How Nonprofits Can Educate Board Members on Planned Giving
Learn four ways the Foundation can help your board members value planned giving.
By Tod Herskovitz, Nonprofit Strategies Manager
Board members can often be unfamiliar with planned giving and have many questions about these charitable gifts. Does this sound familiar?
That’s understandable when working with a volunteer board of directors, few of whom have experience with charitable gift planning.
But don’t let that skepticism stop you. Instead, focus on educating your board on the importance of a planned giving strategy to support your organization’s future — especially right now in this environment of changing tax laws and evolving patterns of donor behavior.
Board Services for Nonprofit Endowment Fundholders
Against this backdrop, the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation stands ready to serve as a sounding board and partner to our nonprofit endowment fundholders. Here are a few ways we can help:
1. Join a board meeting
Our team would be happy to drop by one of your board meetings to deliver an informal presentation about planned giving and review the many benefits it offers. Through tangible examples such as gifts in a donor’s will or through a retirement plan beneficiary designation, we’re able to help connect the dots from opaque legal concepts to concrete outcomes that your organization has likely already experienced.
2. Share research and resources
We know it can be hard to articulate the return on an investment in a planned giving program. Even though planned gifts don’t always result in immediate dollars, their long-term value can be substantial. We’ll share research on planned giving trends, illustrating that donors who make planned giving commitments tend to increase their annual giving—creating a true win-win.
3. Serve as your planned giving office when opportunities arise.
Your board may be concerned that your organization will be faced with the prospect of receiving a large, complex gift or bequest and won’t know what to do. Many board members are reassured to learn that the Foundation offers expertise, infrastructure and administrative support needed to accept and steward complex charitable gifts.
If your board of directors would like to allocate planned gifts, such as bequests to an endowment or reserve fund, remember that we can professionally invest and manage endowment and reserve funds with a long-term perspective, ensuring prudent oversight, spending discipline and transparent reporting.
4. Recommend educational resources and implementation tools
The Foundation is happy to recommend resources that offer practical tools and talking points that board members can use when engaging prospective legacy donors. Knowing your organization has tools and resources often can make board members more comfortable with your organization undertaking planned giving as a priority.
The bottom line is that we are here to help! We look forward to assisting your organization with your planned giving program, whether you’ve recently launched a program, know you need to get a program started or have a longstanding program in place. By partnering with us, your board members can feel more confident in making planned giving a priority for your organization.
The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. Please consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors regarding your individual situation before engaging in any transaction.
Tod Herskovitz, Nonprofit Strategies Manager, joined the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation in 2022.
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