Planning For Good

Planning for Good – because sustainability is a gift -

Planned Gifts play a significant and vital role in an organization’s sustainability

Planned gifts – typically absorbed into endowment funds – generally involve more complicated gift arrangements than current gifts of cash or marketable securities. They also typically begin at the 6 figure level, involve gift, estate and/or income tax benefits to their donors, and can increase significantly the financial resources of non profit organizations for their long-term operation.

Many larger organizations – especially colleges, universities and hospitals – have staff within their development departments dedicated solely to planned giving. Often they include professionals with accounting, trust and legal expertise, as well as experience in fund development.

However, the powerful benefit of having a planned giving program to build endowments that can provide the highest level of sustainability for an organization is not reserved exclusively to organizations of this larger size.

As noted by the National Committee on Planned Giving on its web site, www.ncpg.org, in the article entitled Are you Ready for Planned Giving ? A Guide to evaluating Organizations Readiness for Non Profit Executives and Voluntary Trustees:

Many small and intermediate-sized charitable organizations realize they can share in some of the major resource development opportunities heretofore enjoyed by larger organizations. In the semi-annual Philanthropic Giving Index prepared by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, small and medium charities consistently rate planned giving as a fundraising strategy that has been most successful for them or that they are most interesting in pursuing.

Philanthropic Giving Index can be found at www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/Research/giving_fundraising_research.aspx#PGI

 Endowments: The key to sustainability

Creating a compelling case for donor support of endowments is straightforward. In their Journal of Gift Planning article Endowments for Small Charities: A Luxury or a Necessity? Vol 11(2007) Laura Hansen Jean and Kathryn W. Miree elucidate the elements, including that an endowment gift allows a donor to: 

• make a permanent contribution to – or investment in – the community’s future

• target a specific area of mission important to the donor

• perpetuate his or her annual gift

while ensuring that the non profit will have resources to withstand economic variances, disasters, loss of a key funding source or other unexpected economic events that might otherwise cause the non profit to reduce or cease operations. See pp. 18, 19. 

What are the necessary ingredients of a Planned Giving program?

At a minimum, appropriately crafted and implemented gift acceptance, investment and spending policies are the cornerstone of successful planned giving programs.

Crafting these policies involves the board and staff with the guidance of the skill, experience and expertise of Planning for Good. With the aid of organizational assessment tools and facilitated discussions, we work with you to create policies that are realistic, understood and effective in the solicitation, acceptance and stewardship of gifts and the endowments they support to sustain your organization’s mission.

In addition, procedures for solicitation, cultivation, donor-recognition and appropriate outreach materials, as well as methods for annually valuing and reporting gifts are essential. These are areas where Planning for Good provides organizational support and advice, including strategizing and facilitating conversations to steward relationships with donors who include the organization in their estate plans.

Where to start?

Use the contact area, directly on the left side of this page, to let us know you would like to consider a proposal for our services. It is helpful if you use the Organizational Assessment Tool so we can begin our conversation with a better understanding of your needs.  Also consult the Services area of this site to see descriptions of service areas, including policy development, implementation, program maintenance and other related areas of support.

You can also call us at 207-975-5165