Planned Giving Insights and Information

Smart Giving and Tax Law Changes

The Trump administration has announced a tax plan for Congressional consideration. The plan features reduction of personal and corporate income tax rates including taxes on pass-through business entities such as S corporations, compression of the number of tax brackets from seven to three and an increase in the standard deduction. Personal income tax rates are reduced to 10%, 25%, and 35% brackets. This proposal eliminates the deduction for state and local income taxes but the income tax charitable deduction remains.

Deja Vu

Sometimes an idea is so good, it’s worth reminding our readers. A few weeks ago, Greg Warner of MarketSmart published a blog post related to internal telemarketing programs. For those of you who didn’t read it, the post is short and worth your time. For those of you who did read it, did you add this to your list of marketing ideas?

Is Giving Up or Down? Depends on How You Count.

On December 30 of last year, National Public Radio aired a segment on All Things Considered with the headline, “Charitable Giving Sees Big Bump In 2016.” Among the indications noted by reporter Pam Fessler that 2016 would be a good year for fundraising, $168 million was donated nationwide on Giving Tuesday, a 44% increase over the previous year.

An Underutilized Cultivation and Marketing Tool

Do you need a reason to reach out to your legacy society members? Would you like to move the cultivation process forward with your top planned giving prospects? Here’s a fairly simple way to accomplish both – focus groups. While it helps to have some knowledge or experience in running a focus group, it is not a requirement and should not prevent you from conducting one. It’s a smart way to get thoughts on your planned giving marketing, whether about a new direction or the effectiveness of your current marketing program.