Planned Giving Insights and Information

Is This a Good Time for Gift Annuities?

Given unprecedented low interest rates, which shows no signs of material change, we have been asked a common question from our clients, “Should I continue to promote gift annuities?” There appears to be some skepticism and nervousness in the industry on whether it’s a good strategy to continue to market these gifts now because annuity rates are low and donors aren’t interested, and rightly so. With a few exceptions, and those are from organizations who don’t follow the ACGA rates, most charities are experiencing a decline in gifts this year and at best it’s flat compared to last year.

Creating a Marketing Project Brief

A reader asked the following: Can you share a one-page marketing project overview and perhaps share examples clients use to develop collateral and summarize results?

Keeping Up With the Times

Last month's Marketing Corner discussed the importance of imagery when marketing your program. A reader responded with the following comment: "Here’s one of the all-time great pictures of a face. It’s the eyes." “Steve McCurry’s iconic photograph of a young Afghan girl in a Pakistan refugee camp appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine’s June 1985 issue and became the most famous cover image in the magazine’s history, ” according to the National Geographic website.

How Do You Measure Your Marketing Program's Success?

There's nothing like receiving a very large and unexpected bequest to grab leadership's attention. Such was the case about seven years ago, when a small regional university finally decided to formalize its planned giving program. Up to that point, the marketing of its planned giving program was inconsistent and the attention it received from development was sporadic. The realized bequest was the catalyst to pay more attention to this planned giving thing.