By Brenda Ray Scott, CFRE

Is marketing your Planned Giving program that one project that always drops the bottom of your seemingly never-ending list? As many organizations wrap up another fiscal year and others assess their progress mid-point in the calendar year, now is a great time to start creating or fine-tuning the marketing plan for your Planned Giving program.

Committing to actively marketing your Planned Giving program is the first step in engaging donors while building the momentum needed to grow their knowledge of giving opportunities and how they can make a charitable gift to their favorite organization by using a variety of assets. One of the ways of the most common ways of making that happen is through a bequest. According to the 2024 survey published by caring.com, “1 in 4 Americans without a Will don’t ever plan on getting one.” That statistic speaks to the substantial opportunity organizations have to build the knowledge of their supporters around why gift planning is important and to help them learn about how they can leverage their assets to benefit their favorite organization through an estate gift. For most donors, that estate gift is considerably larger than any they would make during their lifetime.

Marketing for Planned Gifts is about more than securing that next bequest. These types of gifts include planned giving encompasses gifts made by bequest as well as through other assets such as stock, IRAs, QCDs (help to meet RMDs), and DAFs.

Considerations to keep in mind as you assess and reflect on marketing your Planned Giving program to your supporters and the greater community include the promise of the “Great Wealth Transfer” that is taking place, how planned giving donors give (online is where it’s at), and the role AI can have in engaging your donors.

At our Marketing Your Planned Giving Program webinar happening on Tuesday, July 9, at 11:00 am PST, you’ll hear about proven tactics for raising awareness, generating interest, and securing planned gifts. You will come away with new ideas and resources so that you can finally cross this planned giving project off your to-do list.