Even the most thoughtfully built planned giving programs could lose momentum. You have the usual suspects in your pipeline – those incredibly generous, long-time major donors – but achieving meaningful growth has slowed. Savvy fundraisers have found that the key to sustainability is often found in taking a smarter, more nuanced approach to prospect development.
If you’ve been here, this guide is for you. We explore expert tips for unlocking more planned giving opportunities through prospect research and sustainably growing your donor pipeline
1. Leverage predictive modeling for giving propensity.
What is Predictive Modeling?
Sometimes, the simplest way to move forward is to let smart technology do the heavy lifting.
Predictive analytics solutions, also known as predictive AI, can help your nonprofit cut out the guesswork in identifying potential legacy donors. These solutions analyze your nonprofit’s donor database to uncover patterns and indicators of prospective legacy donors, which can often be time-consuming and challenging for your development team to recognize on their own.
Predictive AI can help your organization:
- Identify current donors who show characteristics of legacy donors, such as personal wealth and a history of making large gifts to your mission. AI can assign a “propensity to give” score to each person in your database. One example could be that a donor who has many publicly listed real estate holdings and has made major donations to your capital campaigns in the past would likely be considered a prospective planned giving donor.
- Anticipate the impact of external factors on your planned giving efforts. For instance, you can anticipate the effect that a poor economy may have on your planned giving program revenue. Then, you could change up your messaging to discuss how legacy gifts enable donors to commit funds in the future without having to draw on their current resources.
- Strategically plan your next steps. AI can also help segment your identified prospects and recommend specific “next best actions” for your development officers. In other words, it could identify the top 10 donors to prioritize and call this week, based on a combination of their giving propensity, recent engagement with your nonprofit (such as attending an event or opening an email), and capacity, ensuring your team’s limited time is focused on the most impactful interactions.
Leveraging Predictive AI in your Organization
The key to successful prospecting is feeding the algorithm clean, comprehensive data for the most accurate predictions. NPOInfo’s data hygiene guide recommends moving toward a stronger data governance approach to prioritize data cleanliness.
This involves using smart tools to automate advanced processes, like merging duplicate records, and pairing this technology with a clear policy on data entry and access. When every staff member understands that clean data is a shared organizational responsibility, your team can trust the insights and focus on what they do best: building connections.
2. Mine your mid-level file for high-potential legacy prospects.
Planned giving prospect development tends to focus on major donors, but mid-level donors can be just as important. According to a Sea Change Strategies report, 31% of mid-level donors have already included their favorite organizations in their will, with an additional 23% expressing their intent to do so in the future.
So the question isn’t whether mid-level donors belong in your planned giving strategy, it’s which ones to prioritize first. BWF’s mid-level donor guide suggests the following common indicators of strong legacy potential:
- Typically older
- Highly engaged in the causes they support for decades
- Might just give once annually
- 10+ years of involvement with their favorite organizations
- Also volunteer, advocate, and take on leadership roles
- Know multiple individuals at the nonprofit, including board members and staff
- Commonly friendly with other donors
- Associate philanthropy as part of their core identity
If these traits sound like some of your most loyal supporters, that’s the point: you’re looking for people who already feel deeply connected to your mission. The next step is to honor that connection through thoughtful stewardship to create natural opportunities to learn what kind of impact they want to leave behind.
Build relationships with mid-level donors through personalized communication and stewardship that acknowledges their long-term support. For example, call up a mid-level donor just to check in, get their feedback on how your organization is doing, and thank them for their previous involvement in your campaigns.
These phone calls should lead to candid conversations about donors’ philanthropic goals; many are excited to make a lasting impact, but may not have been asked in the right way. Through authentic connection, you can transform these relationships into significant legacy commitments.
3. Develop a loyalty score to uncover hidden gems.
A loyalty score helps you find “hidden gem” planned giving prospects by spotting depth of connection, not just the depth of their wallet. Instead of solely relying on gift size, you can combine signals like giving consistency, event participation, volunteering, and other engagement to identify supporters who are genuinely tied to your mission (and may be ready for a legacy conversation).
Look for supporters who have given consistently for many years, as this long-term loyalty is a strong indicator of a deep connection to your mission. Also, consider other data points such as event attendance, volunteer history, and non-monetary engagement with your organization.
