Donors harbor more fears than mere bumps in the night. Planned giving can spook even the most confident giver. Luckily, you can help your supporters overcome their fright by being mindful of the five most common fears and employing strategies to ease those apprehensions.
1. Donors fear the impact a planned gift will have on their finances.
Facing the unknown can give anyone goosebumps. Even donors who want to support your mission through planned giving have legitimate concerns about future finances—specifically, facing unplanned expenses (medical or otherwise) or outliving retirement income.
Solution: Listen to your donors, acknowledge their concerns, then help them navigate their apprehensions.
• Highlight the power of future gifts that don’t impact current finances at all—gifts that the donor can change if circumstances change.
• Provide information on tax advantages, financial benefits, and income stream potential with other types of planned gifts.
• Offer to meet with the donor’s attorney or financial advisor to work through any concerns.
• Reassure donors that planned gifts don’t have to be huge—every donation makes an important impact.
2. Donors fear their own mortality.
Planned giving conversations that center on future gifts force donors to think about their own eventual death—a conversation some people find so frightening that they take great pains to avoid it.
Solution: Choose your words carefully! Bypass “death language” while still engaging fully in a planned giving discussion.
• Ask the donor about their life, causes that are important to them, and the impact they hope to make.
• Discuss the donor’s desire to create a legacy. (Even the phrase “leave a legacy” can imply death, whereas “create a legacy” has a more active, life-affirming connotation.)
• Focus on the gift’s impact by helping them visualize a specific, permanent outcome.
3. Donors fear that planned giving is too complicated.
Even the savviest donors can feel dread when confronted with the range of acronyms (CRT, CGA, DAFs), rules, and tax ramifications for various types of gifts.
Solution: Simplify gift explanations to make planned giving more approachable and easily understood.
• Use clear and concise language, avoiding technical jargon. (This applies to conversations as well as marketing materials, such as brochures, newsletters, and even your website content.)
• Keep the focus on what matters—the gift’s impact on your work and the tax or planning benefits for the donor.
• Include donor stories that provide relatable examples of planned giving at work. After all, there is safety in numbers!
4. Donors fear their gift won’t make a difference.
Misgivings may stem from a perception that the gift is too small to make an impact, a lack of clarity on how your organization will use the gift to further your mission, or a weak personal connection with your organization.
Solution: Make sure you’re sharing not just gift options and tax benefits but powerful, emotional information about the impact a gift can make on your work and those you help.
• Share stories of people who have directly benefited from prior planned gifts.
• Highlight how a planned gift aligns the donor with your mission and values.
• Clearly communicate how a gift planned today will benefit your organization’s mission for decades to come, sustaining your work and helping people far into the future.
5. Donors fear how planned giving will affect their heirs.
Most people want to give to charity and leave an inheritance to family members. They may have concerns that a planned gift will reduce the assets left to heirs or that heirs will be upset when they learn that some assets were directed to charity.
Solution: Guide donors in exploring gift options that help them meet multiple planning goals. Once they decide on a gift, encourage open communication with family to avoid future conflicts.
• Explore giving options that may help ease their fears. A percentage gift in a will (or through a beneficiary designation) helps retain the balance between charitable donations and family inheritance. Charitable gifts of retirement assets can save heirs from burdensome taxation, leaving an inheritance made up of more tax-friendly assets. Tools like a charitable lead trust can provide a tax-efficient way to give and pass assets on to heirs. Work with the donor on your own or alongside their attorney or financial advisor.
• Explain the benefits of open and honest communication with family members about the gift, including the donor’s goals and motivations.
• Welcome the donor’s family members to increase their own connection to your organization. Invite them to events, add them to your mailing list, and encourage them to become more invested in your mission.
Many people enjoy a good scare from an occasional haunted house or horror movie. Planned giving shouldn’t be scary. Knowing the things that might frighten donors lets you patiently and intentionally guide them through the planned giving process in a way that highlights the joy of making a difference for others and the true thrill of creating a lasting legacy.
