2 Nonprofit Mobile and Planned Giving Trends for 2015
To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share their nonprofit trends for 2015. Here are two trends on mobile and planned giving.
MOBILE
Miriam Kagan, senior fundraising principal, Kimbia
1. While this issue may have been beaten to death, many nonprofits still do not offer a truly resolution-centric mobile experience (not just for donors, but for their constituents in general). This will become increasingly important as mobile payments continue to make headway: smartphone-integrated payment technologies, increasing process of tablets and phablets and even near-field will mean that mobile-friendly becomes an old standard, not something that is still optional.
PLANNED GIVING
Claire Meyerhoff, editorial director, Planned Giving Marketing
1. For 2015, fundraisers who hope to bring in more planned gifts are looking for fresh ways to communicate with their longtime, loyal donors. Right now, my clients are very receptive to strategies that include the marketing of “Beneficiary Designation” gifts (the donor makes the charity a full, partial or contingent beneficiary of a retirement plan, life insurance, brokerage account or any asset requiring a beneficiary). This is the easiest planned gift to make! I like to call it a “lawyer-free gift,” because all the donor needs to do is fill out a “change of beneficiary form.”
Beneficiary designations are a great gift vehicle to market because you’re not talking about wills and death. For instance, in a newsletter, a college might include a brief article entitled “Your Retirement Plan can Start a Scholarship” or a crisis services program might send a letter to donors asking, “How can your life insurance save lives?”
Most charitable people have a retirement plan or life insurance, and their beneficiaries may be woefully out of date! When you market beneficiary designation gifts, you’re also doing a public service, because your donors may need to update their beneficiaries. Also, you can help donors understand that their retirement plan is one of the heaviest taxed assets if left to anyone besides a spouse — but when left to a charity, 100 percent of their hard-earned plan will go to a good cause.
In the past, charities have mainly focused on marketing bequests from wills or trusts, often referred to as “the bread and butter” planned gift and marketed as “easy.” But a bequest is not that easy. It usually requires an attorney, and we also know that many people don’t even have a will or any kind of estate plan. When a donor makes a planned gift with a beneficiary designation, all it takes is a phone, a form and a pen! They simply call their plan provider and ask for a change of beneficiary form. They use a pen to fill out the form, then call the charity to inform them of their wonderful gift!
