The planned giving blog, Stelter Insights, outlined three trends in planned giving marketing to look for in today’s fundraising landscape. All would seem to benefit from marketing automation tools.
In “Planned Giving Marketing Trends of 2018,” Nathan Stelter offered the following ideas to consider implementing in your planned giving efforts:
- Targeting vs. “Spraying and Praying”
“Use your research to your advantage,” Stelter writes. “… Each generation has its own set of primary concerns, wants and needs.”
He goes on to discuss some of the defining attributes college and university donors: “About a third (34 percent) of those who give to higher education say they prefer restricted gifts, the highest percentage of any giving category.
“If you are a college or university foundation, a challenge you often face is the restricted gift. Keep in mind that this challenge may lead to sealing the deal when working with your donors.”
- Social Media vs. Snail Mail
“Weather you refer to it as a trend, or a necessity for survival, social media is here to stay,” Stelter writes.
Acknowledging that there is no exact science when it comes to using social media for non-profits, Stelter argues that it’s great benefit is “access to a like-minded community.” (Is there a more like-minded community than a passionate alumni base?)
- Surveying vs. Traditional Fundraising
“Survey is the must-have tool for your planned giving marketing communications. It’s as simple as that,” Stelter writes.
Arguing that feedback is essential to a thriving planned giving program, Stelter points out that daily demands make it impossible to ask all prospective donors personally. With a good survey, you can get information vital to building a pipeline of planned giving prospects, gauging donor affinity, gaining valuable feedback on current stewardship efforts, as well as identifying, benchmarking and adjusting communications based on donors’ attitudes and trends
Where Marketing Automation Fits
Looking back over Stelter’s three suggestions for a successful modern planned giving, we see the importance of targeting, the need to embrace social media and the value of knowing what your prospective donors are thinking and feeling … and being able to react to it.
At Capture Higher Ed, we have created a marketing automation tool — one that is unique to higher education — that can amplify your development team’s efforts in all three of these important areas of planned giving marketing for 2018. It’s a set of tools that makes your planned giving outreach more meaningful because it allows you to know what potential and current donors are searching on your website.
This also makes it a wonderful tool for stewardship. As anyone who works in development knows, planned gifts are often revocable. Using marketing automation, you can stay informed about alumni passions, steward them more effectively and reduce the chances that they will change their minds and remove your institution from their giving plans.
Do you want to find out more about Capture Behavioral Engagement (CBE), our marketing automation for higher ed and advancement? Check out this short video.
By Kevin Hyde, Senior Content Writer, Capture Higher Ed
