Most nonprofits spend an enormous amount of energy asking donors for the next gift.
The spring appeal. The gala. The year-end campaign. The major gift meeting.
All important.
But there is another conversation many organizations never have with their most loyal donors.
“Would you consider making this organization part of your legacy?”
That is the heart of planned giving.
And for many nonprofits, it may be one of the largest untapped fundraising opportunities sitting right in front of them.
The problem is that planned giving sounds complicated. It sounds like something that requires attorneys, expensive consultants, sophisticated marketing materials, and a development department big enough to manage it all.
It doesn’t have to start that way.
In fact, I believe the best place to start is much simpler.
Start with the relationship.
I talk a lot about treating donors like investors.
An investor wants to understand what you are accomplishing, where you are going, how their resources will be used, and whether they can trust the people leading the organization.
Planned giving takes that idea one step further.
Your most committed donors are not simply funding a transaction. They are telling you something about who they are and what they want their lives to stand for.
That requires a different conversation.
You are no longer saying:
“Will you give us another $5,000 this year?”
You are asking:
“Is this mission important enough to you that you would want it to continue as part of your legacy?”
That is a deeply personal question.
And when the relationship has been built properly, it can also be a very natural one.
When I was at Amnesty International USA, we received a check from the estate of a donor named Marjorie Farmer.
The check was for $1.4 million.
It arrived during a recession, at a time when that money mattered enormously to the organization.
That experience stayed with me.
The gift did not happen because somebody suddenly discovered a clever fundraising technique.
Years earlier, somebody had built a relationship with Marjorie. Somebody helped her see herself as part of the mission. And somebody had the courage to ask her to remember Amnesty in her estate plans.
Years later, that relationship produced a transformational gift.
That is what planned giving can do.
Not every bequest will be $1.4 million, of course. That is not the point.
The point is that many nonprofits are working incredibly hard to raise only the money donors have in their checking accounts while barely talking about the assets donors have accumulated over a lifetime.
Think about the people who have supported your organization for ten, fifteen, or twenty years.
Their wealth may be held in:
Yet most fundraising conversations remain focused almost entirely on cash.
That leaves an enormous part of the donor’s financial picture out of the conversation.
It also limits the donor.
Somebody who would hesitate to write a very large check today may be perfectly comfortable naming your organization as a beneficiary of a retirement account or including a bequest in a will.
If we never ask, we will never know.
And too many organizations never ask.
This is where nonprofit leaders tend to make planned giving harder than it needs to be.
They imagine they need a polished website, an expensive brochure, a legacy society, direct mail campaigns, prospect research, outside experts, and a completely new fundraising infrastructure.
Those things may come later.
But they are not where I would begin.
I would begin with one piece of paper.
Give a donor simple information they can take to their CPA or attorney. Include straightforward bequest language for a will or trust and information about beneficiary designations.
That gives you something concrete to discuss with the donors who already know you, already trust you, and already care deeply about the work.
Once you have that foundation, you can build.
Maybe the next step is a page on your website.
Then perhaps a mailing to your most loyal donors.
Later, you may create a legacy society to recognize people who have included the organization in their plans.
As the program grows, you can do more sophisticated research to identify donors with appreciated or non-cash assets and bring in professional expertise when a gift becomes more complex.
But don't wait for the perfect planned giving program before you have the first conversation.
Plant the seed first.
Build the garden as it grows.
This is one of the most important things I want nonprofit leaders to understand.
Planned giving is not primarily a legal strategy.
It is a stewardship strategy.
These donors should be treated differently because their commitment is different.
If someone has decided that your organization should receive part of what they spent a lifetime building, that person deserves more than another mass email.
Bring them closer.
Let them see the work.
Share the numbers.
Show them the outcomes.
Help them understand the future you are building.
Invite them into conversations about where the organization is going.
Treat them like the VIPs they are.
This is where financial clarity matters enormously.
A donor considering a legacy gift is making a long-term bet on your organization. They want confidence that you will still be here. That your leadership is responsible. That the money will be stewarded carefully. And that the mission will continue producing meaningful results.
Good accounting supports that trust.
Strong reporting supports that trust.
Clear outcomes support that trust.
This is why fundraising and finance cannot live in separate worlds.
You do not need to start by searching your database for the wealthiest person.
Start by looking for loyalty.
Who has been giving for years?
Who regularly attends your events?
Who asks thoughtful questions?
Who talks about your mission as if it is partly theirs?
Who has stayed with you through difficult seasons?
Those are the relationships I would look at first.
Planned giving is not necessarily about finding a new donor.
Often it is about having a deeper conversation with an existing one.
There is a natural progression here.
At first, you may simply be trying to get a basic planned giving program off the ground.
That is good.
But over time, the opportunity becomes larger.
Instead of thinking, “How do we get someone to put us in their will?” you begin thinking more broadly:
“How can we help this donor give in the way that makes the most sense for them and creates the greatest impact for the mission?”
Now you are moving from planned giving to gift planning.
That means understanding the donor's goals, the assets available to them, the impact they want to create, and the appropriate professionals who may need to be involved.
It is a more mature fundraising conversation.
And it begins with trust.
If your organization has no planned giving program today, don't let that become an excuse.
Start small. Identify a handful of loyal donors.
Create the basic information they would need to discuss a bequest or beneficiary designation with their professional advisor.
Decide how you will recognize and steward people who make that commitment.
Then begin the conversation.
You do not need fifty people in a legacy society before it becomes worthwhile.
You need one.
One donor who believes so deeply in the work that they want some part of it to continue after they are gone.
That is not just fundraising. That is belonging.
And when we stop treating donors like transactions and begin inviting them into the future of the mission, we create relationships that can strengthen an organization for generations.