Claire and Kivi at the Book Party

I have some really smart friends. I get the most amazing stuff in my email box from them.

Take this email I got this morning from Claire Meyerhoff, who many of you know as our media relations expert at Nonprofit Marketing Guide. She spent many years in the broadcast news business, including writing news copy for anchors at CNN. Claire is now the editorial director at the Planned Giving Company.

She zipped off this little email to me today about how she liked my post on using a postcard for an annual report, and how she wrote one about it too.

But look at the nonprofit messaging brilliance she just casually added to it, off the top of her head . . .

Kivi,

I LOVE the whole idea of anything on a postcard. In my work for the Planned Giving Company, we do “storytelling postcards” for major organizations like University of Denver and the Ronald Reagan Foundation. Planned giving is always thought of as “technical” and “hard to communicate” — but it’s not. If we can “fit” planned giving messaging along with mission information on a postcard — anything should fit on a postcard!

Maybe your new slogan should be “if it can’t fit on a postcard, get rid of it,” or something like that. When clients say, “we should have a few paragraphs on that”, I say, “if i can explain the latest on the Ethiopia/Eritrea border war in 25 seconds worth of copy, we should be able to explain any concept in three sentences or less.”

The Three Sentence Rule. You heard it here first. Don’t steal it! It sort of comes from doing TV standups. You do it in three parts, because three is easy to remember. If I had just done a story at your house about girl scout cookies, this would be my standup:

Kivi Miller and her family handed over more than 1,500 boxes of cookies to members of Troop 555. It’s been a busy week, trying to balance cookie duties with her job as a marketing specialist for nonprofits, but she says it’s been rewarding. Kivi says she’s a bit tired, but that she’s already signed up to be cookie mom again next year.”

It’s three sentences, and in your head, you’re thinking “1500 boxes of cookies” “busy balance/marketing specialist nonprofits” and “will do it again next year.” What you END UP saying, might not be exactly like the standup you wrote — BUT you remember THREE things to hit on, with the last one being the WHAT’s NEXT.

Claire

I asked Claire if I could blog her email, and she said Yes, so I’m not really stealing.

Lesson #1: Follow Claire’s Three Sentence Rule

Lesson #2: Get Yourself Some Really Smart Friends

Lesson 3#: Share Brilliant Ideas with Others, No Matter Where You Find Them!

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.

I was at a board meeting this week, where everyone was looking around the table at each other wondering what we could do to raise more money for the organization. I couldn’t help but think about the webinar we are hosting here at Nonprofit Marketing Guide on Monday on starting a planned giving program — where you ask your supporters to include your cause in their retirement and estate plans, creating a much more stable, long-term source of revenue.

The down economy is actually a great time to start having these conversations, if you aren’t already. Right now, many donors are very wary of parting with cash, but they still believe in your cause – maybe more now than ever. Planned gifts are seen as the “painless” way to help. Put it this way, is Donna Donor more likely to write a check for $5,000 or to consider making your organization the beneficiary of the IRA that’s lost half of its value in the last year? This is the perfect time to think about ways to communicate with your loyal donors about planned gifts.

The key word is “loyal.”

That’s the beauty of doing some planned giving marketing right now. You don’t have to reach everyone, just your most loyal (and usually friendliest!) supporters. We know that most loyal donors don’t make a planned gift simply because they are never asked. Another benefit is that anyone, regardless of income level, can make a planned gift. Wealth and demographics alone are not the best predictors of a planned gift. Loyalty to your cause and your organization are. For example,over 40% of bequests are made by people 55 and younger.

Within the next 15 years, over $6 trillion dollars will be passed from one generation to the next. If you leave planned giving out of your fundraising communications, you will be leaving gifts on the table – or forfeiting them to another charity. And continuing to have those same board meetings month after month, year after year, where everyone wonders who is going to come up with the next idea to raise a few thousand dollars. Get a planned giving program rolling now and, in the long-run, it’s likely to produce some of the largest contributions your organization will ever receive.

If your interest is piqued, join Claire Meyerhoff and me as we get some great tips from Viken Mikaelian, one of the brightest names in the Planned Giving universe on how even small nonprofits can start a planned giving program.  Viken is the brains behind the hugely successful VirtualGiving.com and PlannedGiving.com and has helped create planned gift marketing programs for many national charities. Viken will share his steps to take to identify “loyal” donors and to reach them with your planned giving opportunities. You might be surprised how willing your donors are to talk about significant contributions that don’t require writing a check today.

Join us for “You Had Me at Bequest: How to Start a Planned Giving Program for Your Nonprofit” on Monday, March 23, 2009 at Noon Eastern (9:00 a.m. Pacific). It’s $35 or included with your All-Access Pass. Get the details and register. (Pass holders, login here to RSVP.)

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.