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"Marketing Bequests: The Delicate Art of Asking for That Final Gift"

February 1, 2012 – Program Summary

On February 1, donor communications guru Tom Ahern shared his expertise with a full house of WID members and guests in a presentation titled "Marketing Bequests: The Delicate Art of Asking for That Final Gift." He explained that the reason his presentation was not called "Planned Giving Marketing" is that development officers need to talk to donors about bequests. Forget about CLTs, CRTs, and PIFs and focus on wills, which are easy to understand and relevant to everyone.

Because letters are the number one method of recruiting planned giving donors, Tom stressed the importance of an annual letter to prospects that both thanks them for their past giving and flatters them. Very generally, your audience is going to be those who have given consecutively over the previous five years and who are either in their 40s or 70s. Forget about what donors perceive as the "death brochure" – that canned brochure with the sunset photo. The consistency of a repeated message through the annual letter, as well as a mention of bequests on every piece of correspondence and in every newsletter is important.

Tom had everyone in attendance recite the pledge, "If I do nothing now, my organization loses forever a once-in-a-generation opportunity." The key is to start now to build a strong source of support for your organization in the future!