Un-planned Gifts

A well-rounded fundraising program generates an unexpected benefit: un-planned gifts.

We all know what a planned gift looks like; it’s the gift left in the will or estate of a donor.  And I’d argue it’s barely-involved major donor who says, “we give you a gift of this amount every year at this time.”

But un–planned gifts?  Those are all the gifts in March because your e-appeal was so strong.  Those are the all the gifts at your event from major donors who had already give earlier this year. 

And here’s the thing – the donors love giving those gifts!  They are thrilled to be able to help.

There are two hallmarks of fundraising programs that regularly produce unplanned gifts:

• Showing up in donors’ lives regularly with relevant content.  You’re not going to get a lot of unplanned gifts if you’re only sending two or three appeals a year.
• Focusing your Asks on needs that are happening soon.  This gives your donors a chance to play a meaningful role in a part of your work that’s happening soon – as opposed to the more standard (and less compelling) “be a part of our ongoing work.”

And the consequence of all those unplanned gifts is something that every smaller nonprofit wants – meaningful fundraising revenue coming in all year long, not just during a couple of months.

If your organization would like to get more unplanned gifts, the first thing to do is believe that they are possible.  Assume abundance.  Believe that the effect of sending out another piece of fundraising is going to be a bunch of un-planned gifts, not the mythical “donor fatigue.”

Once you begin to assume abundance, everything else is possible.  All the big organizations have made this shift.  What’s holding you back?