How to Make Your Website Work for You

Read an excellent article in the August edition of Journal of Financial Planning.  While Kristin Harad writes for the benefit of financial planners, it has a lot of good ideas for nonprofits and legacy gifts websites as well.  You can get to the article by clicking HERE and have a good weekend.

Legacy Giving Recognition Levels



How many recognition levels is one of those tricky questions that we are revisiting right now.  Too many levels and no one takes them seriously.  Too few and you discourage increased giving.  Too low or too high causes a different set of problems and it is very difficult to recognize a donor at a level and then change the requirements.  Do you unrecognize them if they don't meet the new rules?  I don't think so.  So, its rather important to start off right.

Currently we recognize you at the following levels for a current or deferred gift to the endowment...

$1,000 and you are a member of The Legacy Society

$250,000 and you are a member of The Tocqueville Legacy Circle (and The Legacy Society)

$1,000,000+ and you've joined the Million Dollar Legacy Circle (and TLC and LS)

 

We didn't think that was enough so we're adding some new ones...

 

$1,000 = The Legacy Society

$25,000 = The Leadership Legacy Circle

$125,000 = The Builders Legacy Circle

$250,000 = The Tocqueville Legacy Circle

$500,000 = The ? Legacy Circle

$1,000,000 = The Million Dollar Legacy Circle

Assuming a 4% return and draw, $25,000 endows an annual gift of $1,000 (our base annual campaign leadership level gift), $125,000 yields $5,000 annually (our Builders Society annual giving level), and $500,000  ... well we really haven't come up with a good justification for that level, hence the problem with coming up with a good name.  Any ideas will earn you my undying appreciation and all the recognition, accolades, and cash prizes I give for every other good idea.  Best of all, if we compile a list of good recognition level names here, then everyone can just appropriate them for their Legacy Society.  Retreading at its finest.



Financial Professional Advisory Committees

Professional Advisory Committees have been a hot topic for a number of years in the planned giving world.  Everyone thinks they are good, but I haven't come across a successful model to copy just yet.  Some organizations have a separate group from their PG committee that meets a couple times of the year.  Some groups review gifts, others sponsor continuing ed events, still others come together to encourage financial professionals to reach out to their clients and promote charitable giving, particularly to the charity hosting the meeting.

Our Professional Advisory group started off as a separate group and has since become a part of our Legacy Cabinet. They are full fledged cabinet members along with our donor volunteers and bring an interesting perspective to the discussions.  We typically look for young professionals who give to and volunteer with United Way and are not just looking for an "easy" way to find new clients.  Financial professionals on the Legacy Cabinet include:

1. An estate planning attorney who is a member of our Young Leaders group and a past Allocations Team volunteer.
2. A real estate attorney who volunteered on our 2-1-1 emergency crisis line following the April 2011 tornadoes.
3. A CPA from a local accounting firm specializing in individual taxes.
4. A private banker who is a past Loaned Executive, Allocations Team volunteer, and a strong United Way supporter.
5. A trust officer who is a past Loaned Executive and a current Tocqueville member.
6. An insurance professional who is a Tocqueville member and a past Campaign Cabinet member.

Our financial professional group is constantly evolving and I don't think we have a perfect model by any stretch of the imaginaton, but we are getting there.  The other Cabinet volunteers like having financial professionals as part of the Legacy Cabinet so they have knowledgeable people who can answer questions at each meeting.

How Professonal Advisory Committees Can Be Most Effective is an interesting article from the Planned Giving Design Center and a good place to start.  If you have success, please let me know so we can retread your ideas. 

Also worth reading from the Chronicle of Philanthropy - 75% of Young Donors Turned Off by Out-of-Date Web Sites. 

Insomnia Cures

I came across 3 articles from Financial Planning Magazine that might be worth your time to glance over.  Admittedly this is first class Geek reading, but the Donor Advisor Fund article may offer some info you didn't know.  The article on Charitable Trusts focuses on Charitable Lead Trusts which are extremely rare, but it is important to know the concept of "Valuation Discounts" since it applies to any number of potential real and personal property gifts.  Finally, the Advisor article might be a good one to send to those Financial Advisors you've been courting.   Bottom line - read these when counting sheep is just not working!

