Is a Planned Giving Program Worth It? Some Food for Thought
-Many planned giving officers have been confronted with the question, “Is planned giving worth it?” If you’re lucky, you asked yourself that question while digging your car out of the snow for a Monday morning commute in February. If you’re unlucky, you’ve been asked that question point blank in a meeting with your Chief Advancement Officer (CAO) or Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
To help you answer that question, invest a couple of hours in examining your planned giving program through that lens and ask yourself, “Is it worth it?”
The Geomorphology of Planned Giving
-I once worked with a geologist who suggested that planned giving could take some valuable lessons from the field of geomorphology. Both geology and planned giving involve dynamic relationships that change slowly over time and processes that are not readily amenable to experimentation or precise measurement. Both fields are cursed with uncertainty and complexity with long periods of small incremental change punctuated by large-scale events. And geologists and planned giving officers must wrestle with expectations that they should be able to precisely predict events that are stubbornly unpredictable.
Over the years, much has been written about “metrics” for planned giving programs. At first blush, it seems simple: just count the money as it comes in. However, tying results to current activity is more complicated when it comes to planned gifts.