Webinars

Cultivating planned gifts is an art. Successful fundraising is a disciplined process. When to “disqualify” a prospective donor is a dilemma because our inclination is to pursue additional cultivation steps that might convert the prospect into a donor. Craig Wruck will share what he’s learned in over 40 years as a gift planner and fundraising executive as he explores ways to improve productivity by ruthlessly disqualifying those who are unlikely to become donors and graciously but efficiently setting them aside in order to preserve precious time and effort for well qualified planned giving prospects.

How can you help your donors decide whether to fund their gift using a QCD or another asset? What three critical questions should you ask? How will your donor’s answers help you steer them toward making a QCD or giving another asset, such as cash or appreciated securities?

We will start the session by reviewing the QCD rules when making an outright gift or funding a life income plan, as well as the rules that apply to required minimum distributions (RMDs). We will then focus on the key questions you should ask your donor to help them identify the best asset for funding their gift. We will use a series of cases to demonstrate how the answers to these questions affect the relative benefits of funding a gift with a QCD, cash, or appreciated securities.

In "Navigating Your AI Transformation," Nathan Chappell offers a deep dive into the ongoing journey of AI integration within nonprofit organizations, particularly focusing on its implications and opportunities in the fundraising sector. He will discuss the evolution of AI technologies like predictive and generative AI, emphasizing their potential to enhance donor experiences through precision, personalization, and efficiency. Additionally, Nathan will address common concerns and questions regarding AI, such as privacy, ethical considerations, and the fear of job displacement, reassuring attendees that AI's role is to augment rather than replace human capabilities. The session aims to equip attendees with practical insights on leveraging AI responsibly to optimize and innovate in their operational and strategic endeavors, ultimately driving more informed and effective fundraising practices.

Donor-advised funds have become a major source of charitable dollars that continues to grow. In addition to the well-known DAFs sponsored by financial institutions such as Fidelity and Vanguard, more and more charities are sponsoring their own DAF programs. New technology is making it easier than ever for charities to offer the convenience and flexibility of DAFs to their own donors.

Why would my organization want to do that? How have others fared? What rules have they put in place? Is it hard or can the administration be outsourced? Will a DAF attract new donors and/or larger donations?

Every organization even remotely contemplating a DAF of its own should ask these questions. Attend this webinar to learn the answers. Organizations that already sponsor a DAF will find the discussion useful for evaluating their current practices and policies.

No matter the size of the charity and no matter the size of the bequest, sometimes the receipt of a bequest does not “go smoothly." What’s more, there are several typical problems which seem to occur repeatedly. Fortunately, they represent a minority of the bequests received by charities – but they can take up a majority of your time in dealing with them.

Andrew Fussner’s team at the American Heart Association handles roughly 800 new estates every year, about 10% of which have some sort of “problem.” Andrew will draw on his vast experience handling estate gifts to discuss ten common estate settlement problems. He will identify each problem and then describe what you can do to resolve it or avoid it in the first place so that your organization receives the funds your donor intended in a timely manner.

Life insurance: the bane of charitable giving, right? Not so fast! Too often, life insurance is presented as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. That’s too bad because a well-planned contribution of life insurance can be extremely beneficial for the organization as well as the donor. Life insurance is a powerful financial planning tool but, at its core, a charitable contribution of life insurance is simply a gift of valuable property. In this webinar, we will explore examples of life insurance gifts that really worked and review some of the pitfalls to be avoided.

Getting new legacy pledgers or legacy society members is great. But the data show that a “count it and forget it” approach won’t work. So, what comes next? In this session, we’ll look at practical strategies that help to keep the gift plans in place. Next, we’ll see how to make the gifts dramatically larger. Finally, we’ll explore how to convert these legacy plans into lifetime gifts. Experimental research results and real-world practice point the way to a new source of fundraising success.

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Whether you are a gift planning specialist or a fundraising generalist, there are some essentials you should know about Federal taxes. In this webinar, Craig Wruck will cover the basics of the income tax and transfer taxes (gift taxes, estate taxes, generation skipping transfer taxes). Craig’s focus will be on a conceptual understanding that will equip you to provide clear and concise explanations to your donors. In addition to the basics of taxation, Craig will describe the tax benefits associated with charitable gifts and factors that can affect these benefits. His discussion will be based on current tax law.