What is Planned Giving?

Planned giving, also known as legacy giving, is the act of making a commitment to donate a significant gift to a charity or non-profit, typically through your estate plan. This could be in the form of bequests in a will, charitable trusts, gifts of life insurance, retirement assets, or property. It's a meaningful and impactful way to ensure your donors’ values and dedication to your mission continue beyond their lifetimes.

A Tale of Two Departments:

The disconnect between fundraising and marketing is not uncommon in non-profits. While fundraising focuses on securing financial support for the organization's mission, marketing aims to spread awareness and create a favorable public image. These different objectives can sometimes lead to disagreements over messaging, resource allocation, and priorities. However, it's essential to remember that both departments are working towards the same overall goal - the success and sustainability of the organization.

1. Donor Retention Rate

The donor retention rate is the percentage of donors who give to your organization more than once. Retaining donors is far less expensive than acquiring new ones, and retained donors often increase their giving over time. Thus, a high donor retention rate is a sign of a healthy and optimized fundraising program.

The Role of Visuals in Evoking Empathy:

Visual elements, such as images and videos, can play a critical role in amplifying the impact of your nonprofit messaging (2). By providing a window into the lives of those you serve, visuals can evoke empathy and inspire potential donors to take action.

Nonprofit organizations often rely on grants to fund their mission and programs. However, writing a successful grant proposal can be a challenge. To increase the chances of receiving funding, nonprofit organizations need to focus on the critical elements that are most likely to make their proposal stand out.

Telling your story in a compelling and powerful way is key when non-profits are looking to connect with potential donors to raise funds. By sharing stories that illustrate the impact of their work, nonprofits inspire others to get involved and support their mission financially.

A nonprofit culture of philanthropy is your organization's collective perception and participation in advancing the fundraising efforts of the entire charity. It's less about your actual designated fundraising team/department and more about total knowledge and buy-in from everyone in the organization family.

With the 2020 pandemic, healthcare was top of mind for every community across the country, and in-kind donations were at an all time high, topping $170,000,000 nationally, but even though charitable giving has grown over the last few years (even through the pandemic) healthcare philanthropy has seen much smaller jump in cash donations, when compared to the 10 other top charity subsectors.

Chances are if you’re a small shop, you’re an overworked and potentially understaffed shop, or you’re a shop looking to expand your philanthropic outreach to prospects, the answer is…YES.

Set a fundraising goal – Be specific with what you are trying to accomplish. Focus on the dollars needed and set specific, measurable goals so that you can inspire action and track financial growth and results.

Do you have the bandwidth to figure out all of the who, what, when, where, why and how you need for a successful campaign? Or, would it be better to have someone with experience help you with the roadmap for success…