Plan Now for the Busiest Giving Season of the Year

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An Introduction to Planned Giving Seminar in Chicago, July 11-12

2015 Marked a Record Year for Philanthropy

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Three Interesting Things I’ve Learned from Writing Donor Stories Page 2

Three Interesting Things I’ve Learned From Writing Donor Stories

A Sharpe Group writer and editor shares some of what she’s learned over nearly two decades of interviewing donors and writing their stories.

Over the course of my 19-year career as a writer and editor for Sharpe Group, I’ve had the honor and privilege to inter-view hundreds of planned giving donors and write stories about them for our clients.

Thinking back to some of my interviews, there are a few highlights I want to share, as well as a few “big pic-ture” takeaways from what I’ve learned. In doing so, it may inspire you to find ways to enhance your planned giving marketing and strengthen your relationships with donors.

1. Donors are doing their research. A donor recently recounted to me how his late wife spent hours researching charities before she visited her attorney to make what ended up being her final will. She visited the charities’ websites and reviewed their financial reports and other information available online to gather information on the charitable entities she intended to include in her estate plans. Although she had a personal connection to the charities, she wanted to make sure they were good stewards of gifts entrusted to them.

Takeaway: The key issue is your credibility to donors, so identifying or citing your charity’s points of trustworthiness and fiscal responsibility in your marketing materials is im-portant. If you do not already do so, consider making your financial statements and other relevant information available on your website.

2. Consistency and timing for your gift planning newsletter is important. A few years ago I was interviewing a planned giving donor who had funded a gift annuity with our client. As I always do, I asked her if there was something that prompted the timing of her decision. She told me she had received the charity’s newsletter on the subject the year before. Though she didn’t personally know the donor who was featured in the newsletter, their circumstances were very similar. For this donor, the newsletter and its message came at the right time. She was thrilled to find a way to make a gift and, in her case, at the same time enjoy tax and financial benefits.

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by Ashley McHugh

Takeaway: Keeping planned giving messages out there and your marketing efforts on schedule can be challenging, but as we have seen time and time again, the results speak for themselves.

3. Family members, advisors and friends can be a wonderful resource for a donor story. As anyone with experience working in the gift planning field knows, for every planned gift you know about, there are many more you don’t know about. Your first notification of a gift may come from the attorney or executor settling an estate. I’ve done a number of interviews over the years with loved ones and friends (and even a few advisors) of deceased donors. One interviewee was actually a donor’s neighbor. I later learned the neighbor had become a do-nor herself because she was so impressed with the charity and its desire to honor her late friend.

Though family members and others don’t always know the donor’s motivation for the gift, they know the do-nor. These stories become a wonderful way to pay tribute to your donor, strengthen your relationship with the donor’s loved ones and express your thanks.

Takeaway: Maintaining a relationship with your donor’s circle of family and friends even after the donor is gone can result in a new generation of committed supporters.

As we see time and again with our clients, the key to a planned giving program’s success is creating, building and sustaining long-term relationships and keeping the planned giving message top of mind for donors. I hope one (or all) of these takeaways will be helpful to you as you consider the importance of sharing your donors’ stories both now and in the future.

Sharpe Group’s creative services can include donor interviews and assistance in writing donor stories. For more information, visit http://sharpenet.com/newsletters. Or contact us at 901.680.5300 or info@SHARPEnet.com. ■

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A Consultant’s Approach Why Is Consistency Important in Planned Giving Communications? By Katherine George

Stewardship When encouraging estate and other planned gifts, establishing and maintaining a strong rela-tionship with your donors is critical. One of the cornerstones to stewarding that relationship is consistent communication.

Subjective timing Donors are often spurred to make or revise their estate plans by life events that can happen any day of the year. By keeping your communications frequent and consistent, you can help ensure that your organization is on their mind when these life events occur.

Planning a gift often requires much research, homework and thought. Many decide to make a gift years before they actually follow through. Consistent and informative communica-tions can remind donors of their plans to give and can provide them with the information and inspiration they need to turn intentions into action.

ContentIn addition to sharing gift planning ideas, communications can highlight program achievements made possible through special gifts, share donors’ stories with fellow contributors and give your supporters insight into the accomplishments, goals and needs of the organization. This information further cultivates your donors’ connection to you and your insti-tution and helps them feel engaged and included even if they don’t get a personal call, visit or hand-written note from a development officer that month.

Format: email vs. print There has been a tremendous growth in the number of tax-exempt organizations in the U.S. in recent years. Many of those are competing with you for gifts. Today, one of the most popular ways nonprofits communicate with donors is through email and social media.

