In recent years, more of our clients at Mal Warwick Donordigital have come to us with questions about planned giving (or legacy giving, as we prefer to call it). According to Giving USA, bequests make up 9 percent of total charitable contributions in 2015. And in the last twenty years, charitable bequest dollars have nearly DOUBLED, even when accounting for inflation.

With so much potential, legacy giving has become a major focus for many non-profits who hope to build an important new source of funding.

Why has legacy giving increased so much? Because legacy gifts are attractive for donors, as they cost the donor little (or nothing) right now. They are flexible, so the donor can change their mind down the line, and some offer valuable tax benefits.

But more than that, what these donors really care about is creating a lasting legacy for future generations. Making a gift in their will to an organization close to their heart is a way for the donor to tell the story of their life—of what mattered the most to them, of what ideals they want to protect, and what they think will make a difference in the world. It gives them the chance to “live on,” even after death. With so many organizations competing for these dollars, you have to let the donor know that YOUR organization is the best way for them to leave their mark and achieve their goals.

It used to be that legacy giving often fell to major gift officers, but this is changing. Direct mail is one of the best tools for uncovering legacy leads as it allows you to reach a broad range of donors from different income levels and geographic locations. Plus, it’s cost effective, usually costing just pennies on the dollar. Just one legacy gift can pay for the investment of an entire mailing to thousands of people.

Let me give you an example. We recently developed a direct mail package for one of our clients who had really struggled to find new legacy donor leads. They had tried a standard “brochure and cover letter” mailing before. The letter told the donor all about the benefits they would receive for joining their Legacy Circle, and the colorful brochure covered different ways to give, including complicated giving vehicles that no donor had ever used before with their organization. The Development Director told me that they received maybe one or two inquiries after the mailing.

We took a different approach, with a new “survey package” targeting just over 10,000 of their direct mail donors. The mailing generated nearly 100 legacy gift leads, including two dozen people who shared that they had already left the organization a bequest in their will—far more leads than they had ever received from any legacy mailing.

The survey we developed for that client has become a staple for several legacy donor programs. And it’s one the packages we have found consistently works for generating legacy donor leads.

For building your legacy gift pipeline, we suggest trying:

  1. Legacy Surveys - This survey is short and sweet—10 or 12 questions will probably be enough. Start with a few questions to find out what programs or initiatives are most meaningful to them. This will get them thinking about how much they love your organization. Then lead into some questions about their giving, and whether or not they have left your organization a legacy gift or would consider doing so. Keep it simple and stick to asking only about bequests for now—don’t muddy the message with other options. Then, finish with a few demographic questions like age, number of kids and education level—they will help you understand the types of donors who are interested or not interested in a legacy gift with your organization.
  2. Annuity Invitations - Before you get started on an annuity invitation, make sure that your organization is registered in your state (or in every state where you want to solicit, if you are a national organization). Each state has different requirements, and you can check with the American Council on Gift Annuities for more information. In the Annuity Invitation, you should not only include a letter that tells the donor about the benefits annuities, but a reply form so they can request more information. We’ve found that these packages work best when you are able to provide a personalized illustration for the donor of their annuity payment, based on their age. We work with PG Calc to generate these figures for each donor.
  3. Legacy Newsletters - Legacy Newsletters are a great tool for cultivating donors who have asked for more information or told you that they might consider a legacy gift, but haven’t yet made the commitment. They are also a great way to steward your current legacy donors. We don’t usually recommend using newsletters solely as a lead generation tool, or sending them to people you haven’t reached out to before with legacy information. In other words, you probably don’t want to print thousands to send to all of your direct mail donors, hoping that some will respond and ask for legacy gift information for the first time. When you are ready to create a newsletter, consider sharing the story of one of your current legacy donors and why they decided to make a legacy gift, and include a reply device so the recipient can ask for more information.

Before you start any mailing though, make sure you have the resources on hand that you need to respond to the influx of inquiries—like one-sheets with sample bequest language, and a list of the different legacy gift vehicles your organization will accept. Even more important—decide on  a method for tracking responses in advance!

If you need help developing your legacy materials, please let us know.

Sabrina Naylor is the Creative Services Executive for Mal Warwick Donordigital, based in Washington, D.C. She has helped develop winning legacy packages for a number of our clients, including the National Organization for Women, American Friends Service Committee, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and is a member of the National Capital Gift Planning Council.