Many charities receive roughly 40 percent of their yearly fundraising totals in the final weeks of the year. Start planning now—don’t wait until it’s too late. Positive growth in the economy and ongoing changes in the nation’s tax laws are providing powerful incentives for charitable gifts that are completed in the most effective way. In this positive environment, it’s …Read More
Sharpe Insights Articles

Archive for August, 2015
Start Planning Now for a Successful Year-End Giving Season
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Managing the Donor Downgrade
Paying attention to the donor life cycle can pay off. One of the most frequently cited myths about fundraising—and a reason why many gift planners face resistance from their peers involved in other individual gift development efforts such as annual giving, membership and major gifts—is the belief that planned giving can interfere with other giving. That is, some people …Read More
9 Ways to Make Your Website More Appealing
Adding an online component to your planned giving marketing can be an effective complement to other donor communications. Digital marketing in the planned giving arena can be especially successful if it is a strategic component of an overall plan that considers differences in communication preferences based on age, wealth and other relevant factors. The average age of gift annuitants is 79 and …Read More
Finding the Needles in Your Haystack
by Barlow Mann Identifying prospective donors with the potential to make larger gifts, whether current or deferred, is a little bit like looking for the proverbial “needle in the haystack,” only maybe even harder. No matter how long and hard you search for it, the needle in the haystack remains a needle and your job is to find …Read More