The National Association of Charitable Gift Planners (CGP) undertook a survey of its members this spring, and President and CEO Michael Kenyon shared some preliminary findings that highlighted the differences between young and mature gift planning programs. The largest group of nonprofit survey respondents reported their organization has been involved in “planned giving” for 30 or more years. The next largest group of survey respondents indicated they think their organization has been cultivating planned giving donors for just one to three years.
Here are a few of the significant differences between mature and young programs:
1. When fundraisers collaborate on a gift, mature programs are more likely to give credit to each fundraiser involved in the gift.
2. Mature programs are more likely to focus on actual bequest revenue realized annually rather than merely counting bequest
commitments/expectancies.
3. Mature programs are more likely to report all kinds of noncash gifts, especially publicly traded securities and gifts from
qualified retirement plans, such as IRAs.
4. Mature programs are more likely to have a planned giving specialist on staff.
5. Mature programs are more likely to report more than 10% of annual fundraising revenue is realized from planned gifts. In fact, 41% of mature programs reported they received 20-50% of annual fundraising revenue in the form of planned gifts. Only 12% of young planned giving programs reported that level of success.
Look for more complete information on the CGP Survey of Members at the National CGP Conference in New Orleans, October 2-4, 2019, and visit with us in booth #25-26. ■