1.  Donor-Advised Funds Outperforming Family Foundations

 

2.  Spike in Charitable Donations Creates Advisor Opportunity

 

3.  New Approach for Charitable Trusts





Live United T-Shirts for the Next Generation

Last week I was visiting my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.  Stefanie worked for United Way of Greater Houston prior to the birth of Lydia.  As devoted grandparents, we came bearing gifts including Birmingham-Southern College shirts for Stefanie, who graduated from BSC in 2006, and Lydia, as the next generation of BSC Panthers.  They had 2 shirts in Lydia's size in the BSC bookstore and of course I bought them both.

An idea struck me on the flight back to Birmingham yesterday.  Why not send an infant or toddler Live United t-shirt to the next generation of United Way donors and then a note to their grandparents encouraging an endowment gift to continue their generosity for the benefit of their grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc?  Of course it means keeping up with children and births, but then again that is where volunteers serve as the best sources of information. 

In case you were wondering, we didn't forget our son-in-law.  He is an Auburn graduate!  War Eagle! (which takes some effort to say since we are Alabama fans!).

Just Do It!

I love a good Tagline!  The Nike Swoosh inspires me to run that much faster even though I wear Asics.  If you can tell me what "Where's the Beef?" advertised, then you and I are likely close in age.  Good taglines help us remember and move us to action.  So what are some good planned giving taglines?

I make it no secret that I am not particularly enamored with "Remember United Way in your will or estate plan and tell us when you do."  In my humble opinion (which is worth all you've paid for it), this statement is passive, reminds me too much of dying, and a will is an estate plan (but not necessarily vice versa).  I could go on, but point expressed and if you want to know more of my reasons or would like to tell me I'm wrong, just give me a call.  The real question is - what's better?

My current tagline comes from a college website with a few modifications. 

Legacy Gifts.  Shape the Future... Build Tomorrow with United Way! 

Call me today to begin.

I also use...  Legacy Gifts.  It's Forward Thinking Philanthropy Beginning Today.  Call 205.458.2022.

Planned Giving Today calls them "blurbs" and posted several of their favorites in the Marketing Reprintable of their July edition.  I added United Way to each of them. 

• Please Consider....  including United Way in your will.  For a free Bequest Information Kit, visit www.uwca.org or call us at (205) 458-2022
• Is United Way in your Will or Revocable Living Trust?  If not remember that your bequest can make a difference! 
• You can help us serve the next generation.  But only when you remember to include United Way in your will.
• Your legacy is ready to start...  when you name United Way in your will, trust, or life insurance.

The first 2 don't excite me much, but I like the 3rd and 4th examples better.  I don't think I have come across one yet that really works like "Just do it!" or "Think different."

Rachel Sellers in her blog, The Compass, has an excellent post from 2011 on taglines.  You can find it HERE.  She includes the following checklist for creating a good tagline....

 

She has a total of 10 pieces of Branding Advice on her blog and they are worth reading as you consider how to market your planned giving program.  Have a good weekend.

UW Life Marketing from the Central Carolinas, Mile High, and Greater Milwaukee UWs

Bill Hamelau, Director of Legacy Giving at United Way of Central Carolinas in Charlotte, NC, sent me his new marketing piece for United Way Life.  It is still a work in progress, but definitely a wealth of ideas to beg, borrow, and steal.  You can access his document by clicking HERE.  Bill and I talk regularly and he is an excellent resource for good ideas. 

I would also recommend looking at their Legacy Gifts website.  You will find it at www.legacy.vg/uwcentralcarolinas/giving/1.html.  This website is designed by VirtualGiving.com and this was my first time to look at one of their sites.  I am impressed.  Bill's contact info is on the website for more information both on United Way Life and VirtualGiving.

I also ran across the UW Life Guidelines from Mile High United Way in Denver.  You will find them HERE.  They have an excellent website as well at www.unitedwaydenver.org.

Finally, United Way of Greater Milwaukee has a great website as well for United Way Life at www.unitedwaymilwaukee.org/LegacySociety/UnitedWayLife.

I am certain there are other United Way Life websites and guidelines out there.  Let me know and I will upload the info so others can benefit from all the good ideas.

