Marketing Planned Gifts to Women

By 2030, women in the United States are projected to control two-thirds of the nation’s wealth—an estimated $35 trillion—and philanthropy ranks as their top interest, far surpassing areas like sports, art, education, and the outdoors. With women poised to inherit the majority of the $84 trillion wealth transfer over the next twenty years, nonprofit organizations have a tremendous opportunity to engage this group through planned giving programs. Women’s growing financial influence and demonstrated passion for charitable causes make them a powerful audience for legacy giving initiatives, offering nonprofits a pathway to sustainable funding and impactful partnerships.

It’s not surprising to learn that women generally lead in overall charitable giving, including likelihood to donate, frequency of giving, and amount donated, often surpassing men across income levels. Research shows that women are equally or more likely to engage in planned giving as men do.

With the economy’s consistent rise and fall, many organizations find their annual and special funds failing to keep the charities’ coffers full. For many organizations, planned gift programs have provided the extra funding that has made the difference in retaining staff and continuing programs. With the average planned gift ranging around  $49,000 in the U.S. and growing in amount year-over-year, you can’t afford to overlook the power of legacy giving by women.

To understand the types of legacy gifts that would appeal to your organization’s women supporters, gather a group of female constituents to assess their willingness to consider making a planned gift to your organization. Over 90% of all planned gifts are simple bequests in wills, trusts and through beneficiary designation form gifts. Bequests are easy to create and easy to understand. Wills are among the first estate plans that most people create.  So, ask your donors if they would consider making a bequest or trust gift to your organization?  If their response is positive, make this predominate planned gift vehicle the basis of your marketing program and grow gradually from there.

Further, describe charitable gift annuities and other life income gifts to your target group and see if these methods also appeal to them.  Also inquire about gifts of stock and real estate, gifts from a retirement account or life insurance policy. If their response is overwhelming positive to one or more of these gift vehicles, test the marketing of these gift types for 18 months to 3 years. If you find that their enthusiasm at your suggestions exceeded the reality of making these gift arrangements, consider dropping or re-examining your promotion.

Fiscal conservatism and anonymity of completed planned gifts is not uncommon among women, and you may find this is true of your test group. If so, limit your promotion of planned giving products to those that reflect women’s need for stable, long-term income in addition to the promotion of bequest gifts. Consider marketing:

• Charitable gift annuities both immediate and deferred;
• An annual series of gift annuities to reach a specific total giving amount;
• Perhaps, charitable remainder annuity trusts.

Finally, find out from these women in what manner they would like to celebrate their own gifts and find out about the gifts of others. Typically, women like to be part of a group and they do not want to be seen as giving more than their peers. Women often seek to be less public about their donations than men and traditional donor stories, media announcements and public recognition are not always desired (but will be accepted if offered). The answers to these questions will guide you in your communications, gift solicitations and recognition/stewardship efforts with your women prospects.