What is Planned Giving?

You may consider any large donation or major gift made during a donor's lifetime or planned for after their passing as planned giving. These gifts are developed as part of a donor’s overall financial and/or estate planning. Other terms for planned giving include deferred gifts, legacy gifts, endowment building, gift planning, and life income giving.

Interestingly...

• 70% of Americans and 80% of Canadians make charitable gifts in their lifetimes.
• Only about 5% make a legacy gift.
• The majority of those deferred donors do not previously make a major gift.*

Most organizations do not include planned gifts as forecasted revenue. Therefore, it's important to assign planned gifts in such a way that your common income reports do not include them.

For example, a small business owner takes out a life insurance plan in accordance with his estate's financial planning. The donor intends to gift the balance to your organization upon his decease. 

In contrast, donors make gifts to your annual fund or pay membership dues through discretionary income. While you may budget for these gifts, they are not planned. 

Many planned gifts are not disclosed prior to the donor’s estate settlement. Therefore, it is important to be proactive about announcing your campaigns and your available resources. Please review the following video What is Planned Giving from PlannedGiving.net.

Types of Planned Giving

The links below are to external videos which describe what each type of gift is and how donors may set them up. The videos are free for you to use in the development of your own planned giving marketing materials on your website, courtesy of PlannedGiving.net.

Gifts Anyone Can Make

• Bequests
• Gifts of Stock and Appreciated Assets
• Life Insurance—New or Existing/Paid Up Policies
• Retirement Plans
• Real Estate
• Personal Property

Gifts That Provide Income

• Charitable Gift Annuity
• Deferred Gift Annuity
• Flexible Deferred Gift Annuity
• Pooled Income Fund
• Charitable Remainder Trust or Unitrust

Gifts That Protect Assets

• Lead Trust
• Retained Life Estate
• Charitable Bargain Sale

Classifying Planned Giving in Salsa CRM

• Make sure that you add any of the constituent's lawyers, financial advisors, or other contacts relating to the deferred gift to the list of the donor's Relationships.
• Track the planned giving with a pledge in Salsa CRM.
• Add a single pledge installment dated years into the future, when you expect the estate may be settled. It's okay to have a general date entered many decades into the future. Later is better than earlier. An installment that is paid later than an early due date will be considered "overdue" by the system.
• The pledge installment amount should be whatever you expect the gift value to be in the future. It's okay if the amount turns out not to be right; Salsa CRM categorizes installment payments as paid (exactly), overpaid, or underpaid.
• Deferred gifts should link to whatever Funds correspond to your organization's programs that you wish to finance with the proceeds.
• The Campaign and/or Appeal should reference whatever marketing actions generated your planned giving lead. 

* https://blueavocado.org/none-yet/surprise-most-legacy-gifts-don-t-come-from-major-donors/