Crescendo CEO and President Charles Schultz announced five
new products at this week’s Practical Planned Giving Conference (PPGC) 2011 in
San Diego, California. The new product
innovations include CresMobile, GiftCharity, Board of Directors Education,
Field Staff Marketing and Mission Videos.
CresMobile
CresMobile is a smartphone application for planned giving
calculations on-the-go. The new
app is available for use on your iPhone or Android Smartphone.
CresMobile permits the user to run calculations for a
charitable gift annuity, deferred gift annuity, charitable remainder unitrust,
annuity trust or lead trust. Just
enter your donor information and view the answers formatted for your favorite
Smartphone.
CresMobile is available for download from the Android Market
and Apple Store. The app is free
this for PPP attendees and will cost $2.99 for download beginning
on October 7. It enables gift
planners to run charitable giving calculations anytime anywhere.
GiftCharity
GiftCharity is a network marketing strategy for small to
mid-sized charities working with a parent organization. Many organizations such as
universities, medical centers, religious organizations, community foundations
and national foundations have a gift planner who provides services to
affiliates.
The GiftCharity capability allows a GiftLegacy Parent to assist
an affiliate in offering planned gifts by providing a branded webpage, wills
and gift annuity brochures, a wills guide and weekly eNewsletters for
GiftCharity donors. A GiftLegacy
Parent may create GiftLegacy charities through the comprehensive CresManager
program.
Board of Directors
Most charitable organizations have a marketing strategy to
reach donor groups, retired staff or faculty and professional advisors. But your most important marketing
strategy is to educate and motivate your Board of Directors. The new Board of Directors Education
Program includes 12 programs that will encourage your Board of Directors to set
up bequests, gift annuities, life estates, and unitrusts, make gifts of land or
stock.
Each lesson includes a 15 minute video for your board, accompanied by downloadable PowerPoint and article so your directors can take
notes during the presentation.
There is also a 10 question quiz to reinforce concepts learned for each
lesson. You may want to hold a
series of training sessions where you show a 15 minute video to your board,
discuss the supplementary reading and the quiz answers.
Our test charities have already responded very positively to
the training materials for boards.
GiftCollege for Boards of Directors is an excellent way for you to
educate your Directors on how to identify and encourage planned gifts to your
organization.
Field Staff
Many organizations have a central office and deployed field
staff. While the central office
enjoys all of the marketing capabilities of the persuasive GiftLegacy program,
field staff also would like to implement these marketing innovations in their
region.
With GiftLegacy field staff accounts, each team member will
be permitted to send the weekly eNewsletters to donors in their territory, use
the Provide & Protect bequest marketing system, educate local Boards of
Directors and be “friended” by donors through the Wills Planner. Field staff will also have access to
statistics and analytics that will help them focus on the best donor prospects.
Mission Videos
Branding is a wonderful way to reach donors through a direct
emotional connection. A mission
video is a one and one-half minute professionally-produced video that will
inspire donors who visit your planned giving website.
Mission Videos feature images of your organization’s work
set to music with computer graphics and animation. After sharing your story, the video provides an overview of
your planned giving website and thanks supporters for their assistance to
continue your work and contact you.
“These five innovations complement the comprehensive marketing
applications of GiftLegacy,” said Charles Schultz. “PPGC attendees in San Diego were very enthusiastic about
the potential for these ideas to help them increase planned gifts in the coming
years.”
To learn more about Crescendo’s new product innovations,
please call 1-800-858-9154.