About the author:

MaryBeth Martin earned a BA/JD at Boston College/ Boston College Law School.  A leader in higher education advancement since 1988, she administered planned giving programs at Boston College and Emmanuel College and was an adjunct faculty member of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Currently she is Associate Vice President for Development and Alumnae Relations at Emmanuel College in Boston.  MaryBeth is an world traveler and avid reader who resides in Newton, Massachusetts.

MaryBeth Martin's favorite resources are Conrad Teitell’s Taxwise Giving Publications and monthly newsletter. More information on these can be found at www.taxwisegiving.com or by calling 1-800-243-9122.

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Bequests: A Great Place to Begin for Three Important Reasons

A good planned giving program can be invaluable to a charitable organization.  If you currently do not have a planned giving program, you may be surprised to learn that planned gifts can greatly enhance all of your fundraising efforts, and allow you to maximize your gift potential. In recent years, a great deal of attention has focused on life income gifts (charitable gift annuities, pooled income fund gifts and charitable remainder trusts). These specialized forms of giving can certainly be a wonderful source of revenue. However, any organization which is considering a commitment of staff time and resources to building a planned giving program should begin by focusing on the simplest and most popular form of planned gifts: bequests.

1. From a fundraiser’s perspective, marketing and soliciting bequests has distinct advantages over marketing other forms of planned gifts. From the outset, your prospect will be familiar with the concept of making a gift through his/her will.  In addition, I have found donors are often more comfortable discussing significant gifts of capital when the gifts will be realized by the charity after the donor’s death rather than given away during his/her lifetime. This is particularly true today, when the costs of health care and long-term nursing care are so uncertain.       
2. Focusing your initial efforts on discovering donors who have already established bequests and encouraging others to do the same accomplishes two significant goals. You will be uncovering future sources of revenue for your organization and also creating a pool of prospects for future life income gifts. A donor who includes a bequest to benefit a favorite charity in his/her will is unlikely to remove that bequest even when updating estate plans. The gift becomes complete in the donor’s mind, even though it is revocable.       
3. Thanking your bequest donors through personal visits and donor recognition events opens the door to discussing the benefits of life income gifts. This can be particularly attractive when your donor has earmarked highly appreciated, low-income stock for your organization. Converting this bequest to a life income gift can provide significant income to your donor and make what was once a revocable commitment to your organization into an irrevocable gift.      

The key to making this happen is staying in touch with your bequest donors, continuing to provide them with information on your organization and the benefits of life income gifts, and servicing them well once a planned gift is made. My best experience, and one that offered me the best education on the dynamics of a planned gift, happened early in my career when a known bequest donor requested information on charitable gift annuities. The reply card sent to my attention had accompanied a planned giving newsletter mailed several years earlier. This donor obviously had thought about gift annuities for some time. He asked for information, and then tested the water with a $10,000 gift. After receiving several quarterly income checks, he made a second gift of $20,000, and brought his sister on board. Over the next three or four years this wonderful couple made gifts amounting to more than $800,000 in the form of charitable gift annuities. Their entire estates had been committed to this organization by bequest, and they simply committed a portion of those bequests during their lifetimes. 

I am firmly convinced that these donors continued to give, not merely because of the income, but because of the gratitude and responsiveness of their favorite charity. I had no idea at the beginning of our relationship that their gifts would become so substantial. In fact, as retired individuals who lived very modestly, there were no outward indications of personal wealth. I have found this is often the case. The value of treating each donor as your most important cannot be measured. Whether it is a bequest or life income gift, you will often be surprised at the support your organization will receive when donors feel appreciated and valued for their commitment and loyalty. In this instance, the donors had never attended a bequest recognition event and had declined personal visits. But they continued to hear from the organization, receiving updates, newsletters and personal calls. They felt like part of the family, and when the time was right, they converted their bequest to a lifetime planned gift. 

All of your bequest donors will not make this leap. However, keeping them included in the organization will certainly make it possible.

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