Legacy Donor Stewardship for Associations: What to Know

Legacy giving offers a valuable opportunity for all fundraising organizations that leave lasting impacts on people’s lives—associations included.

But its benefits can only be sustained with effective donor stewardship and relationship-building along the way, especially after a member works with you to create such a meaningful gift.

If your association actively fundraises, you already understand the importance of stewardship for other giving programs. How should you approach it for your legacy giving program?

Understanding legacy giving for associations

First, let’s provide some context.

Legacy gifts (also called planned gifts) consist of deferred donations made as part of a donor’s estate plans, meaning they won’t be disbursed to your association until after a donor passes away. This can make them a sensitive topic in some cases, but when you learn to talk about legacy giving effectively, you can frame it as a uniquely meaningful and tax-savvy way to give.

Legacy or planned giving unlocks a wide range of benefits for both your organization and your donors. Legacy giving can provide:

• A predictable, diversified stream of non-dues revenue

• Relationship-building opportunities with donors

• Potential (and often significant) tax benefits for donors

• Easy first steps into the world of non-cash giving, which studies have shown can unlock significant growth for fundraising organizations

The most common type of legacy gift is a bequest, in which a donor adds a stipulation to their will that a set dollar amount or portion of their remaining estate be given to your association. If you’re just starting with planned giving, start by focusing on bequests since they’re relatively simple and highly accessible to donors of all giving levels.

Once you can consistently and confidently secure bequests, expand into other types of planned or non-cash gifts by educating your members and gauging their interest. Different types of gifts are exploding in popularity today as donors look for ways to more proactively manage their philanthropy—donor-advised funds are the perfect example.

Just be sure to understand the tax implications, which will vary depending on your organization’s IRS classification, of any gifts you promote to avoid misleading anyone. Never give direct financial or estate planning advice to donors.

Why invest in legacy donor stewardship?

Why does stewardship matter so much for legacy giving programs? There are a few reasons:

• Effective stewardship expresses your gratitude to donors beyond just saying “thank you”

• It fosters continued engagement with your organization, programs, and campaigns

• In many cases, legacy donor stewardship leads to larger or more donations in the future—one study found that bequest donors increased their annual giving by $3,000.

• Long-term engagement helps to build powerful social proof for your legacy giving program, showing potential donors the value of giving in this way

All together, effectively stewarding your legacy donors deepens your relationships and creates self-reinforcing benefits, strengthening your program as a whole. Engaged donors draw others to your program, helping you raise more support and spread the word about the impact of legacy giving more easily over time.

Stewardship is always a worthy investment, and it’s not any more difficult for planned giving than for other types of programs. It just takes some additional time and consideration from your fundraising or development team. 

Essential legacy donor stewardship strategies

So what are the specific strategies and best practices you can use to steward legacy donors? Let’s take a look at the top recommendations:

1. Have a concrete stewardship plan.

Although stewardship and relationship-building shouldn’t feel transactional or overly structured, you still need a plan in order to keep your work organized and spend time effectively.

Start by segmenting your legacy donors into discrete groups based on the way they gave, the length of their relationship with your organization, their rough giving level or lifetime donation value, or any other relevant criteria. For each group, determine stewardship goals. In most cases, these will include continued measurable engagement and/or giving another donation.

From here, consider the types and cadences of messages that you can send to support those goals. Pay attention to the cost and time associated with different forms of outreach, too, and focus those efforts on smaller groups of higher value donors. 

We recommend structuring your strategy into a stewardship matrix that lays out your segments and outreach cadences in an easy-to-reference way. 

Here’s an example stewardship matrix that shows how an organization might fit a broad segment of all legacy donors into its overarching strategy:

Over time, keep revisiting your matrix, cadences, and segments to ensure they’re still supporting your goals. Use a CRM or AMS platform with moves management capabilities to keep track of touchpoints with donors and measure success over time.

2. Create a special membership tier.

Organizations of all sizes create special “legacy donor societies” to serve as exclusive memberships for their legacy donors. This makes it easier to facilitate the stewardship strategies and communications that drive long-term engagement, and it shows donors that their contributions are especially valued.

