Great Planned Giving Story: Do you know who your donors are?

Grace Groner was exceptionally restrained with her money.

Her clothes came from rummage sales. She never owned a car. She lived in a one-bedroom house.

She was orphaned while quite young, and came of age during the Depression. Thus, her character was naturally frugal.

She had very fond memories of her college days. So she set up a small scholarship program for her alma mater, Lake Forest College. She told them she planned to contribute more upon her death. But no one guessed it would be such a huge gift from one living so modestly.

When she passed away in January, at the age of 100, her attorney informed the college president what that gift added up to. Groner's estate was worth $7 million.

Here's the college president's reaction:



I'm glad that the college was stewarding her lifetime gifts; clearly, they knew her and had the opportunity to thank her while she was alive. I can just imagine that Grace derived some pleasure out of knowing the secret surprise that they'd receive upon her death.

She worked as a secretary for Abbott Laboratories for 43 years. In 1935, she bought 3 shares of Abbott stock for $180. Those three shares are the asset that blossomed into $7 million.

The millions should generate more than $300,000 a year for the college. The money will help dozens of Lake Forest students pursue internships and study-abroad programs that they may not have had the chance to take advantage without Groner’s hefty donation.

Aside from the $7 million donation, she also left her small house to the college, which will house scholarship winners who benefitted from her donation.

But this story is one to add to the host of others told through the years: you never know which of your donors has the capacity to make a transformative gift to your institution. That's why it's incredibly important to be nice to ALL of your donors. Thanking the "little old lady" who sends in $5 twice a year is just as important as fussing over the six- and seven-figure donors. Fundraising basics 101, I know, but one of those fundamentals that is all-too-easily forgotten. Stories like this one provide a reminder.

A generous spirit; a life well-lived. Thank you, Grace Groner.

Great Stewardship from DonorsChoose

I just got an "impact report" today from a school teacher in Oakland.

Back in April, I went to DonorsChoose.org, an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Here's how it works:

1. Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests. The requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class.

2. You go to their site and browse project requests. The project is described by the teacher, but also shows detailed cost breakdown of exactly how the money will be spent. (I chose to help a reading intervention teacher in Oakland, California, who wanted to help fourth and fifth grade students get up to grade level at their Title I school. By reading parts of the books aloud, she found, the students are eager to actually read the books for themselves. Her students needed eight books in U.S. history content:

• Longest Journey: The Story of the Donner Party
• Cowboy Marc
• Gold Fever!: Tales from the California Gold Rush
• The Dirty Thirties
• From Slave to Cowboy: The Nat Love Story
• Birmingham 1963
• Cherokee Rose: The Trail of Tears
• The Story of Jamestown

The cost of this proposal was $161, which included a very reasonable fulfillment fee to DonorsChoose.)

3. Find the project that makes your eye twinkle and evokes a good feeling in your heart; give any amount. You can browse and search by city/state, grade level, subject area, teacher type, cost and/or by keyword. You can screen for projects that are close to their goal, located in an economically challenged area, have matching gift offers and by resource type such as books vs. technology vs. supplies vs. field trips or guest speakers.

(I gave an very modest sum, as I was out of work at the time. Within a day, I received a personalized thank you email from the teacher -- not an auto-generated thank you but one that referenced the remarks that accompanied my gift. Impressive!)

4. Once a project reaches its funding goal, DonorsChoose orders and delivers the materials to the school. (In my case, the teacher posted the project on February 28. It took seven donors, acting together, to reach the goal within a few weeks.)

5. Then, you get photos of your project taking place, a thank-you letter from the teacher, and a cost report showing how each dollar was spent.

If you give over $100, you'll also receive hand-written thank-you letters from the students -- a nice touch, for sure. But what's even better from my point of view is that you can give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives far more. They call it citizen philanthropy.