The competition for a moment of your donors’ attention is fierce. Your donors are likely inundated with emails. The other day, I received three emails from one retailer alone!

According to a study by Smart Insights and GetResponse, the average open rate for nonprofits is 25.25 percent, and only 2.84 percent of those who open the email actually interact with it by clicking a link, translating to 7 of 1,000 recipients actually clicking through to the underlying information. This rate is comparable to emails from for-profit industries. Just because you are near and dear to your donors doesn’t mean you necessarily get special attention in their inbox. By contrast, printed material received in the mail is a different experience and may be more likely to be read.

Also consider a 2015 study by Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making (see “Think Print Is Dead? Think Again,” Give & Take, November 2015), which suggests print marketing produces a stronger emotional response and more long-term memory of the content.

While email is an affordable way to increase communication with your donors and can supplement other marketing media, it apparently does not capture their attention like print.

Stick to a scheduleWe typically recommend that our clients send three or more print mailings each year with a focus on planned giving. Email communication should also be utilized for planned giving donors with accurate email addresses on file. However, it is less effective and should not be your sole communication medium. If you have ages on your file, you may want to check the percentage of donors over age 75 who have shared email addresses compared to younger donors.

Creating an effective marketing calendar that spaces your print and other planned giving communications evenly throughout the year and maintaining that schedule should be a priority.

Sharpe’s newsletter clients are guided through a production schedule created and managed by Sharpe consultants and the creative services team. We do our best to relieve our clients of the burden of managing yet another project.

Your donors don’t see all the work you do. They see what you communicate to them. If you are too busy to maintain consistent communication, they don’t see anything. ■

Katherine George is a Sharpe Group Consulting Associate.

Plan Now for the Busiest Giving Season of the Year

National Estate Planning Awareness Week – October 17-23, 2016 – Some studies suggest that more than half of all Americans have no up-to-date estate plan in place. While this week of awareness is not traditionally thought of as an opportunity to ask for gifts, many fundraisers leverage this national exposure to inform donors how their estate plans can support those missions they are most passionate about. It’s an opportunity to be a valuable resource to your donors and begin the gift planning conversation. For more information, visit http://www.naepc.org/events/awareness_campaigns.

National Philanthropy Day – November 15, 2016 – Many organizations use this day to thank donors, share ways to give and spread awareness about the importance of giving.

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#GivingTuesday – November 29, 2016 – This initiative is now in its fifth year and comes on the heels of increased holiday season spending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, days when many consumers do much of their holiday shopping in stores and online.

December 31 is the deadline for making tax-deductible charitable gifts, and responses to both online and traditional direct mail appeals tend to spike in the month of December. Remember, the year-end giving season ends on December 31; this deadline is important for donors who itemize charitable deductions.

Consider planning now for campaigns, mailings and events around these days to help increase your fundraising momentum during the final months of the year.

Sharpe Group has several publications to consider using as an insert in fall appeals, at events or in gift acknowledgment letters or pledge reminder mailings. This year Sharpe has five year-end giving brochures (see designs below) from which to choose, in addition to publications such as Better Estate Planning, Questions & Answers About Estate Planning and Your Guide to Effective Giving in 2016. There are also eGuides to help you strategize both your overall year-end fundraising plans and appeals for gifts from charitable IRAs, which also traditionally find popularity at the end of each year. For more information, visit www.SHARPEnet.com/publications. ■

July 2016

Fundraisers know that the final three months of the year are often the busiest. Recent studies have indicated that many nonprofits receive up to half of their gifts between October and December (see “’Tis the Season to Give,” Give & Take, November 2015). Keeping this in mind, mark your calendar now with the following opportunities to educate and motivate your donors before year-end.

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Chicago July 11-12, 2016 Chicago October 3-4, 2016 New York August 8-9, 2016 Washington D.C. November 7-8, 2016

An Introduction to Planned Giving

New Offering: Gift Planning Toolbox

Integrating Major and Planned Gifts

See full agendas and register at www.SHARPEnet.com/seminars or call 901.680.5318 with questions.

Discover how to build your planned giving program.

Learn the keys to effective commu-nications with your donors. Exam-ine the donor lifecycle and explore how you can help donors make larg-er gifts today and plan gifts through bequests, trusts, gift annuities and other vehicles. Learn to work effec-tively with those 65 and older who may make up much of your donor base—or soon will. This seminar is appropriate for those who are new to planned giving.

Acquire the knowledge you need to complete larger gifts.

