How to Start Legacy Giving Without Hiring a Planned Giving Professional

Do you see the potential of legacy giving to help your organization thrive? But you’re also stretched thin trying to reach this year’s fundraising goals and working with a budget that’s barely covering current salaries — not to mention hiring a planned giving professional? 

The good news is you can accomplish good legacy giving work in just 2-3 hours a week.

Fundraisers tend to be intimidated by legacy giving because of big words like bequests and estate planning. They can also feel overwhelmed by the idea of adding legacy giving to their workload. But good legacy giving work is accomplished through work you’re already good at — cultivating relationships, having meaningful conversations, and inviting friends to join you.

In this article, I will teach you five things you need to integrate legacy giving work into your current work — no additional staff required!  

Strengthen Your Donor Retention Strategy

The defining characteristic of legacy givers, according to Dr. Russel James’ research, is loyalty. In fact, about 80% of legacy gifts are made by donors who have made 15 or more gifts to the receiving organization over their lifetime. 

If you want to increase your chances of receiving legacy gifts you need your donors to give 15 or more gifts to your organization. Which means you need to retain your donors. 

One of the best ways to set your organization up for successfully receiving legacy gifts is to create and consistently implement a donor retention strategy. A powerful and effective donor retention strategy includes three things:

1. A thank you note. Thank you notes that contribute to donor retention are prompt and personal. Prompt means the thank you note is mailed within 48-72 hours of a gift being received. Personal includes using the donor's name, and acknowledging past gifts and relationship(s) outside of philanthropy. You can write a thank you note that improves donor retention today following these steps.
2. Follow up call. Begin your follow-up call with sincere gratitude followed by a discovery question to deepen the donor relationship. A discovery question could be something like, “You’ve been so loyal all these years. What has inspired such loyal support?” Learn about creating follow-up call scripts here in the Donor Conversation Days section. 
3. Invite again. Whenever church or nonprofit leaders ask why they aren’t receiving more gifts I ask them, “How often are you inviting your donors to make an additional gift?” Most of the time they’re not inviting additional gifts frequently enough. Most first-time donors make a gift because someone asked. If you don’t keep them informed and invite them again, they will either assume you don’t need further support or just not think about you.

Legacy givers are loyal. A consistently and intentionally implemented donor retention strategy is crucial to cultivating loyal donors whom you can one day introduce to the opportunity of legacy gifts. 

Identify Your Best Legacy Giving Prospects

Though anyone could be a Legacy Giving donor to your ministry, a relatively small percentage — 10% or less — actually will be. It’s wise to focus your gift development efforts on the 10% who are most likely to make legacy gifts.

Your best legacy giving prospects have one or more of the following six characteristics:

• Persons with no children. These couples or singles are five times more likely to plan for a charitable bequest according to research conducted by Dr. Russell James.
• Loyal contributors. 80% of bequest donors have made 15 or more gifts during their lifetime. In a congregational setting, this more likely translates to persons who have given 15 or more years. 
• Your leaders. Your very best prospects should be the current and former members of your governing board, long-term staff and volunteers, and Legacy Giving leaders – people who have been key stakeholders. 
• Persons who have given noncash assets in the past. Donors who have already gifted stock, made Qualified Charitable Distributions from their IRAs, or directed distributions from their Donor Advised Funds have raised their hands about their ability and willingness to invest in your work from their accumulated assets. 
• Persons age 70+. These persons have lived into their new lives as retirees for a few years, and are more likely to have their estate planning at the top of their mind. 
• Persons who are most likely to be making or revising a will. What makes someone most likely to make or alter their will? Going through a life event trigger. Life events that most often trigger a will or estate planning revision include: 
  • Marriage, divorce or remarriage
  • Birth or adoption of children or grandchildren
  • Death of a spouse, parent, sibling, child, or other loved one 
  • Retirement or the buying and selling of a business
  • Serious or terminal illness, or a “close call” experience
  • Receiving an inheritance or another large sum of money
  • Traveling or working abroad
  • Children leave home or another new stage in life
  • Buying or selling a home, or moving to a different state

As you use this list to identify your best legacy giving prospects I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how many prospects you find. Download the Legacy Donor Prospect Checklist HERE.

Start a Legacy Giving Conversation with Words that Work

Initiating a conversation about death and leaving a financial gift feels icky and in conflict with the heart of ministry for many church and nonprofit leaders. That’s how the room full of campus pastors I coached last week felt…until I explained to them a donor’s perspective.

Your donors have spent a lifetime stewarding their resources. Clarifying how they want their wealth to be passed on through estate planning is often a joyful experience for them. While making a plan for their wealth through estate planning is a joyful experience, they rarely know where to begin. 

Beginning the legacy giving conversation with your donors of leaving a legacy through their estate is a beautiful and powerful gift. 

Introducing legacy giving with easy-to-understand language can happen in three ways:

Regularly Introduce Legacy Giving in Your Communications

According to planned giving expert Dr. Russell James, fundraisers need to talk about legacy gifts in terms that donors understand, which are terms you understand! Dr. James calls these “family words.”

Whether you’re talking or writing about legacy gifts you want to use family words. My clients’ favorite way to regularly introduce legacy giving in their communication strategy is with the “Have You Remembered” Ad. You can download the guide HERE and customize it as needed!

