Non-Profit Organization Marketing Tips
1. Saturate your communications with planned giving messages. Look for every possible way to share this option with your constituencies. Tailor the message for each group – but get the message out!
2. Use direct mail coupons. Add two check-off boxes to your direct mail coupons – one to request more information (such as a Leave A Legacy brochure), and one to let you know they have included your organization in their plans. Use these check-off boxes now and forever.
3. Emphasize bequests. For the vast majority of people, the bequest will always remain the planned gift of choice. Most people don’t have complicated income or estate tax planning needs, and most will need to retain their assets for the balance of their lives…just in case. Bequests provide maximum flexibility and still allow for a gift to your organization.
4. Provide sample bequest language. Make it easy for people to include your organization in their Will or Living Trust. Provide sample language. For a specific bequest: "I give to [Name], located at [Address], a Colorado non-profit corporation, the sum of $_______ [or ______% of my estate; or the property described herein], for its general purposes." For a residuary bequest: "All the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate, both real and personal, I give to [Name], located at [Address], a Colorado non-profit corporation, for its general purposes."
5. Don’t forget beneficiary designations. A beneficiary designation works well for planned gifts for many of the same reasons a bequest does. However, retirement accounts and life insurance proceeds transfer by beneficiary designation, not by will. Encourage people to remember your organization in this way. An added advantage? It typically costs nothing to complete a beneficiary change form.
6. A simple planned giving program is still a "real" program. You do not have to market complex life income arrangements to have a legitimate planned giving program. A bequest and beneficiary designation "awareness" will produce significant gifts to your organization over time – the majority of all gifts occur in precisely this way. In addition, utilize the educational resources provided by the Colorado Planned Giving Roundtable to learn about other gift options. Add new program components only as it makes sense for you and your organization.
7. Visit donors! There is no better way to discover and encourage planned gifts than by talking with (and listening to) your donors. Don’t "sell" gifts. Instead, provide opportunities for people to lend their support.
Click here to view our Partnership Agreement (74k PDF file).