Ou planned programs

In , this resulted in the first year-over-year decrease in charitable giving from individuals in more than five years. By securing planned gifts from a wide range of prospects, nonprofits can recoup these losses. Planned giving is generally thought to be at the top of the traditional donor pyramid — after donors have given major gifts. Planned giving officers are often a part of the major gifts team at their organizations, adopting the tools of that discipline: identifying top prospects, meeting with them in-person, and then gradually securing bequest commitments.

However, planned giving can actually invert the donor pyramid by increasing annual giving. Russell James, a Texas Tech professor and planned giving expert, conducted an in-depth analysis of charitable giving in If a donor has been supporting your organization for years, making a bequest in their will is a powerful way to leave a lasting impact.

When leaving a bequest in a will to a charitable organization, donors can allocate how or where they want that money to be spent. Because wills are fairly easy to update, donors can also keep their bequests up-to-date, checking in with gift officers on where their donations will make the most impact.

Depending on the type of planned gift a donor makes, there can be some tax benefits for them. Some other planned gift types, such as charitable remainder trusts, are granted a tax-exempt status by the IRS. However, tax advantages to planned gifts can be a little complicated, so gift officers should make sure to help donors evaluate them on a case-by-case basis.

Bequests are a popular and fairly simple way to make a planned gift. A charitable gift annuity allows a donor to give a large amount of cash or securities in exchange for a fixed income payment for life.

There are a couple types of charitable remainder trusts, but in each, the remaining funds go to the nonprofit after the trust is terminated. A charitable remainder annuity trust pays the donor a fixed amount based on a percentage of the initial assets used to fund the trust. A charitable remainder unitrust pays the donor a percentage of its principal and is revalued annually, so that payments increase over time.

And when that term is up, the assets are given back to the donor or their beneficiaries. Other gift types that some organizations include in their planned giving programs are non-cash assets, such as stock or real estate, giving from IRAs also known as Qualified Charitable Distributions or QCDs , and Pooled Income Funds. See our complete breakdown of the many types of planned gifts. If your nonprofit organization is new to planned giving, there are a few steps you should follow to kick it off.

We go over these steps in detail in this article on jump-starting your planned giving program , but here is the high level overview:. Before you start a planned giving program, everyone at your nonprofit should be on board. Your organization will need to ask itself questions, such as:. These teams should create shared goals and balance any competing priorities in order to identify key moments to solicit supporters and fundraise for your organization.

At this point, the planned giving team should also work closely with major gifts to identify top prospects for outreach. To start bringing in planned gifts, your organization will need to create a detailed marketing plan. Just like communicating to your supporters about any other fundraising options or campaigns, repetition and ease is key for marketing planned giving.

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