Building Relationships

I found an exceptionally good article today in Inc. magazine from January 2011. Click Here!  If you don't like clicking or the link doesn't work, cut and paste this address http://www.inc.com/guides/201101/how-to-build-better-business-relationships.html. 

Not only does Darren Dahl give great tips on building better relationships, but he gives great tips on how to incorporate these tips in your work routine.  

Bequest Thinking

  Phyllis Freedman is the author of The Planned Giving Blogger (www.smart-giving.com/plannedgivingblogger) and a planned giving consultant. Go to her blog, choose the bequests catagory, and look for the post "New Research Enlightens".  It highlights a presentation by Dr. Russell James in which he describes what is going on in the brain when people consider making a bequest.  Sometime ago, I realized that donors don't wake up in the middle of the night thinking, "I have just got to put a bequest in my will for the benefit of United Way."  Rather it is their passion for impact that wakes them up and the bequest serves as a means.  Phyllis highlights Dr. James' theories about the connections people make between the stories of their lives and a good donor story from someone else who has already taken the next step with a bequest to support their cause. There looks to be quite a few good posts worth reading, so bookmark this one. 

I couldn't resist adding this picture of Lake Erie at sundown from the back of the house in Bratenahl, Ohio where I wrote this post.  I continue to experiment with BlogTouch and so far so good.

Charitable Giving Increases in 2012

I'm writing this morning from the Hampton Inn in Horse Cave, KY on the way to Cleveland OH.  I'm also trying out a new ipad/iphone app called BlogTouch.  There are no guarantees how this will look once its posted.

Found this morning in a report from the website www.givingusareports.org that charitable giving increased in 2012.  The largest increases were to the arts and humanities, the sector which saw the biggest cuts during the recession.  Much of the increase came from corporate support, although there were modest increases in individual giving, largely attributed to uncertainty over the future of the charitable tax deduction.  The Giving USA Foundation publishes an annual statistical report that you can download for about $90 (which I didn't), but you can read a good summary of their findings (which I did) under the news tab.

There is a sister organization, The Giving Institute, with a website at www.givinginstitute.org.  Both sites look to be worth exploring.

The Cart and the Horse

It is ever so tempting to start off your program with the cart and horse in the wrong positions.  You can easily spend all your time and energy writing policies and printing brochures and doing everything to get ready to talk to donors.  I've done it and I can tell you that policies and brochures do not bring in gifts.  So, from everything I've learned from others with far better ideas than mine, the best next step to take in starting your program is to start talking to donors - any donors. 



Start with an elevator speech.  It is your sales pitch and it should take no longer than the time it would take to ride an elevator from the ground to the penthouse.  You can read my current elevator speech by clicking HERE (a reminder that I upload these documents to Google Drive and they are supposed to be virus free).  It is current because it changes all the time in the never ending attempt to make the message better.  I spent a lot of time intially practicing this speech on my fellow UWCA employees and our elevator only goes 5 floors.  I would highly recommend doing the same in your organization.  Once your boss likes what you have to say, call a few volunteers and ask if you can practice with them.  You never know, it could start them thinking about making a Legacy gift. 

 

As your confidence builds, your message will get better and then will come the day when you find yourself standing next to a 20 year donor in an elevator and you will be ready.  More importantly, you will have developed the message that will also work well in letters, brochures, and websites.  Soon you will land your first gift and then you can write retread some policies.

At the Starting Line

You are at the starting line.  Your boss and perhaps her boss have decided your United Way needs an endowment and a planned giving program.  Now they have handed you a new title, reams of recommendations, and a goal of starting it all successfully.  Never fear, you are really in a pretty good place.  Lots of us in the UW planned giving world have already made the mistakes and benefitted from the lessons learned from experience and the teachings of others who have figured out how to start and where to go.

Recently I was re-reading a Kathryn Miree article and her emphasis on the importance of beginning with that essential and eternal endowment question, "Why are we doing this?"  The answer is called your Case Statement and Kathryn points out the need for both external and internal statements.  The internal statement communicates the need to your staff, how an endowment and planned giving program will fit into your resource development efforts, and how the gifts and expectancies will be counted and accounted.  The external statement communicates with your donors the reason they should give to the endowment.  A good external statement should:

• Inspire vision
• Inspire passion
• Be urgent
• Involve the Donor
• Be brief enough to be useful.

