Transcript Welcome to Insert Title of Your Session

Welcome to
Marketing Your Planned Giving Program
Please take this time before the start of the session to silence
your cell phone or pager. Pager? Do people still have Pagers?
Maybe if you’re a drug dealer.
Your feedback is valuable. At the end of the session,
we ask that you take a moment to complete an evaluation form.
Thank you.
Kurt Mische
KOCE, Huntington Beach,
CA
Jon Miskowski
Wisconsin Public Television
Shelley Mitchell
New Hampshire Public
Television
The Excuses
• Reasons why you don’t
– Lack staff
– Other priorities
– No immediate net revenue
– Complicated
– Only use % of your endowment
– and yucky!
You Do Have Prospects
• What Experts Say You Need
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Years of Quality Service with a Future
Passion for your service
Long giving relationships – 15 Yrs or more
Tools to Communicate Your Message
= Public
Television
• You Get What You Ask For
• Concerns about Membership Growth
• 12% of WPT Members are 80+
The Yucky Part
• Internal Marketing Case
– Resource Question – even more yucky than death
• Scalable and can grow
– Start with a marketing plan -- promotion for bequests
– Comfort
• Advocates
– Board members, current folks who have made the decision,
planned giving professionals in your area, documented
success at other stations
– Patience
• Payoff over time.
What Happens In New Hampshire
Initial Marketing Steps
Building From the Ground Up
External Marketing
• Make sure key messaging is utilized
across all station communication
platforms
~ Print
~ On-Air Promos
~ Letters
~ Website
~ Events
~ Staff & Board
Marketing Internally
To Get Things Done
Use of Expectancy List
What Happened In Vegas
Use all of the resources available to you
consistently!
• Professional advisor group
• Seminars—your own and jointly—promoted on-air
and in print
• Visions newsletter/regular communications
• On-line presence
• On-air announcements with donors and advisors—
not just national announcements—seasonal
• On-air program
Think globally-promote philanthropy overall
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Brochures
Mail—buck slips, reply slip on membership mail
Pledge script, roll-in
Program guide articles & ads
Station events
Partnerships—Community Foundations, NCPG, AFP,
Estate Planning Council
• On-going recognition of donors
What Happens in Wisconsin
Guiding Principals
• A bequest is a carefully considered decision driven
by vision, highest ideals, emotion and a donors life
experience.
• Donors want the information when they want the
information. Not one month before and god knows
not one month after.
• A planned gift is a gift to the future based on
community impact. We will tell of our successful
past and our promising future.
• Model, model, model
– I didn’t know WPT could accept a gift like that
– I could do that!
• Ask, ask, ask.
Marketing Structure
1.
Asking to include WPT in will or estate plans
The simple drum beat promotion for bequests. Develop a few basic instruments like a PG slug, tag line
& planned giving story to work into these and other venues: Member Survey, Web site, renewal check
off, pledge drives, on-air, program guide column, membership acknowledgments, slug on letterhead and
more.
2.
Heritage Society
Using HS member profiles and member listing to promote participation and set an example for others:
Annual event w/ article in program guide, listing in Annual report and program guide, regular columns in
major donor newsletter, listing & articles in volunteer newsletter and more.
3. Bequests & Intentions Are News -- Modeling
Bequests--and memorial gifts--present a “news” opportunity. Execute a simple promotional plan for each
planned gift we receive to see that we take advantage of this “news” to encourage others. Airwaves slug
or article, article in Directors Circle and Volunteer newsletters, building signage, on-air recognition and
more.
4. Face to face solicitation
Identify, visit and solicit key prospects. Use Friends board and Planned Giving Committee to bolster
solicitations. Since any planned gift is a personal decision, WPT will offer print materials in donor
mailings and a robust planned giving website to allow donors to explore opportunities privately. Most
significantly we will use the power and reach of our membership mailings and our broadcasts to
communicate to key friends and hundreds of thousands of viewers about the opportunity of bequests and
planned gifts.
Intentions are Just the Start
We will work to honor, recognize, thank and listen to our Heritage Society members We will work to
meet them, communicate regularly and learn about their interests and cultivate them to sustain their
commitment and encourage more meaningful planned giving opportunities.
Intensely Personal and
Sometimes Feels Complicated
• Promote Action
– Generate Inquiries
• Have clear and inspiring materials
• Follow up Phone Calls and Visits
– Anonymous Source of Information
• Inquiries from Lawyers – print materials
• Web site
Estate Attorney/Board Member on
reviewing our Planned Giving brochure:
“I think everything here is
factually correct.”
On Air
• Visions Spots and Our Own Spots
• Mention Frequently During Pledge
Drives
– Volunteers Ask When Taking Pledge
– Planned Giving Pledge Breaks!
Special Days
• Christmas Day focus
– PG spots in every programming break
• New Years Day
– Day of Memory, Honor &
Thinking about the Future
Focus in every programming break on bequests
with hosted day, visions spots and honor roll.
Helpful Resources
• Visions – PBS/Sharp
– Quarterly Newsletter on Gift Planning
– Integrated Print & On Air Materials
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MGI -- http://majorgivingnow.org/
Other Station Web sites
Your PBS Colleagues
Local Planned Giving Councils
Think of it as your Planned Giving Resource Center
Things to Know, Things to Do, and Things That Work step by step to get you
underway.
Resources a wealth of proven marketing tools that you can put to work right now.
Ask the Experts gives you quick access to people who can help you.
Understanding Your Role how planned gift marketing fits into your overall fundraising
strategy.
Success Stories shows you just how important planned giving is to many stations.
•CPB’s PG Now http://www.pg-now.org/