Shauna Scherer, MPA, CFRE®, is a certified fundraising executive and senior vice president for advancement at Population Connection and Population Connection Action Fund in Washington, DC, where she oversees all fundraising initiatives.
Sharpe Insights: How long have you worked for Population Connection? What is your other work experience?
Shauna: I began my journey with Population Connection in 2009 as a major gifts officer. Over time, I began to take on responsibility for all aspects of fundraising. Now, having been here for 15 years, I’m proud to have implemented strategies to grow our department and revenue significantly. This has been a big team effort, so I must give credit to my amazing colleagues and our president & CEO, John Seager.
Before working with Population Connection, I enjoyed a life-changing opportunity to contribute my talents to Peacework, an international service-learning organization based in Virginia. I started in development at my alma mater, the University of Arkansas, where I worked as an assistant to the director of development in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. I was fortunate to earn my master’s degree in public administration during that time.
Sharpe Insights: When did you begin working with Sharpe Group?
Shauna: More than a decade ago! I was acquainted with Sharpe’s informational booklets and wanted to market planned giving more consistently to our supporters. Sharpe’s consultant, John Jensen, taught me a great deal about planned giving. We worked together for several years, implementing a quarterly newsletter, offering booklets and working through thorny estate issues. His tutelage was invaluable as we navigated growing Population Connection’s legacy society from 70 living members to more than 630 now and closing an average of 30 estates yearly.
Sharpe Insights: How has Sharpe’s consulting and marketing expertise influenced your planned giving program?
Shauna: The quarterly newsletters have been a boon to our planned giving program. We’ve realized tremendous gains in revenue from bequests, charitable gift annuities, beneficiary designations, IRA QCDs and more. We mail to about 20,000 of our donors each quarter and receive hundreds of responses with information requests, bequest notifications and contributions. We’ve also benefited from consulting guidance on receiving unique planned gifts and handling troublesome estates.
Sharpe Insights: What are some specific examples of things you implemented in your planned giving marketing?
Shauna: Sharpe—specifically, John Jensen—guided me through best practices for planned giving. There isn’t an aspect of our program that wasn’t influenced by his excellent advice: from launching the newsletters to following up with donors, from managing open estates to running a charitable gift annuity program nationwide, from accepting gifts of real estate to promoting IRA QCDs more broadly. Since John moved on, we rely on our current consultant, Julie Schuldner, to advise us on charitable remainder trusts and to offer a planned giving webinar to our supporters.
Sharpe Insights: Tell me about the impact of your quarterly printed gift planning newsletter, “Population Connection.”
Shauna: We’ve had nearly 2,500 donors inquire on planned giving topics since we started tracking responses. Keep in mind that this includes other promotions, such as magazine ads and an annual donor survey, and many donors inquire multiple times before making a decision. In the past 10 years, more than 200 donors completed their estate gifts, valued at approximately $21 million. We currently have more than 630 living donors who have notified us that they’ve included us in their estate plans. We can anticipate more than $63 million in planned giving revenue from this group over the next 10 years. We continue growing our legacy society, so, in fact, this amount should go up.
Sharpe Insights: What important gift planning lessons have you learned over time?
Shauna: Our donors are knowledgeable about their financial affairs, so providing them with ideas about ways they can support Population Connection works best. Our donors love Sharpe’s booklets! We’ve offered all of the titles over the years. In addition, donor testimonials go a long way toward helping others to envision their own contribution to our cause.
Sharpe Insights: Do you have any advice for a planned giving officer just starting their career?
Shauna: My biggest advice for a planned giving officer—or anyone in the development field—is to seek out mentors and champions. Regarding planned giving, drip marketing has worked well, and it feels great to see our years of hard work paying off.
Sharpe editor Grant Miller, based in Nashville, is an award-winning writer who works with our clients to create effective print and digital communications. He is a frequent contributor to Insights.
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