For example, consider a scenario where you may have a prospect named Jennifer Clark. Her annual giving is modest, but a holistic view shows that she has consistently volunteered with your animal shelter for seven years, attended every gala, and recently updated her LinkedIn profile to ‘retired.’ That combination—deep loyalty plus a recent life shift—makes her a truly promising legacy prospect. It’s a personal detail that a simple wealth check would never clue you in on.
Keep in mind that mid-level donors are also strong prospects for blended gifts. You can build relationships with them in an effort to procure a larger current gift in addition to their planned gift. This can give your donors the satisfaction of an immediate donation, along with the long-term fulfillment of a planned gift.
By taking a holistic view of your supporters’ engagement, you can uncover hidden gems who are prime candidates for a planned gift.
4. Prioritize relationships over transactions.
Planned giving is a deeply personal decision that requires a different approach than a typical annual fund appeal. Donors who are considering making a planned gift aren’t just motivated by a desire to help your organization in the present day – they want their contributions to leave a long-lasting legacy that speaks to their most deeply held philanthropic beliefs.
Focus on building real, long-term relationships with your prospects first, instead of jumping straight to an ask. We call this the “quiet ask”: planting seeds and gently guiding your conversations toward their legacy over time.
Use methods like:
- Sharing the impact of other planned gifts. For example, you might explain how planned donations allowed you to expand your children’s wing at your nonprofit hospital.
- Providing educational resources to facilitate conversations. These materials may include past annual reports, research studies your organization has conducted, or testimonials from community members you’ve helped over the years.
- Getting to know donors and understanding their philanthropic goals. Ask donors about what they’re passionate about and their goals for leaving a positive legacy with their funds. Inquire about other causes they’ve supported and what made those missions so meaningful to them. The more you can get donors talking about themselves, the better!
The goal is to become a trusted partner and friend in your donors’ philanthropic journey, not just a solicitor of funds.
5. Streamline internal operations.
To truly optimize your prospect development approach, it’s important to create an organizational culture where everyone feels comfortable participating in prospect development. Equip everyone, from the front desk staff to program managers, to recognize potential planned giving prospects and know how to tactfully refer them to the right person for follow-up. By doing this, you break down internal silos and foster collaboration between your fundraising, marketing, and program teams.
Train your annual gala committee, typically focused on immediate mid-event donations, to listen for cues during conversations with attendees. They can flag attendees who talk about a deeply-held passion for your mission or mention retirement, downsizing, or estate plans.
Then, instead of only thanking them for a gift, empower committee members to offer a gentle next step: a warm introduction to your planned giving officer for a follow-up conversation. This approach builds planned giving naturally into existing touchpoints, without losing authenticity.
When all teams work together, you create a powerful ecosystem that can efficiently identify the next generation of legacy donors.
6. Quantify the value of your handraiser pipeline.
While predictive AI helps you find prospects, you need a separate, quantitative approach to measure the health and financial potential of your active pipeline. This is where the Giving Docs handraiser model comes in.
A “handraiser” is a prospect who has openly signaled their intent to leave a planned gift to your organization, often through a survey, a website form, or an informal conversation. These donors are valuable because they clearly intend to give, but since they haven’t actually donated yet, many organizations have a hard time putting a solid financial value on them.
With a little math, your organization can quickly figure out how much this pipeline is worth by looking at key data like past conversion rates and the average gift size in your area. Leveraging this model helps you:
- Assign a monetary value to your list of handraisers.
- View handraisers as “Gifts Under Management,” providing a clearer, more conservative estimate of future revenue.
- Make a stronger case for planned giving budget requests by showing the potential long-term value you’re currently handling.
When your development team assigns a concrete value to handraisers, they can clearly explain why it’s crucial for your organization’s long-term financial health to invest in building relationships with these intentional, interested prospects.
Use our free Handraiser Calculator to start calculating the value of your handraiser pipeline in real time!
A successful planned giving program is built on a foundation of smart data analysis and genuine relationship-building. By harnessing the power of predictive AI, recognizing the potential of your mid-level donors, and taking a collaborative, forward-thinking approach, you can unlock a new level of support for your organization. The future of your mission depends on the investments you make today in identifying and cultivating the legacy donors of tomorrow.
