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By Shawna Hershfield
Director of Communications
One of the most ethereal surprises a planned giving staffer gets to have is to receive a six or seven figure check from a deceased donor nobody knew from an estate that had included our institution for decades. More than once, I’ve been called upon to write a tribute in an annual report honoring another generous, unsung stranger. I’m always sorry to have missed meeting them.
To write their profiles, I’ll call upon estate attorneys, siblings, and associates and ask what they knew about Donor X and what might have made him/her choose us to benefit from his life’s work. “What did we do that had value to Donor X? How did our work fit into his greater life vision/values?” These are key questions. Don’t you wish you could have asked the donor?
I always do.
So, I use Donor X stories to bring other potentially anonymous bequest-intending benefactors into the light.
Here’s how: I’ll often ask a Dean or Curator to be quoted, expressing both gratitude for the gift, and disappointment to have missed out on the chance to get to know them. In this way, we communicate that individuals who leave a legacy gift are entitled to a deeper relationship with our organization, now. We want to know who they are so we can honor them and expand their involvement now, during their lifetime.
It’s all about them.
When we’re writing about donors, as marketers, we’re tempted to say that the donation was made because of our superior programs. “Go us and our singular greatness! Donor X gave to us because we’re the fastest/strongest/smartest.”
The profile that leads with “us” is exactly one that earns us anonymous bequest gifts. Why? The “us” approach doesn’t invite participation.
We are more successful at building a donor relationship when we tell a real story of connection. By revealing your donor’s humanity and how it connected him or her to your cause--not a canned quote about the greatness of us-- you encourage donors like him/her to see him/herself.
When they do, they’ll react in a couple of ways:
Some may decide, after supporting the annual fund for years that they’d like to join the generous, silent legions of people that never mention that you are included in their estate plans, then die and leave anonymous bequests. Thank you, that group! A future generation of communication directors will be writing about you by interviewing people who knew you. We wish we knew you.
Some donors will see themselves in a profile and understand the implication of the quote from your dean or curator. This group of people becomes not-anonymous. When that happens, I highly recommend interviewing them as part of the welcome process. Get their stories.
Tell as many stories as possible of people of all demographic groups making gifts from different assets, using different gift arrangements, focusing their gift on different programs and—whenever possible—get a quote about why they give unrestricted funds.
Where do these profiles go?
In the next article, we’ll discuss a planned giving communications audit. Where and how you tell your donors’ stories will determine their effectiveness. At JBL, we can help you craft a bequest communications strategy that brings donors out of the woodwork.
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