We didn't have an internal case statement when our programs were first started in 1991, however I did pull the "Case for Support" as a reminder of our purpose.  It reads

United Way should raise a signficant endowment for the purpose of launching major community initiatives aimed at specific problems in the community.  This would enable UW to select issues, commit to single or multi year funding and attract other partners from the community to collaborate to create real and lasting change.
 

You will also find a good Case for Endowment on the website of  St. Matthew's Parish School in Pacific Pallisades, CA. 

The best way I have found to build your case is to gather a small group of volunteers and ask the questions, "Why should we have an endowment?" and "Why should you give to the endowment?"  With a good external case statement in hand, bring together a diverse group of staff and ask the same questions to develop your internal statement.  Remember, these can change with time, knowledge, and program development.

The last bit of advice I am going to share today comes from the experience of others.  Endowments should not be started to pay the administrative costs of your United Way.  I could write pages on why this is just not a good idea.  Contact me and I will give you several LUW's who made that choice and have found that it is a difficult mistake to correct when you've learned your lesson.

I plan to add several more resources over the next few posts that will help you at the starting line of your endowment and planned giving programs.

 

The Overhead Myth

I'm a pilot, so I had to use
airplanes OVERHEAD to illustrate!

Take a look at OverheadMyth.com.  Guidestar, the BBB, and Charity Navigator have joined together in a new initiative to counter the media's obsession with "Overhead" costs of nonprofits.  I first started thinking about the sense this makes after watching the Ted Talk with Dan Pallotta speaking on "The way we think about charity is dead wrong" (search Ted Talk and Dan Pallotta).  Later I watched the video from the UWW Staff Leaders Conference which may be archived on the UWW website.  Now comes this website and perhaps the conversation will move to a new level. 

PPP

PPP is the national organization for planned giving.  Formerly the National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG), PPP is dedicated to the promotion of charitable gift planning through research, education, advocacy, community dialogue and the setting of standards and best practices in philanthropic planning.  The website at www.pppnet.org is home to a wealth of information including the Valuation Standards for Charitable Planned Gifts.  This answers the question of how do you count planned gifts received by your United Way in your campaigns. 

PPP is also the gateway to your local Planned Giving Council. Many areas host these organizations dedicated to furthering planned giving in local communities.  In Birmingham, I am a member of the Alabama Planned Giving Council along with other planned giving professionals, CPAs, estate planning attorneys, and financial advisors.  Our website is found at alabamaplannedgiving.org.  The Planned Giving Council in your area is a good way to link up with other professionals who will help you get started with your own program.

More Donor Recognition

To-Ga. To-Ga. To-Ga.  
Every John Belushi fan recognizes this reference immediately!  It's also the title to a great article in the June 1 edition of The NonProfit Times by Susan Ellis.  Susan is President of Energize (www.energizeinc.com) and she challenges us to come up with new recognition events that are meaningful, fun, and well-attended.  Yeah, yeah, I know we have all heard that before, but she offers some really thought-inspiring suggestions.  You will find the article on The NonProfit Times website HERE.

I also came across another excellent article in Planned Giving Today.  Rebecca Rothey in "First, You Have to Get In the Door" shares her keys to success for getting in the door with a prospect.  Rebecca is the director of major and planned giving at the Baltimore Community Foundation.  You will find her article in the June 2013 edition of Planned Giving Today.  You can only access the article online if you are a Planned Giving Today subscriber.  It is well worth the 10 minutes or so it will take to read and will give you some new tips for the next time you sit down with the names of good prospects and the telephone.

Recognizing Legacy Society Members

How to recognize your Legacy Society members is one of those tough challenges.  People don't like you to spend money, but you want to recognize your donors as an example for others. After a good deal of experimentation (and some 1st rate failures) we have come up with a few ideas that have worked for us.  If you click on the name of the first 2 items, it will open the PDF in a new window from Google Drive. 