(Quite frankly, I'd forgotten that I'd even made that small gift back in April. But today, when I received the progress report, I was re-engaged all over again. I read the post-project thank you from the teacher. I saw the pictures of fourth and fifth grade kids reading the books I helped to buy. I reviewed the Live Update sequential stream of interactions, including notes from other donors sharing why they chose this project, with the teacher's personal thank you sent to each person contemporaneously. I felt a little sense of community around these like-minded people, strangers to each other who chipped in to make a little difference.)

Did the feedback make me feel good? Yes. Did the thank you reinforce that I'd made a good decision in making the gift? Absolutely. Was I prompted to go looking for another project to support? Of course I did.

The DonorsChoose business model is an exceptionally well-designed example of how technology can be used by a charity to actually personalize the giving process. I gave a modest gift. But I know more about the recipient, have had more interaction with her, and received a report to reinforce my choice ... far higher quality and quantity interaction than I've gotten from faceless organizations to whom I've made far larger gifts without so much as a thank you. Kudos to them.

By the way, if you're a teacher who has a project that needs to be funded, you can go here.

Call your legacy society members

If this doesn't apply to you, please forgive the nudge in advance. It isn't my intent to offend.

There are some basic self-evident strategies for planned giving. The mere mention of them results in people looking at me and saying, "Well, duh, of course."

Here's one: Everyone in your legacy society should be called at least once a year.

That's obvious. So obvious, that it might never have made it into your fund-raising plan. Or, so obvious, that it feels like an inconsequential and somewhat tedious task, one of those things you never quite get around to.

But it needs to be done. No excuses! That's right. I mean you. Whether your legacy society has 10 people, or 100, or one thousand. Every single one of those people deserves a call from someone in your organization at least once a year.

For one thing, it's simply good stewardship. Most of your planned giving donors have probably become legacy society members by virtue of a bequest intention. Well, remember, bequests are revocable. With the stroke of a pen, they can write you into the will for more (perhaps giving you the portion that was going to another cause that never talks to them). Or write you out of the will entirely (perhaps giving "your" portion to another cause that does stay in touch).

Second, it's an old rule of thumb that a planned giving donor, stewarded well, is likely to make a second planned gift within a couple years after their first legacy commitment. Old rules of thumb get that way because they are true more often than not. It's especially true for annuity donors, but holds for others as well. I guarantee it is one of the best uses of your time.

General mailings or your quarterly newsletter don't cut it. I'm not against a schedule of mailings; they just don't suffice for this purpose.

Here are a few guidelines:

Schedule time for them. Staying in contact with people shouldn't be a burden or a hassle. Most people only find the task tedious because they go so long in between contact that they feel nervous about getting in touch again, they don't know where to begin or because they feel like they need to "catch up" and they don't have the time to do so. Take some time in your daily routine to devote to staying in contact and it won't be so hard for you. Don't try to do all of the calls at one time. Spread them throughout the year, a handful each month, or each week.

Your call needn't be long. Just a “thank you” and a “how are you doing?” Yes, for many of your legacy society members, the phone rarely rings, so your call will be welcome. You can preempt a long conversation by saying "I only have 10 minutes before a meeting; I just wanted to say 'hi.'"

Your call shouldn't be scripted. In fact, it should feel spontaneous and completely unrehearsed. "I was going over some progress reports on the great work we're doing, I saw something that made me think of you, and I thought, let me just pick up the phone and call." If you haven't spoken to them in a long while, there's no need to try to bring them fully up to speed.

Two final notes:

If it's been a looooong while since you've spoken (perhaps there's been no personal contact since the gift opening?) ... Just say, "I'm sorry I haven't been in touch. I'd love to catch up when we have time but I just wanted to say hello and see how you are." Something to this effect will show that you are thinking of the person. Don't get trapped into thinking you have to make excuses or over-explain everything that has happened since your last contact.

If you can't reach them by phone, send a personal handwritten "I tried to reach you" note. Nothing pre-printed or canned.

Try not to get so wrapped up in your daily jobs responsibilities that you forget some of the people who are most important to your cause. You will feel great after one of these calls -- and that's reason enough right there to go ahead, pick up the phone, and call one of your legacy society members.