legacy giving

How To Encourage Donors To Make Bequests to Your Nonprofit

Ann Green Communications, donation page, fundraising, legacy giving, planning , , , ,

Looking to inspire legacy gifts at your organization? Explore these planned giving marketing ideas to connect with supporters and grow long-term funding.

By Patrick Schmitt 

Building a reliable pipeline of legacy gifts is essential for securing your organization’s long-term financial health and sustaining your programs well into the future. However, initiating conversations about bequests (gifts made through wills or trusts) can feel intimidating for development teams.

Ultimately, success comes down to clear, educational communication with donors rather than aggressive solicitation. By focusing on stewardship, you can naturally introduce the concept of legacy giving while strengthening your current relationships. To guide your approach, we’ll explore several donor-centric strategies to communicate the value of bequests to your community.

Design comprehensive planned giving brochures

Providing your supporters with accessible, easy-to-understand educational materials is a foundational step in any legacy giving strategy. Creating a dedicated brochure, whether distributed physically at events or digitally via email, gives donors the space to learn about their options on their own timeline without feeling pressured.

FreeWill’s guide to planned giving brochures lays out five essential elements to include:

Alt text: A summary of the components to include in your planned giving brochures

  1. Gift descriptions: Explain the different types of legacy gifts, such as bequests or beneficiary designations, using simple language so donors fully grasp their options.
  2. Impact stories: Share examples of how previous legacy gifts have advanced your nonprofit’s mission.
  3. Tax benefit overviews: Briefly highlight the potential financial advantages for the donor and their heirs, while advising them to consult their own financial planner.
  4. Essential legal details: Provide the information donors need to complete their forms, such as your organization’s full legal name and tax ID (EIN).
  5. Actionable next steps: Outline what the supporter should do if they are ready to document their gift or if they want to speak with a staff member for more information.

To maximize the effectiveness of these brochures, consider partnering with local estate planning attorneys who can display your materials in their waiting rooms. This places your organization’s bequest options directly in front of community members when they are making important financial decisions.

Feature planned giving options on your main website

A well-optimized digital presence acts as a silent fundraiser, working around the clock to inform your community about how they can support your work. Your nonprofit’s website is a natural spot to promote estate planning. It starts the conversation and ensures high-capacity prospects can independently discover how to leave a lasting mark.

Maximize your website’s potential by implementing these key strategies:

  • Create a dedicated legacy giving page or microsite that outlines your organization’s long-term vision and provides easy access to the information from your brochure (e.g., gift descriptions, impact stories, and tax benefits).
  • Link to this page in your main navigation, making it a natural part of the browsing experience rather than a hidden resource.
  • On your Ways to Give page, feature bequests and other legacy options alongside standard credit card donations and check mailing instructions, normalizing these gifts as a standard method of support.
  • Publish spotlight features on your blog that explain why a specific supporter chose to leave a legacy gift and their impact, providing powerful social proof that inspires others.

To maximize the visibility of your website’s planned giving resources, actively drive traffic to these pages using external marketing channels. Promoting your legacy giving microsite or Ways to Give page using paid search ads covered through the Google Ad Grant, targeted social media campaigns, and email outreach ensures you capture high-intent prospects when they are most receptive to estate planning information, which brings us to our next point.

Add planned giving to your email marketing strategy

Strategic digital communications can gently introduce the concept of bequests without overwhelming your audience. Email provides a direct channel to your donors, and by integrating legacy giving topics like bequests into your outreach, you can grow awareness in a low-pressure way.

Normalize the conversation

The goal is to make legacy giving feel like a natural part of supporting your mission. Instead of a once-a-year ask, incorporate short, educational mentions into your regular emails. This might look like:

  • Donor spotlights in your newsletters about a legacy society member that links to their full story on your blog.
  • Postscript (PS) mentions of planned giving at the bottom of general fundraising appeal emails.
  • Standalone emails that highlight a single, simple concept—such as the ease of naming your nonprofit as a beneficiary in a will.
  • A full email campaign for National Make-A-Will Month in August.

Let data drive your efforts

Pay close attention to engagement metrics, such as click-through rates on legacy-related links, to identify which messaging angles resonate best. A click often signals interest, and a targeted follow-up to subscribers who engaged with planned giving outreach can open the door to more personalized, one-on-one stewardship conversations.

Test planned giving marketing messaging in targeted segments

Not every donor is at the same stage in their legacy journey. Leverage your email segmentation tools to ensure your messaging reaches the supporters most likely to be receptive to planned giving outreach.

EverTrue’s donor segmentation guide highlights that you can group your supporters using five core categories: demographics, affinity for your cause, engagement with your nonprofit, preferences, and giving capacity.