The Legacy Society Listing recognizes all of our donors who have given $1,000 or more to the endowment.  We take this listing on all calls to prospects and you'd be amazed how they will look through the names and find other people they know.    We produce this in house on 11x17 paper.  Our graphics guru uses one of his many programs and if you want to know more, I'll ask him which one.  The only cost for us are the color copies.

 

 

A Brochure Insert is very flexible and we produce these in house using Publisher.  You can swap them out to fit the prospect you are visiting.  We are trying to build a library of these inserts with a variety of different donor stories.  I've never had a donor tell me we couldn't tell their story.

 

  

Finally, this is a 4 foot by 3 foot foam board listing the names of our Million Dollar Legacy Circle and Tocqueville Legacy Circle.  We put it on an easel in a prominent place during events, dinners, etc.  The names of the donors who have joined in the last year are underlined so they stand out.  Any number of donors will look to see who they know and we always have a Champion standing nearby to talk about how they can join TLC or MDC.  We outsource this project and I seem to remember that it cost $100 to produce, but we use it all year.  If someone new joins during the year, we add a well crafted Post-It Note in the margins with an error pointing to where their name will go on next year's board.

Giving 2.0 & Whoodl

Thanks to a WSJ article, I found a wealth of information on Laura Arrillaga-Andressen's website at giving2.com.  Laura teaches Philanthropy at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and her bio alone is worth reading.  But don't stop there!  This website has a wealth of information including "project u" where she has uploaded her class lectures, syllabi, and case studies.  It will take several hours of exploring to get all the valuable resources you can find on this site.


Also, I love Apps.  I am not sure how I ever got along without my iPhone or iPad, but I am definitely glad I have them now.  A while back I found an App that is helping me remember names and how I know people.  Whoodl lets you enter a name and then an almost unlimited amount of reminders, facts, data, whatever it takes to jog your memory.  Then when you run across someone and you can't remember their name, annual gift, or why you know them, just put in anything you know about them in the search window and up comes all the possibilities.  It's great for those moments when you see that big donor and draw a total blank on their name and all the details you would just love to know at that very moment.

5 Easy (and Good) Steps to Start a PG Program

Starting a Planned Giving program at a small (or any size) United Way can be a rather daunting task.  There are any number of "How-to" resources that can leave you with that glazed over look and the absolute certainty that it will never work.  Don't give up!  Today I came across a really good blog post that makes it all seem possible.

Go to The NYSARC Blog and there you will find an article by their development consultant, Judi Taylor Cantor, well worth reading.  Planned Giving doesn't have to be complicated and Judi's article illustrates this idea so well.  It might be a while before you are ready to offer your donors Charitable Gift Annuities (step 5), but when you reach that point, remember the United Way Worldwide Charitable Gift Annuity program as well as United Way Life.  These 2 programs offer your United Way all the benefits without many of the administrative  headaches.  Finally Judi's concluding comments on patience should be taped to everyone's wall and read daily.

The entire website is also excellent and a few minutes spent following the links will offer even more valuable resources for starting your program.  There is a link on the right side of the page that will take you to more of The Fundraising Files written by Judi.

  

7 Ways to Build Rapport with Donors Using Creative ‘Thank You’s

This morning's PPP group email from LinkedIn referenced this article from the blog "Clairification" which you will find by clicking HERE or you can get there by Googling the article title.  Claire Axelrad has some good ideas about simple ways to say "Thank You" to our donors.

If you aren't "LinkedIn" I would recommend you open an account.  It's free and it is an easy way to stay connected with other PG folks and your donors.  I have found that donors typically update their LinkedIn accounts fairly quickly when they change jobs and you will receive notice of their new position.  The groups can be valuable resources as well.  Register for LinkedIn and then "Link" with me.

Have a good Monday and if you have a good way to thank donors, send it to me.  I'll post it and give you all the credit, honors, and accolades.

