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Planned giving is often made to seem complex and arcane, something only a handful of experts understand. Getting started is actually quite simple and easy to do. Here are a few basics you should know before you begin.
What is a Planned Gift?
Planned gifts are generally substantial in size, sometimes immediate but most often deferred, usually from donors' assets rather than their income, and regularly require the assistance of legal or other professional estate planning counsel.
There are many types of planned gifts, the most common of which are:
- Simple bequests from donors' wills or living trusts
- Charitable gift annuities
- Charitable trusts
- Gifts of life insurance, real estate and retirement funds
- Equities
- Pooled income funds
By far, the most common is the straightforward bequest. For many institutions seeking planned gifts, more than 80% of their planned gift income consists of cash or other property made in donors' wills or trusts. For a station getting underway with a planned giving program, the best initial approach is to seek bequests which are easy to encourage and require no highly specialized knowledge.
You can learn more about the full range of planned gifts by downloading the bibliography (PDF, 88KB) and checking out the professional services.
A Winning Strategy
Most people have several causes that are dear to them, such as their church, alma mater, an arts organization, and public television. If you try to become the only recipient of a donor's estate, you compete with these other causes and may lose out. Experience shows that a public television station is usually only one of four or more beneficiaries of a will. Because public television can reach so many devoted viewers, however, you are able to share in more estates than other causes. The winning strategy is to become a part of many estate plans, rather than the sole recipient of a few.
Identifying Your Prospects
Over 8% of living Americans have included their favorite organizations in their will and another 14% are seriously considering it. That means that almost anyone in your audience is a prospect. However, most people actually make charitable bequests rather late in life. The best prospects, therefore, tend to be older, often widowed females. They are often not major donors. Some of the best planned giving prospects are conserving their resources. They may make a very small annual donation — or many even have dropped off your file of active supporters. But they still care.
Why Planned Giving NOW?
The urgency in getting started now — even with only a basic bequest program — is that your most loyal viewers are aging. Many have already made provisions for favored organizations in their wills, and many others soon will. If you do not get your message before them, other organizations will receive what could have come to your station. Moreover, planned giving is cumulative — much like the compounding of savings. Every year you delay will cost you in the near future, so you must begin your planned giving program now!
Overcoming the Two Major Barriers
The two biggest barriers to stations committing to planned giving are the perceptions that you must invest a great deal of money in a program and that it will be many years before a station sees a return. Neither is true.
Do I need a full-time planned giving officer? No, although you'll make greater progress if you do. As you'll find under Things to Do, you must take a few simple steps to establish your planned giving program, and all the resources you need are found on this site. Thereafter, your main task is to create awareness among those who might include you in their will — an easy task for a television station using its own air to deliver the message. In time, as you begin to receive bequests, you will want to devote full-time staff to planned giving and will have the revenue stream to justify it. But unless you begin your program now, you will never reach that point.
How long does it take to get a planned gift? Any adult can write a will at any time. But most people make charitable bequests late in life — once they are sure their assets will support them through their own lives and that they will be in a position to leave gifts to their children. Therefore, it is not unusual for an organization to begin to receive planned gifts within three years of starting its program and there are many examples of gifts received even earlier — eighteen months or less.
However, planned giving is a process, not an event. You must commit to some level of activity, support it, and maintain it. If you do, the rewards will be great — for you and for your donors.
Ready to begin? Good. First here are some Things to Do.
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Most planned gifts are bequests, which are relatively easy to obtain and require no specialized knowledge. Securing bequests does not require full-time staff, and the first gifts can come quite quickly. Because public TV's loyal viewers are aging rapidly, every month you delay costs your station future revenue. You must begin now!
Only rarely is one organization the sole beneficiary of a will or trust. Most bequest donors include four or more beneficiaries in their estate plans. So don't ask for it all, just ask to be included! Donors appreciate that approach.
For every three charitable bequests you receive, you'll probably know of only one in advance. Whenever one bequest arrives, there are probably two more on their way! But to get that first one, you've got to begin marketing your planned giving program. Now!
The nation's top universities and museums have long understood the importance of planned giving and endowment: Bequests give an institution a margin of excellence, and stability over time. Bequests exemplify donors' belief in our mission, and in our longevity. I believe that planned giving is a low cost, long-lead way to build WITF's future, reinforcing our place as a significant community institution.
As we watch what were formerly reliable sources of funding becoming less certain, the need for a large endowment becomes more pronounced. At Thirteen/WNET, we have been asking members and viewers to remember the station in their estate planning for more than a decade. Each year, our endowment is the beneficiary of generous bequests and other planned gifts that have "matured". For many supporters a planned gift is the largest contribution they will ever make to Thirteen. We are increasing our efforts in this area. Can any PBS station afford to neglect this important source of support?
PDF Files: To read and print PDF documents, you
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What is a Planned Gift?
