Stewardship

At the end of the year, donors may be frazzled by holiday planning and leave their charitable giving to the last minute. To help ensure that their end of year gifts count for the current tax year, here’s a primer on how to determine gift date. We’ve also included a digital checklist as an additional resource from our experts at Foundation Source with the most important milestones for private foundations throughout the calendar year—including key dates for year-end giving.

The end we are talking about is the end of calendar year 2016.  Are you ready?  Most charities concentrate on year-end giving in the fourth quarter and for good reason.  A study conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University focused on high-net worth donors found that 42.7 percent of those surveyed gave more during the holidays than the rest of the year. Nonetheless, in addition to soliciting and encouraging gifts at the end of the calendar year, it is also a time for planned giving departments to prepare and plan. 

It may be time to act upon your resolution to increase and strengthen your donor recognition program. We all know how important recognition is - it's our opportunity to acknowledge, to thank, and to celebrate the donors for their trust in, and commitment to, the charity's mission. But recognition of planned giving donors often won't happen through conventional donor recognition channels. That is where a heritage society comes in.