Alex Comfort, CFRE, is a well-known nonprofit consultant in Western North Carolina. He has been a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 1989 and has served as a board member and president of AFPWNC chapter. He was recognized as the region’s Outstanding Fund Raising Executive in 2010. Alex is giving us a sneak peak of his planned giving article that will appear in AFP’s Advancing Philanthropy magazine in July 2025.

When I go to a seminar or read a paper on a new fundraising idea, I hate it when the new idea comes at the very last.  So here is my idea first:

Every non-profit, secular or religious, needs more planned giving expectancies. The first thing to do is to establish a group of “Perpetual Benefactors” (or make up your own name).  This group is to be made of people who leave the charity enough in their will or estate plan to equal their current annual gift.  By so doing, the legacy gift can be endowed and provide the exact gift they are giving now (with periodic increases), to help the charity forever continue in operation.

Said another way, you ask your most loyal donors to consider making a gift in their will or estate plan.  The amount is 20 times their current annual gift.  Doing history major math, which is all I can do, a person who is currently giving $1,000 per year should leave $20,000 in their will or estate plan.  The charity sets up a special endowed fund for these gifts as they come in, and the board votes each year what percentage of endowment to pay out into the annual fund – usually 05%.  $20,000 multiplied by .05% = $1,000.

The Steps to Accomplish the Perpetual Benefactors Group

  1. The Board of Directors (or similar group of key lay leaders) needs to agree in a resolution to create such a group. It will state that the Board will endow all gifts left in a will or estate plan for the charity’s Perpetual Benefactors Group, and that the board will vote each year as to the percentage to be given to the current annual fund.  It promises not to invade the principal of such gifts, and to direct the payout to the annual fund.
  2. The Board of Directors will promise immediately to set up two forms of recognition:
    1. “A Giving Tree” or other visual display (like a plaque) to list donors in the main meeting room of the charity. It has to be something that can easily add new names.
    2. A special listing will be created on the charity’s website listing the group.
    3. Both listings need to be updated
  3. The charity will announce this program in its newsletter or regular meetings and says it will seek, as an announced and publicized goal, 25 such gifts over the next 6 months. It would probably be best to start this effort in the first three months of the calendar year.
  4. All who are involved in this process will be asked to use the verb “to consider”, nothing stronger. For example, “now that you understand what we are trying to do, could you consider making a gift in your will or estate plan of 20 times your annual gift so you could become a Perpetual Benefactor?”
  5. The charity staff and/or Board should invite the five most loyal annual givers (individuals or couples) to a meeting to discuss this program and ask for their assistance. Each individual/couple will be asked to:
    1. Put this gift in their will or estate plan.
    2. To visit three other loyal givers to ask them to do the same thing. The individual/couple may know and choose their own three prospects or be given some names to visit.
    3. Anyone who agrees to make a gift is asked if they will visit three other people they know who might be able to consider such a gift.
    4. If the process is successful, over the six-month period, keep adding people willing to make calls, train them on what to say, and continue to penetrate the donor base, always looking to the most loyal yearly donors.
  6. Obviously, a small committee of people will need to oversee this process. Hopefully, the first five individuals/couples will agree to form the committee.
  7. All people who promise the committee that they have actually completed the legal process to amend their will or estate plan will be added to the charity listings. They do not need to show proof.  If, after they die and probate has concluded, the charity does not receive anything, then the charity quietly removes their names.

What Next?

  1. After the six month period is over, no matter how many people become members of the group, call it a great success and celebrate the experience widely.
  2. Convene a group of the most active members and talk about how to make the process better in the future.
  3. Plan the next effort, starting a year from the beginning date of the first effort. Using data from the first effort, define a goal for additional Perpetual Benefactors for the second year that makes sense.  Also, however, include for the second year a goal for “Life Income Gifts”, such as Charitable Gift Annuities or Charitable Remainder Trusts.  Keep the goal for this additional item  low, perhaps ten, and find a non-profit professional (maybe a trusted consultant) to help the process.  Your loyal estate planners or accountants may volunteer to help, but they normally cannot help themselves and make this part of the planned giving process impossibly complicated.
  4. Each year add a goal for the process, as long as it makes sense. For example, add a goal for “Retained Life Estates” one year.  These are homes or land which can be left in the will or estate plan to the charity.  Use a low goal of 5 for those.
  5. Always use the “Perpetual Benefactor” group as your primary yearly focus. The add-on planned giving items should be secondary.

Other Thoughts

  1. Please do not omit steps in the original process, like not publicizing the new group on a plaque in the main meeting room and also on the website. Omitted steps will greatly reduce your success ratio.
  2. After the first year, you may incur some costs as you get help in explaining the more complicated planned giving “opportunities” to include the second year. Spend the money on good, experienced, trusted help!  It will be worth it.

Rationale

I am tired of us fundraisers being afraid of planned giving. We are the ones who know how to talk to our donors – not the estate planners, tax attorneys, and accountants.  Instead of centering on the complicated aspects of the field, we need to concentrate on something simple and understandable. That’s what the “Perpetual Benefactor” program can do.

Simply put, success in planned giving is key to 80 percent of the country’s charities as the Baby Boomer generation dies out.  Once my generation is gone, the sheer number of older donors with disposable wealth will decrease dramatically.  We need to get to this task now.

If it would be useful, I am glad, at no expense, to explain all this at alex@mn-ps.com or through my website, www.mn-ps.com.