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How We Help Your Program

Our planned giving Cycle of Cultivation first works with your organization to ensure that it is properly positioned for a successful planned giving program. Next, through our unique program that works directly with your donor community, we identify those of your supporters best suited to receiving information about this program of fundraising. Next, we help you cultivate those prospects with information and inspiration to lead them to think about making a gift. Finally, and most importantly, we create and help you mail a planned gift solicitation to those individuals asking them to consider taking the step to make a planned gift.

The planned giving ‘ask’

The PGgrowth method of asking is unique and proven. Fundraising professionals often feel uncomfortable asking their planned giving prospects — usually their most loyal supporters — for a planned gift. In fact, however, it is your most loyal supporters that are most likely to make a planned gift to support your work! Experience shows these supporters welcome the planned giving conversation.

The PGgrowth solicitation method focuses on asking your donors to consider charitable giving through estate planning — not to make a planned gift. The ‘ask’ is simply a logical step in an extended process, the ongoing and regular cultivation and stewardship so vital to the best donor relationships.

What we provide your program.

1. Consultation and audit of current program

Helping professionals and programs achieve efficiencies and results. PGgrowth will:

  • provide consultation and expertise in prospect identification and/or auditing the current database of legacy prospects
  • help establish a baseline of prospects unique to your organization’s external community and internal targets using the organization’s donor base community as the basis for established ‘metrics’;
  • understand capacity gaps and propose sector ‘best practice’ approaches to complete a full continuum of activity to ensure that all external outreach can be managed internally;
  • provide ongoing enhanced support and mentoring with our experts in Planned Giving accessed through phone and email to answer questions as they arise.
    Pick up the phone or send an email whenever advice or perspective is needed!

2. Cultivation strategy, packaging and implementation for ‘community’ engagement

What does cultivation mean? Setting the stage through donor connection engagement and inspiration. Anyone can make a planned gift. Cultivation steps must be taken to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to do so. PGgrowth will:

  • review current approach to cultivation and provide sector-wide benchmarks;
  • ensure an integrated approach of data mining focusing on the life-stage movement of donors through the levels of the donor pyramid;
  • suggest enhancements to cultivation practices using experiences of successful programs from across the sector, ensuring that all sectors of your community are engaged to assist in the program;
  • use PGgrowth’s model of donor evaluation to continually identify the ‘best’ prospects and included them into the segmented Planned Giving data;
  • use PGgrowth’s sub-segmentation coding to provide micro marketing strategies for those that self-identify through the cultivation process;
  • enhance case for support to ensure target-specific messaging using donor attribute methodology (i.e. gender, age, motivation, etc.);
  • produce two annual marketing/cultivation pieces each researched and created, specifically for the program
  • regularly suggest other cultivation approaches not being utilized currently by the program;
  • help monitor activity and measure results.

3. Solicitation approach to your best potential Planned Gift donors

What does solicitation mean and how does an organization measure success? Enhance the relationship with donors through an invitation to advance the conversation about creating a legacy. PGgrowth will:

  • audit current approaches or create new approaches for donor engagement;
  • develop a solicitation culture to focus outreach to those most likely to create a legacy gift;
  • create a customized approach to selected prospects, scheduled and produced specifically to meet all your requirements, setting the stage to ‘close’ gifts;
  • develop individual strategies to continue the conversation – dialogue – throughout the process from inspiration to action

In addition, you’ll have full and free access to these other planned giving resources to enhance and inform your successful planned giving program:

4. Planned Giving ‘Back Office’ Support

‘Back office’ Planned Giving support and services including:

  • development of a historical knowledge base of your organization’s program to help secure continuity;
  • the technical resources in the Essential Solutions Toolkit©, a massive compilation of online marketing tools, donor letters, policies, plans, budgets, reports and forms to ensure your program is easily understood internally and externally (http://pggrowth.com/essential-solutions-toolkit/);
  • a wide range of topic-specific estate, financial and gift planning information in the form of articles, booklets, brochures, reply cards and more to be used as follow-up materials to help the ‘moves management’ of bequest prospects;
  • web-ready planned giving information to help enhance your web information.
  • and, a year’s subscription to Gift Planning in Canada, our monthly paid-subscription ($237/year) newsletter for professional Canadian Gift Planners, filled with information, tips and advice to help advance your planned giving program.