9 Things to Remember When Planning

A friend and fellow fundraiser handed me an article from the NonProfit Times with the comment that there are at least 2 David Hall's in the world of Planned Giving.  David C. Hall is Director of Planned Giving at the University of Arkansas and was a speaker at the AFP 50th International Conference on Fundraising.  You will find The NonProfit Times article at "9 Things to Remember When Planning" and in it David reminded us of some important points about planned giving:

• If you are not asking your prospects for planned gifts, someone else is.
• Eventually that "someone else" will steal cash gifts also.
• Cash-starved are the best times for planned giving.
• Those who even dabble in planned giving eventually earn 50% to 100% more than those who don't.
• The typical planned gift is 200 to 300 times the gift of a donor's largest annual gift.
• Planned gifts do not alter prospects' cash flow.
• Prospects are eager to make a planned gift but simply don't know how.
• Prospects making gifts through their will typically increase their annual support.
• Anyone can make a planned gift.

I added the emphasis to highlight the well-documented fact that some of the biggest objections to planned giving at local United Ways just aren't the case.  The University of Arkansas website is a good one to look over (even for an Alabama fan) and if you hear of another David Hall out there in planned giving, let me know.

Insurance Policies in a Nutshell

Life Insurance Policies make up approximately 1/3 of the total gifts to our Endowment.  With over 100 policies, they can be both a blessing and a pain.  As a planned giving vehicle, a life insurance policy offers an tool for leveraging donor dollars.  However, underwriting, annual monitoring, and the accounting challenges can make them a very time consuming challenge for even the largest United Ways. 

You will find a 1 page overview of our governing policies for gifts of insurance by clicking HERE.  As always, I upload the documents to Google Drive and access is limited, so it's safe. 

Finally, if you are considering adding insurance policies as a planned giving option, seriously consider United Way Life. 

Our Brochure

You can find a PDF of our brochure by clicking UWCA Legacy Gifts Brochure.  We put this brochure together with the idea of creating a piece that would remain relevant to our overall messaging for several years and focus on Legacy Giving as the next step in your United Way giving.  We wanted our focus to be on contributing to the next generations so that you will always be giving to United Way.  Ask our long time donors to consider endowing their annual gift has been a message that has worked well for us. 

The brochure was composed by our volunteers on the Legacy Cabinet and produced locally.  We wanted to limit the talk about different PG vehicles and instead focus on Legacy donors and why they choose to give to the endowment.  If you have a brochure I can share with others, please send me a PDF copy so I can post it.  As always you will receive all the credit, honors, and financial gains!

Great Resources from Kathryn Miree

Anybody in the planned giving world needs to visit Kathryn Miree's website at www.kathrynmireeandassociates[dot]com.  Go to the Resources Library and you will find a wealth of free information including articles, sample forms, and links to other good sites. 

Kathryn is a member of our Tocqueville Society and the Tocqueville Legacy Circle.  She is a part Board Chair and Chair of the Legacy Cabinet.  

Hope you enjoy(ed) your Memorial Day Weekend.

Gift Acceptance Policies

None of us should have to create policies out of thin air since there are so many excellent examples out there to retread.  Last year, a group of us from Resource Development and Finance got together to rewrite our Gift Acceptance Policies (GAP's).

The process went smoothly.

1. Individually we reviewed the old GAP's and marked everything we thought needed to be changed, deleted, or added.
2. We reviewed several examples from other United Ways.
3. We searched the web for good examples from other sources not UW affiliated
4. We took the best ideas from everyone else
5. We wrote the new policies.
6. Currently they are going through the review process with the Board committees

You will find a PDF of the final draft by clicking HERE! (By the way, I upload these documents to Google Drive and I am told this makes them safe from viruses or other infections that drive our IT guys crazy!).

We borrowed heavily from our good friends at United Way of Greater Atlanta and Bentley Marane.  They have great GAP's.  We also found the GAP's from LSU to be quite good.  If you want a list of all the different examples we used, drop me an email.

2012 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy



Thanks to Joe Jerz, Senior Director of Campaign and Major Gifts at Heart of West Michigan United Way in Grand Rapids for sending out a link this morning to the study. It's only 7 pages long and I took a copy with me this morning on a visit to a Financial Planner.  It made a great impact piece for a conversation about her clients, our Tocqueville Society, and the endowment. 

Go to http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/files/press_kit/additional/2012_BofA_Study_of_HNWP_-_Key_Findings.pdf

David

UWCA Forms

These are a couple of the donor templates we are using currently.  Believe me they change frequently, so we try to keep them flexible.  I'm uploading PDFs for space reasons and because I can link to them on Google Drive.  If you want the MS Office files, email me. 

