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The 5% Solution

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March 31, 2018

by Linda Spuck

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If I asked you if you could dedicate 5% of your time to tackle a high priority project, what would you say? It seems like such a small number! 5% of 40 hours/week is a measly 2 hours.

Many non-profits tell me that they want to create a planned gift pipeline, but don’t have the money to hire a planned giving officer, and don’t have time to dedicate themselves to a program. I began to wonder just how much time it would take to create a transformative effort – an amount small enough that no one would balk when I suggested it.

The average planned gift is somewhere between $30-60,000. For most organizations that is a major (and in some cases MAJOR) gift. Yet most of us don’t set a priority on cultivating these gifts.

But imagine what you could accomplish by dedicating 2 hours a week to a focused planned giving effort:

  • Creating a marketing strategy
  • Redesigning your appeal letter reply forms to incorporate planned giving
  • Adding PG info to your website
  • Writing a special appeal letter/invitation to join your legacy society
  • Interviewing a legacy donor for your newsletter, social media post, etc.
  • Planning a legacy luncheon
  • Making thank you calls to donors who join your legacy society
  • Meeting with board members to solicit a planned gift

….the list goes on

Can you set aside 2 hours each week to accomplish something big? Can I? I’m going to find out. Will you join me?

P.S. Nothing dictates that those 2 hours have to be in one sitting. How will you use your time? Two one- hour chunks? 24 minutes each work day? Four half-hours? I’m starting with one hour at a time.

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