Julia Weiss

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Sustaining Your Legacy Initiative

Intro Module

Understanding the Legacy Process

Marketing Your Legacy Giving Program

Stewardship

Effective Stewardship

Ways To Steward Donors

Stewardship Plan Template

After the Declaration of Intent

Sustaining Your Program

Review

Accessing Your Resources

Sustaining Your Legacy Initiative

In this lesson, you’ll learn:

How to market your legacy giving initiative
Effective stewardship techniques to sustain legacy giving
How to track donor stewardship
How to plan stewardship throughout the year
Tips for writing a thank you letter
How to use your funds wisely

Ongoing marketing is important for sustaining your legacy giving initiative. In this section, we’ll outline different ways to market the concept of legacy giving.

Understanding the Legacy Process

Marketing Your Legacy Giving Program

Run an ad:

Keep the ad simple.
Make sure either the photo or headline dominates the ad.
Limit the number of fonts to one or two at the most.
Tell a story in your ad.
Include clearly visible logos.
Include your contact information.

Publish newsletter articles:

Focus on educational topics (e.g., tax rollover initiatives, leaving a legacy through life insurance, the importance of having a will).
Keep your articles short and readable.

Provide legacy content in your newsletter, including your:

Donor listings
Donor testimonials
Advertisements
Legacy-related articles

Be sure to include who to contact in your listings, ads, and articles for readers who are interested in leaving a legacy.

Include legacy giving information on your website and make sure it’s easy to navigate. Include links to your organization’s:

Case statement
Declaration of intent
List of legacy donors
Legacy donor testimonials
Ways to make a legacy gift

Affix the “Ask me about my legacy” ribbon on name tags at events/meetings or print “Legacy society member” on name tags (see example ribbon above).

Send targeted direct mail:

Use outer envelopes to alert readers to a special message.
Choose higher-quality stationery.
Handwrite addresses or use a handwriting font.
Affix a stamp (avoid postage meter).
Follow up with a phone call.
Use a clean, readable font and write in an inviting, warm tone.
Tell a compelling story.
Include a photo and short testimonial (space permitting).
Use “you” to address the recipient.
Include direct and indirect asks throughout.
- Direct: “Will you include (organization) in your will?"
- Indirect: Recognizing current legacy donors and inviting others to join them.

Market the impact the endowment is having on your organization:

Highlight the impact on annual operating expenses or project benefits using either dollar amounts or anecdotes of how your organization is using the funds.
Transparency is key:

41%

of donors say they have changed their giving because of increased knowledge about nonprofit effectiveness.

Create a legacy brochure:

Keep the brochure in your lobby or entryway with other organizational information.
Give the brochure to donors as a takeaway when having legacy conversations.
Send the brochure via direct mail prior to asking for an appointment.

Use social media:

Advertise your legacy event(s).
Connect with professional advisors.

Post online:

Provide relevant content.
Post often, but at a different time of day each time.
Ask people to share or “like” posts.
Schedule your content ahead of time for better planning through social media schedulers, such as SocialPilot or Hootsuite.
Always put a link to your website.
Post pictures from events.
Post “emotional” videos that are no more than 30 seconds long.

Which methods will you use to market legacy giving?

Effective Stewardship

New nonprofits are created every day, and it’s important to make sure donors continue to choose your organization. You should think of legacy donors as long-term investors.

Remember that most legacy gifts are revocable, so you’ll want to keep donors engaged and feeling appreciated to ensure they do not change their minds. Effective stewardship is critical to your success.

Stewardship Plan Template

You may also want to keep track of your donor connections and events throughout the year.

Here’s an example of a stewardship plan template:

Now, fill out your own stewardship plan template to detail how you plan to steward donors.

Stewardship Activity

Date to be Implemented

Individual Responsible

Personal Connection:

Donor Listings/Testimonials:

Recognition at Community Gatherings:

Special Gathering for Legacy Donors:

Track Your Donor Stewardship

To track your donor stewardship, you’ll want to create a form for donors to fill out so you can keep track of their information and relationship to your organization.

Here’s an example of a donor stewardship tracking form:

Practice tracking your stewardship efforts on this form with one of your own donors.

Donor(s) last name(s)

Donor(s) first name(s)

Requests anonymity?

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Declaration of intent date

Date to follow up for formalization document

Formalization date

Name for formal recognition

Follow up for recognition or to complete declaration of intent?

Amount

Handwritten thank you letter sent?

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Added to legacy web page/newsletter?

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Testimonial

Notes

Stewardship next steps

Next steps date

Person or org that secured  declaration of intent

After the Declaration of Intent

After a donation or meeting with a donor, it’s important to send a prompt, meaningful, and personal thank you letter. 92% of donors said that a personal and prompt acknowledgment has an impact on future giving.

To acknowledge their donation or your meeting with them, send a report with measurable accomplishments for nonprofit funds before asking donors to give again. Have your CEO or lay leader follow up with a personal phone call. Leaving a voicemail has also been found to be as effective as actually speaking with the donor.

Here are some thank you letter tips to help you get started:

Sustaining Your Program

Legacy initiatives are not short-term campaigns. Once you’ve begun, you’ll want to integrate asking for legacy commitments into your organization’s culture and continue your efforts to secure legacy gifts forever. Steer away from a transactional fundraising culture to a culture of philanthropy, where legacy giving is institutionalized into your overall development efforts. In order to sustain your legacy initiative for the long term, review the following steps.

Complete succession planning for your legacy committee.

Your legacy committee should evolve from being a special project to being a standing committee of the board or an integral part of your development committee.
Have an appropriate succession plan in place so new people come on as others transfer off.

Keep your legacy committee motivated.

Continue to set goals.
Email your legacy committee to show your appreciation for their commitment.
Celebrate successes either via email or in person.
Make sure the board expresses appreciation to committee members.
Honor committee members at legacy events.
Have treats at committee meetings for attendees.

Involve your board in your legacy efforts.

Report to the board at least quarterly regarding legacy giving.
Keep your board informed on new gifts secured, total commitments, estimated future value, and gifts realized (i.e., dollars received).
Establish an expectation of 100% board participation.
When gifts are realized, honor donors at board meetings.

Use your funds wisely.

Establish a gift acceptance policy.
Establish a board-approved endowment policy designating legacy gifts to your organization’s endowment.
Manage, invest, and use funds responsibly.
Pay attention to your organization’s budget.
Make a commitment to address budgetary issues immediately.
Have a strategic plan with established outcomes or benchmarks.
Establish clear policies and procedures governing the organization’s finances.
Be prepared to make your finances available to your donors and to be able to explain your budget to them in a simple and succinct manner.

$41.2 billion

Giving by bequest increased by 10.3% from 2019 to 2020, representing $41.2 billion.

21%

of donors choose to give a higher portion of their wealth away to nonprofits instead of passing it along to the next generation.

18%

of donors say that access to and awareness of financial planning strategies helps them give more to charity, such as donor advised funds or donating appreciated stocks.

More likely

Jewish Americans are significantly more likely than other Americans to have a will, to have nonprofit provisions in their wills, and to have these provisions for causes affiliated with their religion.