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By Shawna Hershfield
Communications Director
Every planned giving program includes a library of materials.
While we think of them as an arsenal of specific tools to be deployed for a variety of needs, our donors see them differently. They seem them as one continuous message, emanating from one place, and often, from one person.
However, most collateral is printed at different times, reflecting different financial climates and the tastes of different communications directors. Imagine what that mélange communicates to your donor. To communicate clearly with our donors, take a fresh look at your materials with a communications audit.
Step 1: Ignore your current materials. Instead, consider all of the messages you need to get to your planned giving donors. This might include:
- Their value to your organization
- The latest, greatest program funded by a planned gift
- New opportunities for involvement at your organization
- Gift rates of return, etc., whether they’ve changed or not.
- Information about joining your legacy society community
Step 2: Plot these communications goals out along the horizontal axis on a spreadsheet. Along the vertical access, list the months of the year. Fill in the blanks with the best materials to deliver these messages, and schedule them at regular intervals. Include cover letters and any annual fund communications that they’ll be getting.
In large organizations with multiple communications outlets, consider that donors will also be getting other publications. At these organizations, both the problem and need for delivery management is multiplied.
What of your library of materials?
After investing thousands of dollars in getting the right legacy metaphor and the right font for your 20-page “pocket guide to giving,” it’s hard to admit that it doesn’t work. But, it doesn’t. (What’s in your pockets?) Libraries have limited shelf lives.
That’s why your audit started assuming you had no materials. The best collateral materials serve up fresh information regularly. Print-on-demand quarterly legacy donor updates offer more opportunities for meaningful relationship building than 20-page pocket guides any day. Online communications offer even more opportunities for fresh content, but the planned giving audience still often prefers print.
At JBL, we can help you strategize a more effective donor communications program, or we can teach you to do your own. Call our offices to learn more.
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