Learn the basic workings of the most common gift planning tools, focusing on how to use them individually or blend them for maximum gift value. Determine which gift arrangements may be best able to fulfill a donor’s personal and philanthropic objectives and learn to recognize the typical donor profile for each type of gift. Register for this seminar to benefit from training on various charitable planned gifts.

Learn how major and planned giving can work together.

Discover how to help donors make the best gifts for their age, wealth and oth-er factors, while meeting your current, capital and endowment needs. Learn how to interpret a donor’s verbal and non-verbal clues to determine which giving option is right for them and how to help donors make larger charitable gifts that might not otherwise be pos-sible. This seminar is for you if your or-ganization has both departments and would like to bring everyone together, or if you or others are responsible for both major and planned gifts.

Upcoming 2016 Sharpe Group Seminars

“Real, useful knowledge I can put into practice starting Monday.

Not overwhelming but quite expansive. I am so excited about continuing to learn more. Thank

you for the best training I have ever received.”

—Jessa Harding, Research and Stewardship

Administrator, George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate

2015 Marked a Record Year for Philanthropy

A look at what Giving USA 2016: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2015 means for nonprofits.

According to the recently released Giving USA 2016: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2015, estimated charitable contributions reached a new high of $373 billion. The Annual Report on Philanthropy reports charitable gifts from individ-uals, estates, foundations and corpo-rations. Whether measured in current or inflation-adjusted dollars, the latest totals represent a new record when compared to the revised inflation-ad-justed estimate of $359 billion in giv-ing for 2014.

Recent recoveryAfter peaking in 2007, charitable giving experienced a steep two-year decline in 2008 and 2009 during the Great Recession before an upsurge in giving began in 2010. By 2014, overall giving had finally rebounded to pre-recession levels in nominal terms. Last year was the first year that giving in terms of in-flation-adjusted dollars had fully recov-ered. The recovery in giving appears solid with overall inflation-adjusted

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Key highlights of 2015 giving by source include:

Giving by individuals $265 Billion

Giving by foundations $58 Billion

Giving by bequests $32 Billion

Giving by corporations $18 Billion

Giving by all sources $373 Billion

giving increasing from all four sources: bequests up 1.9 percent, individuals up 3.7 percent, corporations up 3.8 per-cent and foundations up 6.3 percent.

It should be noted, however, that individual giving when adjusted for in-flation is still 1 percent below the previ-ous peak reached in 2005.

Corporations and foundations ex-perienced the highest rates of growth as their philanthropy is more closely tied to stock prices and corporate earn-ings, while individual giving is more tied to trends in disposable income. Bequest growth normally lags other giving since it reflects investment, real estate and other values from one to three years prior, when bequest donors actually passed away and assets were in many cases liquidated at values that had not yet fully recovered.

We predicted in the December 2015 Give & Take that expanding consumer spending would increase economic activity and low unemploy-ment would propel total giving to re-cord levels in the range of 2.0 percent of GDP. The Giving USA estimates af-firm this prediction, placing total giv-ing at 2.1 percent of GDP. Additionally, while contributions to foundations ex-perienced a decrease in 2015, giving increased for all other charitable cat-egories (religion, education, human

services, health, public-society bene-fit, arts/culture/humanities, interna-tional and environment and animals).

Additional observationsVery large charitable contributions continue to play an outsized role. A very small number of charitable con-tributions of $100 million or more accounted for $3.3 billion, nearly 1 percent, of giving. Nonetheless, more than 99 percent of total giving comes in both large and small contributions below this level and many six- and seven-figure bequests come from in-dividuals who would never be a pros-pect for a large lifetime gift.

Looking aheadIt appears that 2016 will be another exciting year for philanthropy with many of the same issues affecting philanthropy as in the past several years, plus the most unusual political scene in recent memory. The environ-ment for charitable giving remains good. Barring a severe economic downturn, 2016 will likely see another increase in overall giving. ■

For the complete report, visit www.givingusa.org.

by Barlow Mann

Barlow Mann is Chief Operating Officer of Sharpe Group.

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Sharpe Group on the Road

Sharpe Group Senior Consultant Aviva Shiff Boedecker will be available to answer planned giving questions at the Northwest Planned Giving Roundtable in Portland, OR, on September 16, 2016.

Barlow Mann, Sharpe Group COO, and John Jensen, Senior Consultant and Senior Vice President, will present at the National Catholic Development Conference (NCDC) in National Harbor, MD, on October 11, 2016.

