Talking to Your Board About Planned Giving
Your board is an essential part of your organization; they represent you in the larger community. They care about the mission of your nonprofit, they are a critical avenue for free publicity and connection, and they are crucial to fundraising efforts. They need to lead by example.
Many board members understand the need to support the fundraising efforts for an annual fund or a capital campaign, but their knowledge of planned giving may be a bit murkier. It’s likely they need some training, but it’s not always easy to train the people who are setting the goals and vision for an organization.
How can you talk to them about their role in this important effort?
- Make planned giving a standing part of each meeting’s agenda. Go over your planned giving efforts and emphasize the value of it for the organization’s future.
- Tell stories of the impact of past planned gifts so they have a vision for what it’s all about.
- Ask them to help you set a goal for the board’s participation in planned giving. Meet with each member individually to find out if they have their own estates in order and find out if they have a gift for your organization in their plans. Report on the percentage of board members who have done so in future meetings as a way to show progress toward the goal they set.
- When you report on development work, you can talk about the different available vehicles as part of that report. This is a sneaky way to educate your board as you go to make them both better givers and better planned giving reps.
Don’t let this huge opportunity slip away—engage your board in planned giving today!