A lot of people, me included, are scared to bring up “planned giving” with a donor. We’re afraid it’s going to sound something like this:

“Hey, Mrs. Smith, you seem old and frail and ready to die. Would you like to deprive your children of their inheritance by changing your will to give money to us?”

We are afraid to talk about death, and we are afraid to bring up planned giving because of it.

In The Little Book of Gold I suggest making passive requests — a PS at the end of a fundraising letter mentioning that your non-profit can accept planned gifts, or perhaps something on the website, etc. The reason for this is that if you’re just starting out with the professional fundraising system I describe in the book, you probably won’t be ready to identity the prospects for planned giving.

But you should still be prepared to talk to someone who calls you about planned giving or if you find yourself in a position where the opportunity is just too good to pass up.

Here are some quick suggestions:

Think in terms of assets. A planned gift is usually a gift of assets — like CDs, stock, bonds, or a pile of cash. It’s not usually a gift that comes out of someone’s income. So again, when you’re talking to someone about a planned gift, it’s a question of whether they would like to transfer a portion of their assets to you. The estate planning comes in to the equation only if they want to transfer the assets after their passing. You’re not necessarily talking about death.

To follow up on that point: there are a lot of ways to give assets before death. Did you know, for example, that someone could give you $2 million and collect an annuity from it that provides them a healthy income to them while you get to keep interest above and beyond that? You don’t need to know all the details about this, since it’s going to have to be worked out by a lawyer, tax-advisor, and maybe estate planner, but you should know that these opportunities exist and can actually be very advantageous to the donor (in terms of taxes).

• Practice. Here’s an assignment. Talk to your spouse and your parents about end-of-life issues. First, it’s a good idea to do anyway. And second, you’ll get good practice. Of course, talking to a donor is a different thing, but if the subject of an estate gift comes up, you at least won’t be going in having never done it before.
• Practice again with the board. If you have money for a workshop, invite someone to come to the board and talk about planned giving and how the board should deal with any friends or donors they might encounter. This has the added bonus of having the board themselves consider their own gifts.
• Go to a workshop. Large non-profits often have workshops for their own donors about estate planning. If you’re not in the target age (or wealth) demographic, you may not hear about these, but if you can get to one, you’ll hear how an estate planner or tax advisor talks to people about this topic. You’ll learn a lot about planned giving and also hear some techniques for talking about “scary” subjects openly.