Always Be Closing Planned Gifts

I am here on a mission of mercy. - The man from downtown

Steps to Success

1. Meet with donor
2. Gather 2 facts (donor age 65 owns appreciated property) 
3. Gather no goals
4. Assume goals are tax reduction and income
5. Suggest Charitable Remainder Trust
6. Wait several days as donor consults advisor
7. Express surprise when deal is rejected
8. Go back to step 1 with new donor
9. Repeat until deal is closed and quota met
10. Write paper on best practices for National Committee on Planned Giving.

How to Fail Miserably

1. Get to know donor as human being
2. Gather through open-ended conversation the donor's goals for self, family, and society
3. Encourage the donor's best instincts
4. Help donor weigh the joy of a gift now or gift later or at death
5. Help donor weigh inheritance to kids versus philanthropy
6. Help donor weigh the benefits to children of a philanthropic inheritance, or a family tradition of current gifts, or through a foundation or donor advised fund
7. Help donor reduce goals, including but not limited to philanthropic goals, to talking points for advisors
8. Serve as resource to advisors as overall financial, giving, and estate plan is created
9. Express gratitude as massive current gift, or legacy commitment, is made to your organization
10. Abandon this process when it comes out that the donor also made a massive gift to some other organization
11. Slap yourself for having helped society, donor, family, and your organization
12. Return to proven Steps to Success listed above.

I am not sure planned giving as a career option can be saved. But there are jobs open in the financial services bidnis pitching product. If you are a planned giving officer who is finding Charitable Remainder Trusts a hard sale these days, I would be happy to line you up with a financial sales recruiter.  If you are going to play pitch and putt to meet a quota you might as well at least have a decent commission structure, along with basic sales training. If you knew how to answer objections you would not be in this mess. There are only four objections to any financial product or service, including a Charitable Trust. Master the answers and you will succeed like a champ.  I will cover these answers to objections in another lesson. By way of preview: The fourth and hardest objection to answer in any sale of a financial product or service is "No Confidence." The No Confidence Objection is best met by wearing an expensive suit. You can rent one if you cannot afford to purchase one.

Forgive me.  Don't rent the suit. You would do better to buy it on a credit card with a good low teaser rate.  Remember, no one will do a Charitable Remainder Trust with a planned giving officer in a cheap suit.  Stay away from Glengarry plaids too. 

Comments

[Anne Melanson]

GIVE Back, Reach Out and Touch Someone
December 29, 2007

Anne Melanson’s
Charitable Thoughts

If you’re like me, the shopping frenzy of the season has, by now, just about wiped you out. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I discovered the list of Christmas presents my son Jack had itemized for Santa. Nestled there, between the latest Magic Tree House titles and the Pokemon cards, was a request for $7,000 in cash.

Lots of people are looking for a new way to experience the spirit of giving this season. Imagine Canada tells us the charitable giving options for the holiday gift giver are expanding exponentially. Gone are the days when you were limited to purchasing a village goat or adopting an endangered sea turtle. This year World Vision’s Christmas catalogue boasts over 100 options for the online shopper. UNICEF, Oxfam, the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace are among a growing list of charities who present gift-giving options for people who wish to help those in need.

Increasingly, however, donors are looking for a more personal touch – and a way to ensure that their gifts, no matter how big or small, are having their intended impact.

Technology is connecting donors and recipients in profound new ways. Organizations like KIVA (www.kiva.org) allow individuals in developing countries, sometimes in need of only a few hundred dollars, to launch businesses to sustain their family, by introducing them online to millions of potential donors around the globe. The website provides a donor with a direct communication link to the recipient and a clear understanding of what exactly their loan will do for that recipient.

A local example here in Atlantic Canada that makes this direct connection is Work for Widows (www.workforwidows.com). This organization was set-up by a Bridgewater, NS couple to help victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka. You can read their stories at the website and purchase handmade items to help these women become self-sufficient.

For those with an even greater desire to see the impact of their charitable deeds, GIVE International (www.GIVE.org) is a Canadian company that organizes experiences in developing communities for as few as three to four weeks. Instead of donating money to build an orphanage, GIVE’s donors actually help build it.

So, perhaps this year Jack would like to help me do some online shopping for some kids who probably don’t have any Magic Tree House books. Or maybe we can talk about what that $7,000 could do for people who really need it.

Anne Melanson is a partner of Red Letter Philanthropy Counsel Ltd. and has more than 20 years of experience in bringing together donors and charitable causes for world betterment. Reach her at www.redlettercounsel.com or [email protected]

[Phil]

Thank you, Anne. You took to heart the spirit of my post. There is little I can teach you about about package selling and the hawking of charitable gifts and services as if they were commodities. If you would be so kind as to leave a cut and paste version of your ad in every post on gifthub it will help us all create a better world.

[Phil]

Anne, I did delete the second posting of your ad, the one you left on "10 Ways to Interact with Gifthub. If you want to add it back, I would be happy to delete it again. In this way you can build good will for your charitable practice and confidence in you as an advisor. Remember, Always be Closing!