A successful planned-giving campaign takes it slow, nrturing relationship with older donors that will far outlive their immediate cash-generating years.

By Mark Walker

4. Find a direct-marketing firm with experience promoting planned giving.

5. Decrease or eliminate appeal letters and avoid attempts to upgrade older donors. Instead, focus on sending them informational pieces about the agency and, when possible, information relating to the organization’s founders, its history and impact, and any positive feedback from reputable ratings sources such as Money and Forbes magazines, the Better Business Bureau, Guidestar and MinistryWatch, etc. We developed Legacy newsletters and published memoirs or books by the founders for this purpose.