This past summer, PG Calc wrote a blog post entitled “Transforming Life Income Gifts into Current Gifts.” The post was informative and thoughtful, but there was a golden nugget touched upon in the post that should be emphasized.
Most of us know that our best donors are our current donors, and that is true for donors of gift annuities as well. Organizations’ gift annuity programs receive anywhere from 30% - 60% of their new gift annuity contracts from existing annuitants. Most charities market to their existing annuitants on a regular basis, with mailings or personalized calculations to illustrate the financial benefits of a gift annuity.
However, sometimes stewardship can be the most effective strategy for securing an additional gift, or to increase a bequest gift to your organization.
When organizations “mail” the donors’ annuity payments, they have an opportunity to thank the donor and share institutional information that the donor might not otherwise receive. Examples of such communications include:
- Personalized note
- Institutional newsletter
- Research report
- Philanthropic impact stories
While we don’t recommend any “marketing communications” when mailing the 1099R tax report, as the IRS frowns on that, we do recommend that you take advantage of the opportunity to “reach out” once or twice a year with an unexpected hello and thank you.
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