see more similarities.
Cars-vs.-Legacy-gifts-SmartGiftmaker
Tags: Cultivation, lead generation, leads, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Stewardship, strategy
Posted in Fundraising, lead generation, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
The simplest comprehensive planned giving marketing strategy boils down to these 5 things:
-Building awareness: branding, education, PR/news stories, etc.
-Generating leads: acquisitions campaigns
-Cultivating leads: nurture campaigns
-Closing gifts: face-to-face, telephone, or personalized asks
-Stewarding gifts: acknowledgement, gift acceptance, donor recognition, etc.
Once you get your head around your overall strategy, then you need to choose which channels will help you meet your goals (depending on your budget). Last, you need to choose your tactics. Oh… and, finally, you need to actually do the marketing. Inertia and internal roadblocks/hurdles kill any chance of getting the results you desire.
I have found that direct mail and email are the most effective channels for generating leads if you have a good list and your organization is mid-sized to large. Otherwise, the telephone channel (calls in the form of donor survey/thank-yous) and the face-to-face channel work best.
The most important wild-card factor is the quality of your LIST.
Tags: cultivation for planned giving, Lead generation for planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing
Posted in Cultivation, cultivation marketing, Email, Fundraising, lead generation, Lead Generation/Nurturing, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Retention marketing, Stewardship, strategy | No Comments »
Monday, December 3rd, 2012
Phyllis Freedman’s recent blog post pointed out that many nonprofit’s websites do not work on mobile devices. I knew she was right. But so what? Does it matter?
That led me to take a look at some of the websites we developed for our clients. I reviewed a few and gathered the Google Analytics data from a total of 2,066 planned giving site visitors in the past two months. Now, keep in mind that a lot of our clients go with our recommendations. That means that we drive a lot of folks to their planned giving websites using digital marketing (such as emails). So I think our results are a bit skewed. In any case, here’s what I found:
- 12.83% of the visitors used mobile devices
- Most of the mobile devices were either iPhones or iPads
Tags: mobile, online marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing
Posted in Communication, marketing, Mobile marketing, Multi-channel marketing, New Technology, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sunday, November 25th, 2012
A 2009 report (I realize it’s a bit dated) in Financial Services Review, found that the number of charitable estate plans steadily increased among Americans aged 55-64 between 1996 and 2006. The report analyzed the trend of 41,965 Americans in a study authored by Russell N. James III (University of Georgia), Mitzi K. Lauderdale (Texas Tech University), and Cliff A. Robb (University of Alabama).
According to the authors, “this increase was driven in large part by higher levels of education and childlessness and by an increasing propensity for those without children to make charitable estate plans.”
Furthermore, the report found a dramatic decrease in fertility. “The average number of children and grandchildren decreased. This decrease was not just the result of respondents having fewer large families, but was also accompanied by a large increase in the number of respondents having no children. This increase in childlessness would be expected to have a significant impact on charitable estate planning as it avoids the presence of a competing beneficiary.”
Keep in mind that competition for planned gifts is heating up. Other organizations are investing more money in planned giving marketing. So while the number of charitable estate plans is increasing, you should not expect an avalanche of funding unless you take the necessary steps to promote planned gifts effectively.
Tags: marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy
Posted in Fundraising, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
If you need help trying to decide what to put on your planned giving website, here’s our in-house content guide and checklist.
We use this as a starting point for each and every planned giving Site we build for our clients. We don’t put everything found below in every website we develop. So please don’t go crazy trying to stuff every intricate type of gift into your Site.
Some of the bullet-points might seem obvious. But we reviewed a ton of planned giving websites and found that over 90% were missing a simple contact telephone number on the main page. Here you go!:
- Your logo and tag line
- Phone number
- Click-to-email feature
- Contact us (link to staff listing)
- Font size adjustment tool to increase the size of the font instantly
- Print tool
- Email to a friend tool
- Share tools (for social media)
- Basic text and photo testimonials- “donor stories”
- How gifts have made a difference in the past- “gift stories”
- Request more information (such as free brochures or downloads)
- Your organization’s tax ID#
- Bequest language for estate planners
- How to get the most out of your gift (tax benefits)
- Planning tools calculator (I actually think these things confuse donors but our clients keep requesting that we include them. Someday I might just say “NO!”)
