Planned giving, also called legacy giving, is a powerful way to ensure your organization’s future while deepening relationships with members.

For many associations, planned giving is a new undertaking, often falling to the bottom of the fundraising to-do list behind more familiar and urgent needs. However, it’s among the best ways to diversify your nondues revenue (and make it more predictable over time). Let’s explore the basics before honing in on relationship-building tips.

What Is Planned Giving?

Planned giving consists of any donations contributed to your organization through a donor’s estate or financial plan, most commonly as deferred gifts in the form of bequests in donors’ wills.

In addition to bequests, popular types of planned gifts include:

• Beneficiary designations on life insurance policies and unused retirement funds
• Charitable gift annuities
• Charitable remainder trusts
• Charitable lead trusts
• Pooled income funds

Many organizations also pursue various non-cash gifts as part of their planned giving programs since these donations are often made with financial planning in mind. Examples include grants from DAFs and gifts of stock and cryptocurrency.

Although several types of planned gifts appeal primarily to major donors, it’s an extremely diverse category. Bequests and gifts of stock are especially accessible and can help organizations broaden their donor pools to include previously unidentified high-impact donors.

The Benefits of Planned Giving

Why make planned giving a priority? It brings several significant benefits to fundraising organizations. 

First, planned giving can be a highly efficient way to generate diversified, predictable revenue. The investment of time to identify and steward prospects can pay dividends when lifelong savers and appreciative members work with you to set up planned gifts. This brings the added benefit of deepening your relationships, encouraging continued engagement and giving.

And looking at the bigger picture, expanding your fundraising efforts to include planned and non-cash gifts is a savvy strategic move. Studies have found that bequest donors tend to increase their annual giving over time, and organizations that prioritize non-cash gifts grow six times faster [PDF] than those that don’t.

Your donors see special benefits from planned giving, too. These gifts create the opportunity for them to build meaningful legacies with organizations that have impacted their lives while giving increased financial and estate planning flexibility. In many cases, these gifts bring significant tax benefits as well. 

(Note that tax implications will be contingent upon both the specifics of the gift and your association’s IRS classification. Do your research before discussing potential tax implications with donors and never give direct financial advice, instead directing them to a professional.)

How to Build Relationships With Legacy Donors

What steps can you take to begin building a planned giving program and connecting with potential donors? Consider these best practices:

• Actively promote your program. Include planned giving on your association’s Ways to Give web page, link out to educational resources and free will creation tools, and mention your new giving options in newsletters and social media posts.

• Identify potential donors and reach out. Start by surveying your members about their interest in bequest giving and ask if anyone has already created bequests in their will. Use the responses and additional fundraising data you’ve generated over time to identify a small group of prospects, and directly reach out to start a conversation. Consider creating personalized discussion guides like you might when soliciting for a major campaign.

• Emphasize the benefits and options. In your communications with prospects, lean into the personal and potential financial benefits of planned giving. Emphasize that these gifts are particularly impactful for your association as a form of diversified, sustaining long-term revenue.
  

• Provide social proof. On both your website and in direct communications, show prospects the value that other members have found in creating planned gifts. This is a new form of giving for many donors, so testimonials from those who’ve already tried it can go a long way to encourage interest.

• Create an exclusive legacy society. Give your planned donors special perks and recognition with a legacy society. This structure simplifies the process of engaging and communicating with them, plus it can become an appealing talking point in discussions with potential donors.

Getting Started

If planned giving is a new undertaking for your association, don’t feel rushed. 

You can take your time to lay the foundation for your program with simple online resources and tools for creating bequests, which are the simplest type of planned gift for both organizations and donors. FreeWill’s guide to starting a planned giving program outlines these key steps in greater detail:

Once you secure your first gifts, you’ll be able to learn more about those donors and refine your approach to each of the key elements in this list, like prospecting and marketing, with what you’ve learned.

Planned giving offers fundraising organizations valuable opportunities to diversify and stabilize their revenue streams while also deepening their relationships with supporters. And thankfully, it’s easier to start making planned giving a part of your strategic plan than many fundraisers might initially think.