Gift Planning Columns and Articles for Your Next Publication

You've Heard You Need a Will — Here's Why

Think about your bequest prospects who don’t even know why they need a will in the first place.  There are more of them than you think, and they’re tuning out your marketing message. 
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Will You Leave a Legacy? (Bequests)

Your planned gift marketing can start right here, with this clear, concise and powerful blueprint of how a charitable bequest works, and what an easy and flexible gift it is for donors....

8 Pitfalls in Writing Your Will

How many folk do you think die without a will? According to the most recent NCPG Survey, it’s 42%!  That means, if they have decisions about guardianship for a young child, which relatives...

It's OK to be a Little Selfish When You Make a Gift!

[Note: primarily written as newsletter copy, this document can easily be used as an article/column for your next publication, or be adapted into a solicitation letter with minor effort.]

A Big Thumbs Up! (CGAs)

Donors love gift annuities. Why do they give the big thumbs up? There are lots of reasons, and this brochure highlights some of the best. If you need a rah rah article about gift annuities, this...

A Steady Stream of Cash You Can Rely On (Charitable Gift Annuities)

Who wouldn’t want a steady stream of cash that they can count on? We’re sure many of your donors would, especially in an unstable economy or when stocks are on a roller coaster ride. This...

A Tribute That Will Last (Endowment Giving)

Here is an alternative marketing piece on your endowment that is somewhat less detailed (yet still fully accurate), and focuses on how a donor can use a gift to your endowment to honor a loved...

Are You a Done It or a Want To Do It? (Bequests)

A direct encouragement to your prospects to get started writing their wills.

The theme is the satisfaction and peace of mind readers will feel after the job is done. Your organization...

Are You Exercising Your Will Power? (Bequests)

In a non-threatening, positive style, this piece sets up the most common excuses prospects hide behind for not writing a will (60 percent of your potential bequest donors die without a will)....

Benefits Galore! (CGAs)

The charitable gift annuity is truly a gift full of benefits. It provides important major support for your charity. And it also delivers a number of other impressive benefits to the donor. This...

Charitable Lead Trusts

An overview of lead trusts that focuses on their usefulness in estate and family-wealth planning – and minimizes dense tax and gift-detail technicalities of this complex gift plan. Highlights...

Charitable Remainder Trusts

An essential introduction to how unitrusts work and what they can do for your prospects.  Copy begins and ends with specifics on benefits.  Gift description is thorough and accurate yet...

Charitable Remainder Unitrusts

An essential introduction to how unitrusts work and what they can do for your prospects.  Copy begins and ends with specifics on benefits. 

It is written in a simple style and is...

Deferred Gift Annuities, Flexible Gift Annuities

A targeted communication on two rewarding gift plans that will appeal to younger (late-40s to early-60s) planned giving prospects. Especially appropriate for high-income professionals. Copy is...

Diversify for Retirement (CGAs)

Your donors may not know that one of the advantages of establishing a charitable gift annuity is diversification of their portfolio for retirement. Sometimes it isn’t easy to diversify because it...

Easy Does It (Bequests)

Every fundraiser dreads this response to a solicitation for charitable bequests: "Too late — I've already written a will."

This brochure is your...

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses (Bequests)

Here is a no-nonsense counter-attack to the reasons prospects give for not planning their estates and writing a will. The reasons are dismissed as "excuses" that keep prospects from helping...

Five Easy Reasons to Give

Planned giving makes a whole lot of sense for donors trying to make a difference for their favorite nonprofit in today’s cranky economy.

But what if a donor doesn’t know about planned...

Four Times a Year (CGAs)

Most donors elect to receive their annuity payments quarterly, or four times a year. Every check or direct deposit is a reminder that they’ve established a gift annuity with your organization....

Gifts of Appreciated Assets (Appreciate Your Appreciated Property)

Even in the current economic climate, many of your donors are holding stocks that have appreciated significantly, and many of them don’t know the benefits of giving appreciated securities...

Give Your Retirement a Boost (CGAs & DGAs)

Here’s some information you’ll want to share that with your younger Baby Boom and Generation X donors. This brochure helps them understand how charitable giving and retirement planning can work...

Got Real Estate?

It’s common knowledge that one of most important assets your donors hold is real estate. We are talking about their personal residences, vacation homes, undeveloped land, rental, and commercial...

Home Sweet Home

This title should get your donor’s attention – what does not moving out of their house have to do with making a charitable gift? The article will answer that question, and more, by explaining how...

How to Make Your Government Love You (Bequests)

Written in a strong but humorous style, this piece painfully drives home the losses and uncertainties that come from dying without a will.

Assets will be distributed according...