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Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Fundraising Tuesday: Asking for a Legacy Gift

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When it comes to asking people to leave a legacy gift to their organization, Planned Parenthood does it right.

Legacy giving means making a donation that takes effect after you die, through your will or other planned giving tools. It’s a touchy subject. While I personally take comfort in thinking about my life as a story with a beginning, middle, and end, many of your donors shy away from thinking about their own death. So, you need to think carefully about how you approach them.

How Planned Parenthood asked for a legacy gift

It’s clear that Planned Parenthood has done that careful thinking. First, because they recognized me as a potential legacy giver. How? My wife and I have donated to them in small amounts every year for many years. We are loyal donors.That makes us more likely to think of them in our will than someone who gave one large gift and has been silent ever since!

(Note: they didn’t stop asking us for annual gifts, and that’s right, too. A person who makes a legacy gift is feeling the love for the organization they’ve just benefited: they’re in the mood to help.)

Second, they started mailing these materials to me when I turned 65. (They could find that out from public records.) That’s a reasonable time to do it. People who are raising children, paying off their mortgage, or saving for retirement may also do legacy giving, but it’s unpredictable. People who feel relatively secure for the rest of their lives are the often the ones who start looking to make a difference beyond their lifetime.

Third: the materials are simple but complete. Simple, as in:

  • Easy to read
  • Nicely produced (but not expensive-looking enough to ring the “Why are they wasting my money?” alarm in donors’ minds)
  • Putting a clear message out front. “Your legacy. Our future. Reproductive health and rights for the next generation.”

Complete, as in including:

  1. A motivational brochure that answers the question “Why give this way?”
  2. Brief explanations of options: wills, trusts, beneficiary designations on our retirement funds, life insurance, or bank accounts
  3. Language we could copy and paste into our will
  4. Contact information for the Office of Gift Planning (phone, email, or online)
  5. A reply card to be sent through the mail. This makes the process more familiar for people my age, who are used to giving through the mail. It also helps the organization to know in advance what legacy gifts they are in line to receive–a good thing for planning and for stewardship (in other words, not taking your best supporters for granted!)

Will Rona and I include Planned Parenthood in our wills, or make any other kind of legacy gift to them? That would be telling. But are we more likely because of the thoughtful way they asked? A thousand times, yes.

Is your nonprofit ensuring its own future by asking donors to think about their own legacy? If not, it’s time to start. We are not getting any younger, you know!

 

Are You Using a Rotary Phone on the Internet?

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rotary phone

How many know what this is?

Does your nonprofit or business use a rotary phone?  Of course not.  Push-button phones are everywhere.  When younger people wonder how to use a rotary phone, they have to look it up.

But are you using a rotary phone on the internet?  The answer is “yes”–if you’re not using social media.

Yes, you have email.  That’s the rotary phone of the 21st century.  You can still use it to get in touch, but it’s slow, and talking to more than one person at a time is awkward.

Yes, you have a website. That’s like being in the phone book.  Most people these days are throwing phone books away as soon as they receive them.  Being listed does you no good if people don’t have a reason to call.

You have a blog?  Good!  A step in the right direction! But it’s a baby step–like putting your phone number in a print ad.  What makes people want to get in touch with you if they don’t know you already?

Social media let you meet people in a relaxed environment.  You get to know each other.  People begin to like you, perhaps even trust you.  They tell you more about themselves.  When it comes time to ask them for something, you know what might appeal to them.  But they might actually approach you first.

That’s why it’s worthwhile using social media and using them well.  Because you don’t want to wait by the phone.

 

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How to Win Loyal Supporters

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Call it a funnel.  Call it a cycle. However you see the process of winning loyal supporters for your nonprofit organization, there are three steps you want those supporters to take.

Know. Like. Trust.

No matter how strong you, your programs or services may be, you will still be ignored by prospective donors, volunteers, and other supporters until they know, like, and trust you.

My colleague Patrick McFadden wrote about this for small businesses.  It is just as true for nonprofits.  So, do you want to be ignored?  If so, you can stop reading right here.  If you want supporters, though, read on!

The “Know” Stage

It’s a truism: people can’t support you if they don’t know you.  So how do we get our nonprofits to be known?

  • Word of mouth. If their friends tell their friends about you–face to face or through social media–that’s the most powerful recommendation.
  • Blogging. Answer the questions people are wondering about and they will come back for more.
  • Social media.   Yes, you can use Facebook, Twitter, etc. to put your words out there, but it’s even better to find people who should be supporting you and actually talk with them.  That’s why they call it “social”!

The “Like” Stage

Just because they know your organization’s name doesn’t mean they want to talk with you.  (You’re not trying to pick them up at a bar.  You want a real relationship!)

So, you must get permission by a) being likeable and b) giving them a good reason to want to hear more.

“Likeable” is Dave Kerpen‘s trademark.  The same qualities that make us likeable in real life can help our organizations win likes on Facebook (for instance). We ought to think like the people we are trying to attract and give them what they need.  Read his book for good advice on how to do just that.

What should nonprofits give their prospects to get permission to email them? Patrick McFadden suggests we “give” them:

  • Easy ways to find what they need on our websites (including landing pages designed just for them)
  • Information in their inbox–news they can use
  • Expert advice in the form of an ebook

The “Trust” Stage

While you’re developing “the Know” through articles, posts, and referrals, “the Like”  through your website, newsletter, and ebooks, you’re still not fundraising.  Be patient.

As Patrick says, “Trust is perhaps the most important step and yet it’s not one you can simply manufacture through one or two tactics – it comes together through a collection of things.”

  • Write blog posts that readers are eager to read.
  • Deliver your newsletter or email updates consistently.
  • Educate.  Don’t promote.
  • Post content on your website that’s so valuable reputable websites will link back to it.
  • Participate in social media by sharing great information and helping others find what they want.
  • Help your prospective supporters before you ask them for help.

What’s one thing your organization does to get supporters to know you?  Like you?  Trust you? Please share it below in the Comments section.

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