According to Candid, a data and insights group, most U.S. nonprofits have annual budgets below $50,000.
While your organization may not fall within this “invisible majority,” if you’re a small nonprofit, you likely have an even smaller planned giving program, if one at all.
So how do you get one started—much less grow it—when time is short and dollars are tight?
5 Tips to Maximize Your Time and Talent
1. Start with yourself. Ideally, we’d recommend spending 30 minutes a day on planned giving. But we know the reality—your day can easily get pulled in many directions and even carving out 30 minutes a week can feel challenging. The important part is to block dedicated time and hold it sacred.
Whether it’s a few minutes each day or a focused block once a week, making space for planned giving ensures this critical work gets done. By doing so, you’ll build the habit of devoting time to planned giving and show staff and colleagues that this work is truly a priority.
2. Work with what you have. This is no time to reinvent the wheel. Instead, think about how to integrate planned giving into existing communications.
Have a newsletter?
- Include donor stories. They should be warm and personal and feel like the donor is sitting next to you. Stay away from technical gift language, or the how to make the gift. The goal is to feed your supporters’ why. Wrap with a call to action that inspires prospects to believe that they, too, have the capacity to give.
Try this: Like Marie, you can help feed seniors in our community for years to come through a gift in your will. Contact us if you’d like to discuss how to create this type of gift—and fill their hearts with happiness.
- Create a consistent planned giving column. Focus on highlighting “easy” gifts, especially if you’re launching a planned giving program and/or operating as a smaller team or single point of contact. Stick to bequests (aka gifts in a will) and beneficiary designations, especially in the first two to three years of your program. Baby steps.
Use existing marketing/communications for planned giving callouts.
- Include content in your nonprofit’s enewsletter, annual report and/or magazine
- Place a banner on your website’s homepage
- Create a planned giving microsite as the program grows
- Incorporate “Have you remembered us in your will?” call-to-action language in your response devices
3. Bring on the Board. They should become your planned giving program’s best friend. Their support is essential.
Besides, you can’t (or shouldn’t) do all the heavy lifting. Too many plates spinning will invariably come crashing down.
Why your board must care about a planned giving program:
- Right now, baby boomers are planning how they’ll pass on their estimated $84 trillion of wealth—to their heirs and/or a favorite charity. The Great Wealth Transfer is underway. Your nonprofit should absolutely be part of it because …
- The uncomfortable truth is that if you’re not reaching out and talking to prospects, other organizations will. You’ll miss out on potential relationship and funding opportunities.
Tip: Get your board to embrace planned giving by connecting the dots between strategy and sustainability.
Be a model donor: Consider having staff and board members who have made planned gifts act as testimonials for others.
4. Keep it simple. You are not required to be a gift planning expert if you’re a planned giving officer. Start out with the easy gifts we mentioned above, a gift in a donor’s will and beneficiary designations. Both are generally considered easy to understand and execute, for donors and for you. Gain confidence and then delve into discussions of more complicated gift types, like charitable remainder trusts or gifts of real estate.
Language Alert! Use relatable language that shows benefits to the donor.
- A worry-free way to support our cause”; “create a lasting legacy”
- “Use your will to invest in the causes that are close to your heart and create a permanent testament to the values that are important to you.”
- “If you are ready to include a gift to our organization in your will, ask your estate planning attorney to add this suggested wording to your will or living trust: I give to [Organization Name], [City], [State], (the sum of $_____ or _____ percent of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate) for its general purposes.”
5. Enlist support services. As your efforts build, think about how added support services can help you grow. Technology and outside expertise can make planned giving more efficient for smaller teams.
When you begin using data more intentionally, remember one thing: Simplicity and discipline rule the day. The failure of many data projects is they go too deep, too fast.
Bottom line: Know your limits. Know what you, as an organization, can realistically commit to and deliver on. Use a crawl, walk, run approach. Managing data gets easier if it becomes part of daily life.
If you need extra “manpower,” agencies that specialize in planned giving (like ours) can deliver expertise without the expense of hiring staff. For shorter-term needs, independent contractors offer flexibility, letting you bring on support for individual projects without the commitment of an employee.
Plan vs. Program: Know the Difference
Whatever the size or capacity of your planned giving “team,” always ask: am I running a plan or a program?
A marketing calendar (the plan) tells you when things go out. A marketing program tells you why they matter—and how they work together. Like a symphony conductor.
Cohesion is key. Every point of communication should work like a gear in a well-oiled machine, turning prospects into supporters and supporters into loyal advocates.
Here’s a check-in to ensure you’re running a cohesive planned giving marketing program:
- I use the right marketing channels, not just the trendy ones, that meet my audience.
- I’m telling a consistent story across every channel.
- I tie my program to concrete fundraising and engagement goals.
- I employ built-in, tangible markers to track success.
- I have gained support from my board, and most have made a planned gift to support my organization.
Keep Going—The Results Will Come
Above all, don’t give up.
One email, one mailer, one visit—none of these tactics in isolation will yield results that keep the ball rolling.
But a thoughtful, sustained approach? Now that builds momentum.