Bequest Networking will increase gifts by 20% to 40%.
While Social Networking is growing rapidly (Inside Facebook reports that use by women over age 55 grew by 175% in the last 120 days), the key for gift planning is using Facebook relationship concepts to grow bequests. The new GiftLegacy Pro moves donors, gift planners and GiftAttorneys online to create new relationships that will lead to a Bequest Boom!
And you have a once-in-a-career opportunity. Starting Jan. 1, 2011, the number of Americans who cross age 65 each year will increase by 2.5 times. If you reach your share of the 74 million Baby Boomers, your organization will have a great future. Responding to a request from a major university, I suggested that 85% to 98% of Baby Boomers will choose the new online Wills Planner over the old print wills data guides. (In my initial test seminar, 100% of Boomers and Seniors chose the online Wills Planner.)
There are four parts to Bequest Networking with the new GiftLegacy Pro:
1. Online Wills Planner – a user-friendly online guide to data entry. The initial test users were FAR more successful in completing the online data than with the old print wills planner. All donors entered their data in one week.
2. Provide & Protect – a multimedia book on estate planning and giving. It is printed with the custom cover of the charity and includes colors, logo, a testimonial by the charity president or key person and your gift planning web address on the front cover. The 44 chapters each include a quiz; donors go online to their Wills Planner accounts to view answers and a friendly video. Your donors will be delighted with the Provide & Protect interactive print marketing option.
3. Donor Relationship Manager – with GiftLegacy Pro you will have an online account to view your donor friends’ data, answer their questions, communicate with them and facilitate document completion. Donors at the test seminar were offered a 30 minute Wills Planner phone tutorial with the gift planner. Each donor expressed overwhelming gratitude after the call.
4. GiftAttorney Pro – Crescendo is building a national group of GiftAttorneys with charitable receptivity. They will use www.giftattorney.com to access their Client Relationship Manager (CRM) and assist your donors with wills and trusts. Using the CRM in the test seminar, our first GiftAttorney quickly closed all 14 family plans (24 donors).
I have been involved in bequest seminars since my first year as a foundation gift planner in 1980. Of the 40 who attended the test seminar, 24 wanted to proceed with a will or living trust (14 family units). All were quickly closed using the online Wills Planner and GiftAttorney. This success greatly exceeded anything I have seen during my three decades in gift planning. My above prediction that bequests and current gifts will grow by 20% to 40% could prove very conservative.
If you are interested in viewing the new GiftLegacy web site and running the Wills Planner, our general test site is www.giftplanning.com.
Our first sites was Chicago Metro Salvation Army (www.salarmygift.org). After my visits with 20 national charities this summer and our record attendance at the Chicago Practical Planned Giving Conference, we now have more than 100 sites in process. How do you get on the priority list for the new GiftLegacy Pro? Attend a Wills Seminar by clicking here to register. We will be in Orlando Oct. 13, in San Antonio on Oct. 19 and Minneapolis on Nov. 1, 2010. Next year I will conduct Bequest Boom! Seminars in 25 cities.
Cordially yours,
Charles Schultz, JD
President, Crescendo Interactive, Inc.