Planned Gift Storytelling
“The planned gift is the major gift of the middle class.”
I heard Michael say this in a storytelling seminar over the summer. It has stayed with me since.
If you’ve produced planned giving communications, you’ve probably told stories about donors. Storytelling is particularly effective in planned gift marketing because:
1) Planned giving stories are really case studies about the financial or estate planning problems that bequests, charitable gift annuities, charitable trusts, and other vehicles can solve.
2) The donor is the hero.
3) It allows prospects to imagine themselves as the heroes of their own stories.
Now, think back and try to remember: How many planned gift stories have you told about gifts under six figures?
This one’s hard for me too. And that was Michael’s point.
For the middle class, who cannot make huge gifts during their lifetimes (since those come from income), there is more likely an opportunity to make a planned gift (since those come from assets). But it has to feel achievable.
That’s why we need to tell stories of $25,000 bequests, $10,000 CGAs, and $5,000 IRA rollovers.
Because when prospective donors see themselves in the stories you tell, they recognize that they, too, have an opportunity to support your institution in a way that is meaningful to them.
Isn’t that the real gift?