Planned Giving and the Individual Giver

If your nonprofit is primarily funded with gifts from people as opposed to institutions or the government, you are in better shape than you may think because you're getting what I call "heartfelt" gifts. Institutionalized giving and government budgets must adhere to the predetermined guidelines of boards and bureaucrats. But individual giving is motivated by the basics--generosity, and a history of care and concern about what you're doing and how you're doing it.

If you have a long-term mission, and a growing constituency of people giving you gifts on a regular basis over several years, then you have loyal friends to meet with about planning gifts. I've always felt planned giving is the most people-to-people, basic form of fundraising, overall. It's so personal. You don't need anything fancy, especially now, a basic bequest program will add ties to your donors that bind for life.

You may think I'm crazy, but I think now is a good time to begin a planned giving program or reboot a dormant one. Making a gift through a will is not intimidating when it comes to cash flow. In fact, it may make a lot of sense to your supporters and help them feel better to know they can still take steps to help their favorite charity, even if their gifts have been smaller lately.

You don't need to offer charitable gift annuities - although I still love them - or other more complicated vehicles. All you need is a plan to meet with your loyal donors. Or, reach out to them with email, telephone, and written material to show them they still matter to you and how they can still be helpful in a significant way. It's not as if their planned gift will in any way take away from current gifts. In fact, you may find your planned giving supporters making larger annual gifts than before, volunteer more, and just generally feel more committed to your organization.