Do you have a system to support your planned giving program?

Planned gifts provide crucial support to nonprofits. That’s why it’s important to have a simple system in place to support your planned giving program. As author Erik Hanberg notes in The Little Book of Gold, planned gifts “represent an opportunity for giving unequaled during a person’s lifetime. After all, it might be hard to give 40 percent of your assets to a nonprofit while you’re alive, but it’s a lot easier when you’re not.”

Bequests are the most common and least complicated method of making a planned gift. For that reason, bequests are a good place to begin if your organization is new to planned giving.

How can you get started with planned giving?

Hanberg recommends the following:

• Explore local resources, including your local community foundation. As Hanberg explains, they have “far more experience than most other nonprofits when it comes to planned giving.”
• Communicate about planned gifts. Give your donors the option to receive information about making a planned gift to your organization. Add a checkbox next to this option on a remittance envelope, and add this to your online giving form, too.

Once your organization is consistently communicating about planned giving, it’s important that you have a system in place to track constituents who’ve expressed interest in participating.

What does your planned giving system need to address?

• You need a way to identify the constituents who’ve expressed interest in making a planned gift
• You need to ensure that you send additional information to constituents who request it
• When you’re notified of a bequest, you need to document that and manage tasks related to it, such as checking in with the executor of the estate
• You need to record funds that are received as a result of a bequest

It takes time to yield the benefits of a planned giving program. But, the time you invest is worth it. And having a system in place will set you up for success. To help you get started, we’re offering two valuable resources that will guide you through the process. And, for users of Little Green Light, these resources will supply you with specific, actionable tips to help you get the most out of LGL.

The first resource is Erik Hanberg’s The Little Book of Gold. Forbes rated it as a Top 12 Must-Read Book For Nonprofit Employees, and it’s packed with practical, real-world fundraising wisdom that really resonates with us.

The second is LGL’s Companion Guide to The Little Book of Gold. Each chapter of Erik’s book covers an essential aspect of fundraising, such as planned giving. In LGL’s Companion Guide, we’ve written corresponding chapters that show how you can use Little Green Light to set up systems as you implement Erik’s advice.

How to access The Little Book of Gold and LGL’s Companion Guide

Download a FREE digital copy of The Little Book of Gold here, along with LGL’s Companion Guide (available further down on the same page).

Your free digital copy of The Little Book of Gold is available throughout 2022.

Conclusion

Chapter 8 of Erik’s book offers additional information on planned giving. LGL’s Companion Guide shows you how to create a system and implement Erik’s advice using LGL.