If you click on the form name below, it should take you to the PDF on Google Drive.

Donor Agreement for Insurance Policies.  One of the things we learned on this form was not to refer to it as a Donor Agreement Form, because if you abbreviate the name, you get DAF which is also a Donor Advised Fund and the accountants complain.

TLC Commitment.  Our objective here was to keep things as simple as possible.  It has worked well and donors are more likely to give us the details we need if there is not alot of other information that needs to be filled out.

I am ALWAYS looking for better forms, so send me yours.

David

Crescendo Interactive

I will readily admit from the very beginning that we are Crescendo customers and I really like their resources - and there are a bunch.  The company is out of California and you can find their website at CrescendoInterative.com.  It would take way too long to go through all they do and I would hate to deprive you of the chance to spend sometime exploring their website, but I will point you in the direction of 2 of their tools worth considering.

The first is The Planned Giving Blog by Kristen Schultz Jaarda.  Kristen is the Senior Vice President and an Estate Planning attorney.  Her blog focuses on social media and its many uses in promoting planned gifts, but you will also find a wealth of information on specific vehicles.  You can access her blog directly from the Crescendo webpage, friend her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter. 

The second is GiftCollege.  If you want to know about bequests and trusts, real and personal property gifts, and just about any other type of planned gift that some donor could possibly even think of giving to United Way, GiftCollege will teach you all about it.  These are online courses with reading materials, lectures, and even quizzes.  The last time I checked, there were over 100 online courses you can take through GiftCollege and if you are really obsessive compulsive, you can earn your certification as a Certified Gift Planning Associate (CGPA) and then as a Certified Gift Planning Professional (CGPP).  I went for the whole enchilada and it was well worth the very low cost.  I now am quite confident that I can handle gifts of fine artwork, closely held stock, and dairy cows!!!

I am sure there are other companies that offer similar products that may be just as good.  However, Crescendo is what I know so if anyone wants to offer a review of another similar service, just let me know.

More Retreaded ideas yet to come!

David

Some Great UWW Resources

Obviously if we are going to talk about planned giving resources for local United Way's, we have to list UW Online - not just because they are the mother ship, but because you are going to find some great tools and ideas there. 

They have greatly improved United Way Online in recent months and the site is much easier to navigate.  Go to "Resource and Tools", "Give", and then click on "Endowment and Gift Planning Service Center."  It's well worth the time you can spend exploring the different topics and resources.

I was looking at other planned giving websites the other day and came across The University of Texas and their planned giving website at www.gftpln.org/Home.do?orgId=450.  Their planned giving website is by Crescendo (who I will talk about tomorrow), but what caught my eye was the Resources section on the right side.  Take a look at their Sample Language and Forms, Estate Intention Letter, and Gift Planning Guide.  These are definitely ideas worth borrowing.

More tomorrow.

No Point in Reinventing the Wheel!

Finding a great idea is a whole lot better than trying to invent a new one.  So, inspired by my friend Bryne Lewis from United Way of the Wyoming Valley in Wilkes Barre PA and her blog, "Apples to Oranges", PG Retreads is dedicated to good ideas and resources from the world of planned giving that you just might find helpful.  

That said, the first resource I am going to recommend is ....

Apples to Oranges

 

Bryne Lewis is the Vice President of Resource Development at UW of the Wyoming Valley and she is chronicling their move to a new way of thinking when it comes to RD work.  Apples to Oranges is a new blog, so you can get in on the ground floor reading about their progress. You will find it at
 

"wewantoranges.blogspot.com".

 

For the next couple of days, I will add other websites, resources, and good ideas I find useful in our work. When I've posted everything I know currently, I will do my best to find and post at least once a week the best idea I think worth sharing. If you have a good idea, send it to me at dhall[at]uwca.org. You can contribute a blog post, get full credit, honors and accolades from your fellow planned giving searchers.

I am going to avoid using hyperlinks, actual email addresses, and other tools that make it so easy for phishers and spammers to send us garbage we don't want.  If you want to know how to get in touch with someone (like Bryne) email me and I will send you her contact info (she says I can).