Legacy Giving for Small Nonprofits: A Get-Started Guide

Many organizations today understand that legacy giving (also called planned giving) and other types of non-cash gifts can unlock considerable growth. They bring financial and relationship benefits, such as stable, diversified revenue plus deepened engagement with your most loyal supporters.

However, smaller nonprofits may feel held back by capacity and budgetary considerations. 

Expanding into a new form of giving is in itself an investment of hard-earned time and resources. Understandably, small nonprofits must be sure new projects will generate a valuable return, financial or otherwise, before diving in.

For legacy giving specifically, there’s a misconception that these programs require sizable upfront investments. While they do need time and resources to take root, you can (and should) start small. This will not only safeguard your resources but also allow you to actively learn and adapt over time without being locked into major decisions right away.

Let’s lay out a legacy giving action plan for small nonprofits:

1. Start with bequests.

Bequests are the easiest and most accessible form of legacy giving for you and your supporters. They are gifts of a set dollar amount or remaining portion of a donor’s estate, disbursed once their will is executed after they pass away. To establish a bequest gift, a donor only needs to add a few extra lines to their will.

Other types of planned gifts, including annuities and trusts, are more complex and usually better suited to wealthier donors. You can pursue these gifts intentionally later, but the keys to success for now are simply to understand them and stay attuned to signs that prospects might be interested in more complex gifts down the line.

2. Learn how to talk about legacy giving.

Talking about legacy gifts is one of the biggest hurdles that newcomer organizations face. This can be a sensitive topic, so preparation is important.

Consider these best practices:

• Don’t mention death. Instead, emphasize legacy-building.

• Clearly articulate the positive and unique impacts of legacy giving on your mission.

• Provide social proof through testimonials and stories from other legacy donors.

• Prepare helpful resources about planned giving for interested donors.

Train any fundraising team members who’ll take part in the launch of your legacy giving program so that they’re ready to start fruitful conversations right off the bat.

3. Add legacy giving to your website.

Make sure that legacy giving is represented on your nonprofit’s website. At the very least, add it as a new section on your primary Ways to Give page—a brief explanation plus contact information to learn more.

To go a step further, though, many organizations create standalone web pages or even mini-websites dedicated to planned giving. These websites serve as central hubs for all the information donors may need to learn more and make a decision, and they greatly simplify the process of marketing your program. 

Of course, your approach can evolve as your program grows, but the key is to create a digital location to direct interested donors and to broadly promote legacy giving to your audience. 

4. Survey your donors and learn more about prospect markers.

To kick off your outreach, conduct a quick survey to learn more about donors’ familiarity with and interest in legacy giving. To maximize responses, keep it simple by focusing on questions like:

• Have you heard of legacy giving or planned giving?

• Have you created a legacy gift in your bequest to [Your Organization] or another nonprofit?

• Do you want to learn more about the benefits of this form of giving?

• Are you interested in other types of tax-beneficial planned or non-cash gifts?

Use the responses as the basis of your first round of outreach. There’s a chance you may already have secured bequests from some donors. If so, start by thanking them and adding them to a list for regular stewardship follow-up.

For other responses, identify those who expressed interest and try to start building prospect profiles around them. Do they share certain characteristics like age, length of relationship with your organization, etc.?

This is also the time to conduct external research with industry resources like FreeWill’s Planned Giving Report, which details key demographic characteristics of legacy donors. Use this information to develop clearer pictures of who your target prospects are.

5. Develop an outreach plan.

With an initial prospect list in hand and profiles to help you source new prospects, you’re ready to begin promoting your new legacy giving program. A two-pronged approach will work well to cover your marketing bases:

• Add broad mentions of legacy giving to your general outreach, like in your newsletter and social media, that briefly explain the new program and how to learn more.

• Targeted outreach to your smaller prospect list, such as through email messages and phone calls to those most likely to engage.

By sending general promotions, you can ensure that anyone not previously identified will eventually be exposed to your new program. Focusing on the smaller prospect list for more tailored outreach will save you time and ultimately boost the ROI of your efforts.

Emails are among the most cost-effective ways to reach any audience. Draft a dedicated email series about legacy giving to send to your prospect list. Consider other channels that may work, too—direct mail can be extremely effective for getting the word out if you tightly segment it to those donors who have engaged with mailers in the past.

6. Ensure bequests will be reported.

Anonymity and lack of communication are common challenges when it comes to bequests, since donors can technically create or remove them at any time without telling you. You’ll need to ask them to notify you of any changes directly. But how exactly will the bequest creation process work, and how will donors notify you of new bequests?

There are tools that can facilitate bequests by generating language for donors to add to their wills. These platforms then notify your organization so that you can follow up, thank the donors, and keep them engaged over time.

Whichever approach you take, make sure the need to notify your nonprofit is clearly expressed online, in conversations with prospects, and in your marketing messages to qualified prospects who are likely to take action.

7. Keep track of your data and start improving.

Finally, make sure that you have a system in place for tracking the performance of your new legacy giving program. 

Your nonprofit’s CRM or database will work best. Develop new workflows or tags as needed, so donors can be sorted into different groups based on their stage of the legacy giving process. If your organization doesn’t have a central database, explore your options or create a dedicated spreadsheet—just be sure to keep it organized over time.

Then, update your records with fresh prospect touchpoints, finding at a glance who’s been contacted, when, and what the best next step will be.

With the knowledge and infrastructure in place, you can learn as you go! Keep promoting your legacy giving program, recording your responses, and reaching out to prospects. Over time, you will learn about communication preferences, the demographic trends of your prospects, and more. This helps refine your approach and remove any implicit bias your team may have about who tends to be interested in these gifts.

Need a data refresher? Consider joining Mission Capitals’ upcoming training session, “Data You Can Use.”

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Although it does require an investment of time and resources, starting a planned giving program probably isn’t as big a leap as small nonprofits might initially assume. 

And this investment pays off—with an established legacy giving pipeline and deepened relationships with your supporters, you have a solid foundation on which to build even more high-impact giving strategies. Nonprofits of all sizes use these programs to expand their efforts into other gifts like DAF grants, gifts of stock, and annuities.

By taking your time, following core best practices, and adapting as you learn, you can secure your organization’s future and foster a thriving community of legacy support.