Planned Giving

Ted Hart speaks with CFRE Michael Rosen, president of fundraising and marketing consulting firm ML Innovations, about donor-centered planned giving on his Nonprofit Coach radio show.

If you’re new to planned giving but it’s now part of your job description, you may be wondering where to start first. Or, if you’ve already started your campaign, how do you gauge how you’re doing if nothing is happening? If your jumping off point is a letter, make sure you understand the focus — it’s your supporters’ love of your mission and your work. It’s about a future need.

According to The Stelter Co.’s latest national study on planned giving, 97 percent of those polled expressed no interest in joining a recognition group. This finding — among a number of revelations found in the survey — underscores an underlying shift in the preferences and demographics of future planned givers.

Another surprising finding included in the 2012 Stelter Donor Insight Report: A lucrative segment of planned-giving prospects is likely not on your radar.

The Stelter Co. shares its findings on generational shifts in the ways people think about estate giving through an infographic.

Planned Giving Marketing Solutions recently partnered with LifeHelp in Redding, Calif., to function as the 'Third Party Administrators' for the Legacy Life Giving Program. The partnership is designed to facilitate gifting of life insurance polices from donors to nonprofit organizations nationally.

The Legacy Life Giving program was established in 2009 to facilitate gifts between donors, insurance carriers and nonprofit organizations. It is a simple and reliable way for nonprofits to provide donors with a charitable giving, life insurance option. Most importantly, the nonprofit is guaranteed to receive the donation as intended by the donor.

The University of Pittsburgh announced that well-known and highly respected business leader, investor, author and philanthropist William S. Dietrich II plans to make a gift of a $125 million fund in support of the university. This is the largest individual gift to Pitt in its 225-year history and is one of the 10 largest gifts made by an individual to a public university in the United States. The fund will become operational upon Dietrich’s passing.

The leadership of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Virginia Commonwealth University toasted bequests totaling $115 million — the largest cash gift in each organization's history.

In an announcement made Thursday afternoon in the museum's Marble Hall, they said nearly $70 million will go to the VMFA to create a restricted art purchase endowment and support the museum's recent expansion. VCU's $45 million will go to the university's medical campus for research and prevention of cancer and other degenerative diseases.

The Milwaukee Art Museum announced Thursday that it has received the largest bequest in its history. The museum received $7.6 million from the estate of a Milwaukee business owner and his wife, Leonard and Bebe LeVine.

The funds will be restricted and used for acquiring art. A work by the late 18th-century, early 19th-century American painter John Singleton Copley has been acquired with the gift, according to museum sources, and could be a significant addition to the museum's holdings in American art. The identity of the painting has not yet been revealed.

Four fundraising experts discussed donor giving trends and what they mean for fundraisers at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater New York Chapter's Fund Raising Day in New York. Margaret Holman, president of Holman Consulting, tackled individual giving.

The Donor Motivation Program and the Motivation Professionals of North America announced the winner of their Planned Giving Contest: Michelle L. Brooks of Bridgeport, Conn., a donor of Covenant to Care for Children.

Covenant to Care for Children, the winning nonprofit, and its executive director, Caryl Hallberg, are also winners.