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When donors share their desire to support your charity in their long-term plans and leave a legacy, the conversation can often get stuck on details—wills, beneficiary designations, percentages, timelines—or become too transactional, potentially turning off some of your donors. Though details are obviously essential to the estate planning process, guiding donors through their gift…
Memorial gifts are some of the purest expressions of generosity. With Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and other important holidays on the horizon, now is the perfect time to remind and encourage your donors to make a gift in memory or honor of a loved one. Communications encouraging memorial gifts don’t have to be complicated. We…
A successful marketing campaign (print or digital) means different things to different organizations. Generally, we advise our clients not to compare their results to those of others who may be working under very different circumstances. We believe it’s best to determine success by measuring against your own best results to date. Here are some things…
While the process of making distributions to charities via beneficiary designations should be simple enough from the perspective of donors and their attorneys, the delays in charities receiving the funds can last for months or years rather than weeks. Notably, financial institutions are requiring charities and/or board members to set up an account before they…
The Sharpe Team kicks off a new year with their own personal resolutions. Will Dixon Create one art piece a month and increase my proficiency with some of Adobe’s new suite programs. Grant Miller Better recognize when “perfectionism” is really just procrastination. Learn more about nontraditional planned giving vehicles, such as the qualified terminal…
You may have a list of your personal New Year’s resolutions—eat better, exercise, find joy. We have some resolutions for your planned giving program. 1. More for you? Those of us who work in fundraising generally consider ourselves and our compensation middle class. The tax legislation passed last year not only avoided tax increases for…
On January 1, 2026, most of the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act took effect. This legislation that was passed last summer extended the prior tax laws that were scheduled to “sunset” at the end of 2025 and added and modified additional provisions to benefit millions of seniors, children, working families and those…
Print marketing can be a significant investment. Here are some important tips to make sure your printed communications make an impact. Maximize your budget dollars by updating your donor data (age, wealth, marital status, deceased append, etc.). This will save you money on both printing and postage while allowing you to focus your time on…
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) introduces changes related to charitable giving that take effect for the 2026 tax year: A Universal Deduction for Non-Itemizers. Tax filers taking the standard deduction will enjoy a universal deduction of $1,000 ($2,000 for joint filers). Contributions must be made in cash. Contributions to donor advised funds are…
Many of America’s leading charitable organizations were created and funded because of generous outright gifts, bequests and life income gifts, long before the modern federal income tax was created in 1913, the estate tax in 1917 and the federal gift tax in 1935. While our tax system continues to include incentives to encourage philanthropy, we…