As membership-based organizations, associations can easily build on their existing structures to create a new tier for lapsed and active members who create legacy gifts. Give your tier a meaningful name, and consider the set of distinct perks, benefits, or opportunities you’ll provide to these members (we’ll discuss various examples below).

Centralizing your stewardship efforts in this way brings an added bonus—you’ll be able to promote the society and its perks to encourage prospective donors to learn more about legacy giving.

3. Provide special resources, invites, and opportunities. 

Your stewardship efforts should aim to deliver real value to your legacy donors. Take some time to consider the concrete perks and opportunities that you can offer to express your gratitude for their support and to encourage continued involvement going forward. 

Common examples include:

• Free tickets to your organization’s events

• Special gatherings just for legacy donors

• Recognition opportunities like highlights in newsletters or plaques in your headquarters

• Classes and courses related to your mission or industry

• Special deals or discount agreements with businesses in the community

• Reduced membership dues for active members

Consider your donors’ interests and try to tailor your offerings to them. For example, tax benefits and estate planning are major motivators for many planned gift donors. A special estate planning seminar given by a professional could be an easy way to tap into their interests and provide tangible value. 

Just be sure to actively revisit your benefits over time to make sure they’re driving the engagement you need. As you learn more about donors’ interests and what they best respond to, you can make changes to your strategy over time.

4. Collect feedback and testimonials.

As you review your strategies and the effectiveness of your donor perks, you need direct insights to help guide your approach. 

To do this, collect feedback. Simple quarterly or biannual surveys for your legacy donors can go a long way to help you discover what’s working and what needs improvement. Use this information alongside any direct engagement data you measure from things like event attendance, new gifts from donors, and email click-through rates to get a holistic picture of your stewardship strategy’s performance.

It’s also a good idea to ask for testimonials or stories from your most engaged legacy donors. A short anecdote about why they chose to give in that way and the impact that your organization has had on their lives or careers can be an invaluable asset for further promoting your program and conveying social proof. Not to mention, asking for these stories shows donors that you truly value their experience and relationship with your organization.

5. Go out of your way to thank and involve them.

Finally, stay on the lookout for ways to go the extra mile for your legacy donors. They’ve chosen to support your organization in a uniquely meaningful way, so special touches and messages are definitely warranted. For example, you might:

• Give donors casual calls to check in and see how they’re doing

• Send handwritten holiday, birthday, or membership anniversary cards

• Ask your board members or leadership to join in making calls and sending cards

• Highlight legacy donors in a special section of your annual report

• Honor your legacy donors during any organization-wide events

• Create a dedicated legacy donor wall in your headquarters

As you learn more about your donors as individuals, you can better tailor these experiences to them and their interests.

Between these special gestures, feedback collection, unique benefits, and regular communication outlined in your stewardship matrix, you’ll have a robust plan in place for keeping these supporters engaged with your organization.

 Stewardship is essential for success with any association fundraising program, but especially so for legacy giving. If your organization is new to this type of giving, don’t neglect the critical post-donation steps of keeping donors engaged and feeling valued. There are a few immediate steps you can take to get started:

• To learn more best practices and stewardship tips, explore FreeWill’s complete guide to donor stewardship. 

• Review your existing stewardship processes, and consider how they can be adapted for legacy giving. 

• Double-check that you have the data systems in place to keep track of touchpoints and notes about donors as you learn more about them.

• Take a stab at developing your own legacy donor segments and stewardship matrix.

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patrick Schmitt, Co-CEO of FreeWill

Patrick Schmitt and fellow FreeWill co-CEO Jenny Xia founded at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2016. FreeWill’s charitable giving platform makes it easier for nonprofit fundraising teams to unlock transformational gifts, and to date has generated over $6.6 billion in new gift commitments for thousands of nonprofit organizations. Patrick hosts FreeWill’s popular webinar series, educating thousands of nonprofit fundraising professionals each month about planned and non-cash giving strategies.

Before FreeWill, Patrick was the Head of Innovation at Change.org, where he helped grow the organization to 100 million users in four years. Prior to that, he ran email marketing for President Obama and served as Campaign Director for MoveOn.org.