Where's Your "Why?" - Simple Rule for Planned Giving Marketing

Karen Osborne conducted a webinar for PG Calc on Strategic Storytelling and its role in planned giving marketing in April. Some of you may have attended it, but for those who didn’t here’s something to consider. Citing inspiration from a Simon Sinek TED talk, she stated, “your ‘why’ story has to come before what you do and how you do it. What societal problems are you solving? What impact have past investments made? What do you envision going forward?”

It’s easier to tell the “why” story in person, but smart planned giving marketing messages should tell the “why” story as well. Your planned giving communications should include the following:

• Your organization’s values and commitments

• Your organization’s vision for the future • How well your leaders manage the organization

• How you are fiscally sound Having the trustworthiness and integrity to carry out your valuable mission are important factors to donors considering a planned gift to your organization.

The more transparent you can be in communicating these attributes in person and in print, the more likely your prospects will respond by moving forward with their gift planning. Karen also noted in her webinar that people have much higher recall of what they say versus what someone else says.

Some organizations are putting this idea into practice already. In the last week I have noted several similar emails from different organizations asking their supporters for the “why.” So, how well do you tell the “why” story of your organization . . . or get your donors to tell it for you? If you are interested in learning more about Karen Osborne’s Storytelling webinar, you can find it here.

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