With this context in mind, here are some segmentation strategies to try:

  • Focus on loyalty over wealth. High-net-worth individuals aren’t the only legacy prospects. Your most loyal donors—those who have given consistently for years, regardless of the amount—are often your best candidates for planned giving.
  • Leverage behavioral triggers. Identify likely prospects by tracking who has already interacted with legacy-related content. You might create a segment for anyone who clicked a link in your newsletter about naming a nonprofit in their will or visited your legacy giving landing page. These donors have signaled intent and are prime candidates for a more direct follow-up.
  • Tailor the “why.” Use segmentation to match the legacy opportunity to the donor’s specific interests. For instance, you might send a targeted note to donors over age 70 about the tax-wise benefits of naming your nonprofit as a beneficiary of their IRA, or share how a simple bequest in a will can provide a “forever gift” to a specific program they have supported for years.

By narrowing your focus and making outreach personal, you ensure each message feels like a relevant invitation rather than a generic mass appeal.

Weave impact reporting into your donor communications

Donors treat bequests as the ultimate investment in an organization’s future, meaning they need to be absolutely certain that their legacy will be handled responsibly. Transparent reporting proves your operational competence and highlights the enduring value of your work.

As part of your planned giving marketing strategy, outline how you’ll demonstrate long-term value through reporting. Aim to:

  • Showcase organizational longevity. Highlight your history and major milestones to prove you are a permanent fixture capable of honoring a donor’s intent decades from now.
  • Connect past gifts to present success. Share “Legacy at Work” stories that illustrate how previous bequests fund current programs, helping donors visualize the scale of their potential impact.
  • Prioritize financial transparency. Regularly share “under the hood” details—like annual audits or board oversight—to build the institutional trust necessary for a donor to include you in their estate plans.

Beyond standard annual reports, consider creating a dedicated Legacy Impact Update Report. This report should highlight the programmatic expansions made possible by realized bequests, showing prospective donors exactly how their future gift will create a lasting footprint.

Wrapping up

Securing legacy gifts is an ongoing endeavor that relies on cultivating authentic, communicative relationships with donors. By taking a pressure-free educational approach across the channels you have available, you’ll empower your supporters to leave a lasting mark on a cause they care about.

Ensure your development team regularly reviews your planned giving analytics to see which outreach channels and messages drive the most inquiries. Adjusting your strategy based on these insights will ultimately help you build a sustainable legacy pipeline.

Patrick Schmitt and co-CEO Jenny Xia founded FreeWill at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2016. FreeWill’s charitable giving platform makes it easier for nonprofit fundraising teams to unlock transformational gifts, and to date has generated over $6.6 billion in new gift commitments for thousands of nonprofit organizations. Patrick hosts FreeWill’s popular webinar series, educating thousands of nonprofit fundraising professionals each month about planned and non-cash giving strategies.

Before FreeWill, Patrick was the Head of Innovation at Change.org, where he helped grow the organization to 100 million users in four years. Prior to that, he ran email marketing for President Obama and served as Campaign Director for MoveOn.org.

Future-proof your fundraising: 3 ways to thrive long-term

Ann Green Communications, fundraising, legacy giving, marketing, monthly donors, planning , , , ,

Is your nonprofit poised for long-term growth? Check out these future-proof nonprofit fundraising strategies based on today’s top philanthropic trends.

By Patrick Schmitt

Achieving your mission takes time and resources. As a nonprofit professional, you know this all too well and likely implement all kinds of cost-saving and efficiency-boosting practices into your work.

But can you be more proactive and go beyond mitigation? Do your fundraising practices look forward and actively build a foundation for long-term success? Are you missing opportunities to engage with donors in new ways?

This often means investing in new forms of fundraising or making significant updates to existing practices. But for many small nonprofits, making these changes can feel less than feasible.

However, as we’re constantly reminded, we’re living in unpredictable times—economic turbulence, heightened political and social tensions, the rise of AI, changing donor habits and preferences – the list goes on. There’s no telling what the future may bring, but your nonprofit needs to be there to shine a light and help lead your community.

Let’s explore some forward-thinking and (perhaps surprisingly) accessible ways for small nonprofits to drive sustained success and reduce the need for constant cost-cutting and budget anxiety.

The three future-proof nonprofit fundraising strategies explained in this article:  projectable revenue streams, non-cash giving, and mid-level donor stewardship.

1. Build more projectable revenue sources.

Building a pipeline of future giving is massively helpful—it fuels your operations and growth and it’s predictable, allowing you to plan more effectively.

There are two key types of projectable future giving to keep in mind:

  • Deferred giving
  • Recurring giving

Deferred giving, also called planned or legacy giving, is often neglected by small shops but is increasingly understood as a game-changer for nonprofits of all sizes. It’s an especially smart choice now as we begin to see “the Great Wealth Transfer” unfold, with shifting demographic trends resulting in large amounts of saved assets being disbursed to heirs and beneficiaries. 

But planned giving is also very accessible—any donor, regardless of wealth, can easily create bequests. And since these gifts are given from assets rather than cash on hand, they give donors the chance to drive sustained impact without impacting day-to-day finances (while also tapping into tax benefits here and now). The FreeWill guide to planned giving programs covers the essential steps nonprofits of all sizes should take to get started.

