You read that correctly. If it is still December 2023 and you are reading this, put it aside immediately. If not, Happy New Year! Glad you remembered to come back to read this in 2024.

If you did keep reading, why on earth would we tell you to stop reading the latest in planned giving updates and information?

Except for a couple of timely updates, for everything there is a season. As we head into the end of 2023, your job is to raise as many gifts as possible.

Does this sound familiar? “I have to write the lead article for our newsletter by Friday. Where are those photos I want to use for the testimonial? What format should we use for our legacy society lunch? Should we hold the event at all? I need to get approval to the edits to our gift acceptance policies. Are we getting everything we are entitled to from that bequest?”

Read your job description. What is your primary responsibility? Does your title include Planned Giving Officer, Development Officer, Advancement Officer, Major Gift Officer, or similar terms? The principal concern and obligation of such a position is to attract voluntary support to advance the mission of a non-profit organization. But often, support functions prevent fundraisers from focusing on the most important part of their job: fundraising.

You work at a nonprofit that has an endowment. You know you should be part of the solution to grow it. Or perhaps you work at a nonprofit that doesn’t have an endowment, but you think it’s a missed opportunity that you want to rectify. What’s holding you back? What institutional decisions are making your job harder? How can you get on with the business of closing transformational gifts to your charity?

The intention here is to demystify endowments and set out some best practices for fundraising for them. This article is primarily aimed at fundraisers but does contain ideas that will require coordination and implementation from other areas of your charity.