Whereas each donation is impactful to your nonprofit, it takes greater than small items to fund your work. Particularly, your group wants sustainable, long-term funding sources to make a long-lasting distinction to your trigger. Legacy items present loads of alternatives to earn long-term funding, however many nonprofits hesitate to advertise planned gifts and different legacy giving choices as a result of they require a extra delicate method.
Nevertheless, donors could be extra receptive than you may suppose! You possibly can faucet into this impactful fundraising avenue by explaining the mutual advantages of legacy giving and making it simple for donors to present. To assist your group earn extra legacy items, we’ll cowl the next:
Understanding these advantages is step one to cultivating substantial legacy items to your nonprofit. Let’s discover how one can pave the best way for incomes extra sustainable funding with legacy giving.
What’s Legacy Giving?
Legacy giving, also referred to as deliberate giving, is a sort of donation that’s meant to help a nonprofit, college, or different group past the donor’s lifetime.
That is accomplished both by setting apart a donation to be given after the donor passes away or by giving a present throughout their lifetime that continues to develop following the donor’s passing. Legacy giving can take a wide range of types, together with:
- Bequests: NXUnite defines bequests as “a legacy present the place the donor features a nonprofit of their will, leaving a portion of their property to it.” Relying on the donor’s needs, your nonprofit could obtain funds, shares, or a proportion of the property itself.
- Life insurance coverage: Donors can record your group as a beneficiary on their life insurance coverage coverage. They’ll additionally donate any unused retirement property to your nonprofit.
- Endowments: If a donor needs to present each throughout and after their lifetime, they will present a named endowment fund to your group. Donors can add to the fund, watch it develop all through their lifetimes, and relaxation assured that it’s going to proceed to develop and go away a charitable legacy after they cross away.
Whereas not generally thought-about legacy items, donor-advised funds (DAFs) additionally present donors with the potential to create a long-lasting legacy of giving all through their lifetimes. These funds are much like endowments, besides they’re managed by the donor and their DAF supplier as a substitute of gifted to a particular nonprofit. This manner, DAF-holding donors may give to a number of nonprofits all through their lives as a substitute of only one.
Advantages for Nonprofits
In the beginning, legacy items present extra monetary sources to your nonprofit to make use of to additional your mission. Not solely are legacy donations sometimes bigger, however in addition they enable you to plan for the future of your nonprofit’s fundraising. Bequests act as future income you’ll be able to venture, and endowments present sustainable, predictable funding that grows over time.
Plus, soliciting legacy items permits your group to engage donors and deepen vital relationships. The work you place into cultivating relationships with potential legacy donors will profit your group now and sooner or later.
Advantages for Donors
The largest advantage of giving a legacy present is the power for donors to make a considerable, lasting impression in your nonprofit’s trigger. Infinite Giving’s nonprofit endowment guide explains that legacy items allow donors to increase their private impression past their lifetimes and financially help your group for generations. Each donor needs to make a private distinction, and legacy giving is likely one of the finest methods to take action.
Moreover, legacy items provide donors:
- A better option to give a significant present. Some supporters could need to make a major donation however don’t have the means to take action as a consequence of different monetary duties. Since most deliberate items don’t have an effect on the donor’s present funds, this presents a neater option to give a big donation with out hurting their finances.
- Tax advantages. Identical to another donation, legacy items provide tax advantages like charitable tax deductions. As an illustration, any time a donor provides funds to their endowment or donor-advised fund, they obtain fast tax deductions.
- Household legacies. Despite the fact that the donor could not see their present’s impression themselves, their relations will. Deliberate items and named endowments assist the donor’s youngsters and grandchildren keep in mind them fondly and have a good time their life.
With legacy giving choices like endowments and bequests, donors even have the power to limit their donation—which means they will resolve how they need the present for use. Whereas this isn’t a requirement (and it’s usually higher to your group if the present is unrestricted), having the liberty to decide on how their funds are used could be an incentive for donors. Donors may also go away their items unrestricted however nonetheless observe preferences to your nonprofit to honor.
The way to Faucet Into Legacy Giving
Now that you just perceive the advantages for each you and your donors, you’re prepared to begin selling legacy giving and tapping into the chance.
To earn any legacy donations, you first have to develop a advertising and marketing technique that makes donors conscious of the choice. Create a web page in your web site that explains what legacy giving is, the related advantages, and the way they will be taught extra about donating. Then, attain out to particular person supporters who could also be and talk the benefits to them.
Together with selling the choice, you’ll be able to higher faucet into legacy items by investing in software program that makes donating simpler. For instance, you may invest in nonprofit endowment software so you’ll be able to simply:
- Create a branded donation web page or widget that lets donors give endowments and different non-cash gifts like stocks, DAF grants, and cryptocurrency.
- Simplify the giving course of for donors by letting them give a legacy present proper out of your donation web page. They enter their monetary data, then the software program notifies you of the donor’s intent and begins the endowment creation course of for you.
- Monitor all the things in a complete dashboard the place you’ll be able to monitor the expansion of endowment items and let donors see their impression.
Lastly, contemplate doing prospect research to find out which of your current supporters often is the most fascinated about giving a legacy present. Search for markers in your database that point out particular person donors have demonstrated a ardour to your trigger and a dedication to present over time. This analysis will enable you to focus your outreach efforts and improve your possibilities of success.
Legacy giving could seem to be a tough avenue to pursue, however these impactful advantages make it worthwhile. Whenever you clarify the key distinction a legacy present could make for each your nonprofit and the donor, it’s possible you’ll be shocked by what number of supporters have an interest.
In regards to the Creator
Karen Houghton
Karen Houghton is the CEO of Infinite Giving, a relationship and know-how pushed Nonprofit Funding Advisor. Karen leverages her deep nonprofit experience to deliver a contemporary and curated funding expertise to nonprofit organizations everywhere in the US. She advocates for organizational sustainability by higher monetary administration, strategic entry to curated funding practices for lowered administration charges, and elevated asset giving.