Sharpe Group representatives will be available to talk with you at the National Conference on Philanthropic Planning in Dallas, October 17-19, 2016, and the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy’s International Conference in Chicago, October 26-29, 2016. ■ ■

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Age Around the World

While the United States has more people over the age of 100 than any other country in the world, it does not have the oldest population.

In fact, a number of other developed nations have “older” populations, including many European coun-tries. But it may be instructive to examine Japan for some clues about what increased longevity and an aging population may mean for the U.S. in the future.

In 1963 Japan had just over 150 centenarians. Ac-cording to government figures, the number of people 100 years or older in 2010 exceeded 61,500. Japan also has the highest life expectancy in the world. While there is no single factor to attribute to Japan’s longev-ity, research indicates that diet, healthcare and social connection all contribute to the continued growth of the population over 65 and the explosion of the super seniors 100 years of age and older.

That aging 65+ population in Japan is expected to grow from around 25 percent today to over 40 percent by 2025. As a result the government is anticipating the need for an extra 1,000,000 care workers to meet the needs of the larger number of aged citizens.

Meanwhile the U.S. already has about 72,000 centenarians and that number will be growing very rapidly as the U.S. population over 65 continues to add 10,000 baby boomers a day to its ranks. At the same time, just under 7,000 Americans a day are passing away. Based upon U.S. Census projections, the oldest of the old (the 85+ and 100+ age categories) are among the fastest growing segment of the population and will undoubtedly have a huge impact on society, including America’s nonprofit organizations and institutions. ■

How Well Do You Know Your Donors?

Sharpe Group consistently recommends segmenting donor files based on age and wealth to clients who wish to build their bequest and other planned gift income. Donors give at different levels and in different ways based on age, income and asset base. By adding basic demographic data to your donor files, you can better communicate gift planning strategies, increasing your success in helping donors make larger gifts they may not have otherwise thought possible.

Our clients have found that the Sharpe Donor Data Enhancement Services can be a tremendous tool when structuring effective gift planning efforts. Donor data enhancement forms the basis for populating the Sharpe Gift Planning Matrix©. Visit us online at www.SHARPEnet.com/data-enhancement-services for more information about this opportunity. And ask your Sharpe Group consultant how to make this data work for you.

A client service publication published monthly since 1968 by Sharpe Group, with offices in Washington, Atlanta, Memphis and San Francisco, 901.680.5300. Email info@SHARPEnet.com or through our website at http://www.SHARPEnet.com. The publisher of Give & Take is not engaged in rendering legal or tax advisory service. For advice and assistance in specific cases, the services of your own counsel should be obtained. Articles in Give & Take may generally be reprinted for distribution to board members and staff of nonprofit institutions and other non-donor groups. Proper credit must be given. Call for details. © Copyright 2016 by Sharpe Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Your Guide to Charitable IRA GivingA 50+-page strategic eGuide, Your Guide to Charitable IRA Giving is a digital comprehensive marketing plan containing sample IRA website copy, sample cover letters for prospective IRA donors and IRA administrators, sample IRA ads and newsletter articles, an IRA marketing calendar, a PowerPoint template, as well as detailed information about the 2015 law that made the IRA provision permanent and more.

This eGuide explains why you should educate your donors about IRA gifts, what to do to encourage them and with whom among your constituents you should communicate.

$495For more information, visit www.SHARPEnet.com/give-take/ira

Donor Data Enhancement ServicesDonor Base File EnhancementBy adding basic demographic data to your donor files, you can better segment and communicate gift planning strategies, increasing your success in current and deferred gift development efforts.

Choose Net Worth Silver or Net Worth Gold and you’ll receive various combinations of age, gender, marital status, income and net worth information about your donors (see charts here). Ask about other ways we can enhance your data à la carte (such as Deceased Suppression).

This donor data enhancement forms the basis for our Sharpe Gift Planning Matrix©. Visit us online at www.SHARPEnet.com for more information on our findings. And ask your Sharpe Group consultant how to make this data work for you or how to combine it with other services for more efficient pricing.

* Data reported in nine levels, up to top level of $500,000+

• $2,500 minimum for up to 25,000 matched records• Then, $45 per thousand additional matched records

Net Worth SilverAge (Month/Year) Gender

Marital Status Net Worth Silver Wealth Rating up to $500,000+*

** Data reported in eleven levels, up to top level of $2 million+

• $2,750 minimum for up to 10,000 matched records• Then, $98 per thousand additional matched records

Net Worth GoldAge (Month/Year) Gender

Marital StatusEstimated Income and Net Worth

Gold Wealth Rating up to $2 million +**