You’re likely more familiar with the ins and outs of recurring giving, facilitated through recurring giving programs or membership programs. It’s easy to get started—simply add a recurring giving option to your donation form, create a new web page and other materials that explain why repeat gifts are so impactful for your mission, and begin promoting the option.

As always, anchor your messaging about new forms of giving with impact, and don’t be afraid to be transparent. As a growing nonprofit, your committed supporters will be motivated by messages that clearly explain why you’re prioritizing these initiatives to ensure your mission’s long-term future.

2. Take more (or your first) steps into the world of non-cash gifts.

Donor preferences are rapidly diversifying. Tax code changes, the state of the economy, and ever-increasing financialization and digitization all point to increased interest in non-cash gifts.

By tapping into these trends and offering more flexibility to donors, nonprofits have seen substantial long-term growth. One study found that nonprofits that accept non-cash gifts grow six times faster than those that don’t.

Key types of non-cash gifts that should be on nonprofits’ radar include:

  • Grants from donor-advised funds (DAFs). These philanthropic quasi-savings accounts allow donors to put away funds for future giving to be saved and grown.
  • Gifts of stock. This includes stock from public and private companies and mutual funds and is a savvy choice for donors looking to rebalance their portfolios and secure added tax benefits.
  • In-kind gifts. These are any non-financial gifts, including materials and equipment, real estate, cars, you name it. Donors may seek to offload unneeded tangible assets to secure tax benefits, and you never know who among your community may have something they’d like to donate.
  • Cryptocurrency donations. Steadily rising in popularity among younger and more diverse groups of donors, gifts of crypto are new but certainly worth exploring if you think your donor base may be a good match.

If you’re prioritizing non-cash giving for the first time, we recommend starting with DAFs simply because their growth in popularity and volume has been explosive. Payouts to nonprofits from DAFs grew a record 28.2% in 2021, hitting $45.74 billion. Nonprofits also received 32% more DAF grants and 56% more grant dollars in 2022 than in 2021.

However, DAF fundraising is notoriously opaque—the names of DAF account owners aren’t disclosed, and these accounts are managed by a wide range of organizations including banks, financial service providers, and community foundations. 

To get started, try a simple survey. Ask donors if they’ve heard of, have, or are interested in donor-advised funds, and use your findings as the basis for future outreach. Contact local community foundations to introduce your organization and ask if they sponsor DAFs so they might recommend you as a grantee to their account holders. Add DAF giving as a new section on your Ways to Give page.

3. Invest in your mid-level donors.

Mid-level donors, often defined as those who give between $1,000 and $10,000 a year, are the key to long-term growth due to their high levels of loyalty and engagement. These supporters also tie together many of the trends that we’re currently seeing play out for nonprofits. Check out these statistics from Seachange Strategies’ most recent Missing Middle Report:

  • 31% of mid-level donors have made a bequest and another 23% say they plan to make one in the future.
  • 20% have donor-advised funds (DAF) and another 8% are considering starting one.
  • The majority of these donors say that in the past two years, their giving stayed the same or even grew amid political and cultural polarization (94%), global instability (94%), and economic uncertainty (87%).

What steps does your nonprofit currently take to steward and retain these donors?

For many organizations, the answer is “not enough,” and that’s understandable—fostering relationships with the highest-impact donors and running broad campaigns naturally take center stage for busy teams. But consider these easy steps you can take to better engage with them.

Start by understanding who these donors are. Revisit your segmentation strategies and rethink your donor pyramid or pipeline frameworks. The report cited above highlights that mid-level donors generally don’t demonstrate the same characteristics as major donors, so they’re easily missed if your focus is elsewhere.

Identify this segment of donors for your nonprofit and reach out to express your gratitude for their past support. If you want to prioritize deferred, recurring, or non-cash giving, try focusing on this group first. Develop tailored messaging to drive engagement, make asks, and retain their support, whether that’s through joining a membership program, creating a bequest, signing up to volunteer, or another action that will push your mission forward in the long run.

To work toward your mission effectively and responsibly, you need to do more than just trim expenses and seek new ways to be efficient. You also must proactively look forward and build a solid runway for your organization to grow.

With all the trends discussed above, it’s an exciting time for growing nonprofits. Take stock of your current practices and donor preferences, and weigh your options. While there’s no one-size-fits-all growth strategy, there are tons of easy first steps you can take to find the perfect route for your unique organization.

Patrick Schmitt and fellow co-CEO Jenny Xia founded FreeWill at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2016. FreeWill’s charitable giving platform makes it easier for nonprofit fundraising teams to unlock transformational gifts, and to date has generated over $6.6 billion in new gift commitments for thousands of nonprofit organizations. Patrick hosts FreeWill’s popular webinar series, educating thousands of nonprofit fundraising professionals each month about planned and non-cash giving strategies.

Before FreeWill, Patrick was the Head of Innovation at Change.org, where he helped grow the organization to 100 million users in four years. Prior to that, he ran email marketing for President Obama and served as Campaign Director for MoveOn.org.