Schedule Legacy Giving Visits

A donor meeting invitation should be short and simple with the sole goal of scheduling a visit. We could give you a mile-long list of what not to do, so let’s focus on the five things you should do. 

5 Dos for Scheduling a Donor Visit:

1. Use email for scheduling the initial visits, though some donors will prefer you reach out by phone. Text messages often work well for subsequent visits.
2. Clearly communicate what you are trying to accomplish — aka, don’t be afraid to mention the word “gift.”
3. Offer time frames to meet. 
4. Let the donor pick where to meet, but direct away from a loud public place like a coffee shop. 
5. Keep the invitation short and succinct. 

You can find a customizable donor meeting invitation template HERE in the Schedule a Visit section. 

The Right Words to Invite a Legacy Gift 

A donor meeting with another human being who loves your mission and ministry can be the most satisfying work a fundraiser will do. But too often, fundraisers avoid these meetings because they don’t know what to say.

The good news is that the donor meeting secret ingredient is the questions you ask, not what you say!  

A great starter conversation with a potential legacy giver often looks like this:

1. Communicate gratitude. The more specific you can be with your ‘thank you’ the better. “Thank you for being so faithful and generous with your support for this ministry.”
2. Initiate conversation with questions. In a donor meeting, you are specifically trying to learn and help your donor articulate why your ministry matters to them. A good first question is, “What’s inspired your generosity to this ministry over the years?”
3. Connect their motivation to your mission. I found the following example to be a comfortable bridge between a donor’s why and introducing a new giving opportunity: “I really admire your commitment to [THEIR MOTIVATION]. Can I share more with you about our work in this area?”
4. Transition to a legacy giving conversation. Here are the words that work for me and my clients when transitioning the conversation to legacy giving: “Many of our friends plan to leave a gift for our work through their wills. Could you see yourself doing the same? 

In my experience, donor visits almost always involve holy moments. Following these steps, I think you will find it to be true for you, too. You can find more language for gift invitations HERE. 

Get Your Board on Board

Working with Minnehaha Academy to develop their legacy giving program felt like treading water until…we connected with Dave. 

Dave was a current board member and had generations of relationships with people from Minnehaha Academy. With his help, the legacy giving program began to flourish. 

Other members of the Board followed his lead and made their own plans for the school. Long-time donors who knew him became interested in having legacy giving conversations and were able to relate with Dave because he had recently worked through his own estate plans. 

There are two takeaways from this story. First, engaging your board in starting a legacy giving program is critical. Second, there is power in one engaged and invested supporter! The one right person catapulted the success of Minnehaha Academy’s legacy giving program and can catapult yours, too.

Here are three steps to get your board on board with legacy giving:

1. Educate your board members on the impact of legacy gifts, both for donors and the receiving organization.
2. Invite your current and past board members to make their own legacy gifts. 
3. Give your board members the tools and the words they need to be equipped to schedule a first visit with people they know and introduce legacy giving.

Learn about more ways to engage your board members in fundraising HERE. 

Six Steps to Inviting Your First (Or Next) Legacy Gift in 2024

More ministries and nonprofits than ever are prioritizing legacy giving. 

Here’s why: Research done by Dr. Russell James shows that nonprofits focused on non-cash gifts grew 66% while nonprofits only receiving cash gifts grew by 11%.

The best way to grow and create long-term financial stability for your nonprofit is to invite and receive legacy gifts. 

If you’re ready to be one of the forward-thinking organizations focused on inviting legacy gifts follow these six steps:

1. Leadership. Present your plan of action to the board and get their approval. Gather a small team of people who will help you establish the legacy giving program. 
2. Education. Equip your legacy giving team with the knowledge and words they need to be successful. Create a year-round plan for introducing your donors to legacy giving.
3. Gifts. Schedule visits with and cultivate relationships with your most likely legacy donors. Launch an initial survey to craft an expectancies report of gifts that are planned and already in place for the future.
4. Administration. Draft and get approval for gift acceptance policies. Implement the process and tools for gift stewardship.
5. Communication. Develop and integrate a year-round plan to introduce legacy giving in your communication. Enlist professional advisors who can help your donors make their very best gifts.
6. You. Practice these skills and grow in confidence and capacity as a legacy gift leader. And, most significantly, make your own legacy gift. 

In case you missed it, the first letter of each of those steps spells “LEGACY”! Following these steps will allow both you and your donors to leave a legacy for a ministry you care about. 

If you want details for carrying out each of these 6 steps, check out Legacy Giving: The Basics. It’s a self-paced seven-module course with video trainings and dozens of free, customizable templates. Starting a legacy program can feel daunting, but it can be life-changing for your organization and donors! 

Start Your Legacy Gift Program

At this point, you’re probably wondering, “What results can we expect?”

On average across the nonprofit sector, 10% of total annual contributions come from gifts left at death — also known as bequests. 

Various nonprofit industry studies indicate that 5% to 8% of Americans include a charitable bequest provision in their estate and that the average bequest is in the range of $60,000 - $75,000.

What kind of difference would a $60,000 - $75,000 gift make for your organization? Now imagine the impact many of those gifts could make for your organization and the people you serve.

That’s what you’re reaching for by inviting legacy gifts. 

Helping faith-based nonprofits establish a legacy giving program with the time and resources currently accessible to them is one of our favorite things to do. If you would like support schedule a call with Brenda HERE.

The article was co-authored by Brenda Moore, CFRE and Samantha Roose.