With nearly 4,000 local affiliates as it celebrates its centennial, Boys and Girls Clubs of America still is learning how to keep everyone funded, happy and on the same page.

By Nicole Rollender

In the mid 1990s, Aschermann says, BGCA’s planned-giving strategy left something to be desired.

“We pretended, like many nonprofits do, that we had a planned-giving program,” he explains. “You know, ‘If you leave us something in your will, we can take care of it.’ But nothing aggressive.”

When local clubs started to call the national office to ask what a charitable remainder trust was or how to handle planned-giving requests, BGCA put together an official planned-giving program and discovered the national office had to teach clubs how to set up these programs, and also help them close the deals.