- Answers to common objections such as:
- You can change your mind
- Family first
- You can keep it private
- Hold on to your assets for as long as you need them
- No minimum gift required
- Ways to make a lasting impact
- Bequests
- Gifts in will or trust
- Remainder bequest (residual bequest)
- Donor advised funds
- Gifts of assets that provide you income
- Charitable gift annuity
- Deferred CGA
- Other beneficiary
- Use appreciated securities to fund CGA
- Use real estate to fund CGA
- Retained life estate
- Charitable remainder trust
- Beneficiary designations
- Bank assets and securities
- Life insurance
- Retirement accounts
- Savings bonds
- Let us know (short survey that aims to acquire notifications)
- Why invest in our organization
- Mission
- Why give
- What’s the vision for the future (strategic plans/goals)
- Historical content (photos, captions and text will show longevity and stability proving a safe haven for their investment)
- Annual report
- Successes/achievements
- Where the money goes (How funds are used and stewarded)
- A simple pie chart will do the trick
- Staff
- Contact (click-to-email) links
- LinkedIn icons that links to their profiles
- Privacy Policy
Here are some samples of websites we created in case you’re looking for real-world examples:
California Academy of Sciences
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society
American Diabetes Association
Tags: internet, lead generation, online marketing, Planned Giving Marketing, Planned giving websites, website
Posted in Fundraising, Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, website | No Comments »
Sunday, November 11th, 2012
In order to generate highly-qualified leads for planned gifts, you’ve got to offer something to your prospects. We recommend information that educates prospects about ways they can leave a gift to your organization.
Here are some titles for free reports that we have found generate leads effectively:
- How to make a gift that costs nothing now
- How to create or update your will
- How your estate plans can benefit you, your loved ones and others who struggle with cancer
- How to give to _______ and receive income for life
- How to use real estate or other assets to lower your taxes and leave more to your heirs
- Why you might want to consider creating a trust
- Ways to pass more on to your heirs by avoiding estate taxes
Also you might want to include some mission-oriented content offers such as:
- Our strategic plan (or annual report)
- How _________ uses donations
Tags: Content marketing, lead generation, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing
Posted in Content marketing, Fundraising, lead generation, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy | 2 Comments »
Thursday, November 8th, 2012
Recently someone told me that their organization doesn’t consider a planned giving lead to be a “real lead” unless someone is calling in or requesting specific information about how to definitely leave a gift.
In other words, the planned giving team felt that their job was to “procure” gifts that have already been decided upon.
It would be great if that’s how things worked. Then we wouldn’t need to market planned gifts. In fact, if that’s how the world worked, we wouldn’t have to market anything. People would never need to be sold. They’d never need to be inspired or persuaded.
But, of course, that’s not how it works. Folks, it’s all about engagement!
Planned giving marketing should inspire people to seek out more information. And when they do, your organization needs to engage with them. You need to meet them half-way. You need to learn about their unique story. Why do they care?
It’s best to do this face-to-face or on the telephone. But who has the time? If you do, use it to build personal relationships. If you don’t, use technology to build relationships. Use email, personal letters and social media to engage with your prospects.
Once someone raises their hand, if you don’t engage with them personally or with marketing tools because they aren’t definitely ready to leave a gift… then shame on you.
Keep in mind that many planned gifts come from people who have never donated to your organization. And the average planned gift floats around $50,000 depending on who you ask. Now— if you think people will leave that kind of money for your organization in their will without engagement… well… you’re nuts! When it comes to gifts that drop out of the sky… the engagement actually started a long time ago without your knowledge.
So, if you’d like many MORE people to leave gifts, then you’d better engage with donors and non-donors alike.
Bottom line: Get people to raise their hands (lead generation). Then engage with them (cultivation) using polite, persistent, donor-centric marketing messages over time. Planned giving marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.
Tags: Direct Marketing, lead generation, marketing, online marketing, Planned Giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy
Posted in Cultivation, cultivation marketing, Donors, Fundraising, lead generation, marketing, Philosophy/motivation, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »
