How to Lose (or Save) a Bequest

12 May How to Lose (or Save) a Bequest

13 May 2024

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

Statistically, more than half the people who have a last will and testament at all will make changes to it within five years of their death. Will the land trust get written in or written out? Will the allocation increase?

There is no way to tell, of course. Few will share the information with you.

Can we influence the answer?

And here’s another reality, though I don’t have any stats to share: as people get older, they tend to withdraw. Their worlds get smaller. Their affairs are increasingly in the control of others – an attorney perhaps or their children. Many stop giving, or at least reduce their giving.

It is possible that to us, it just looks like they have stopped responding.

How should we respond? Send more reminders? Call? Cut them off after a certain number of months or years?

OR —

Is there a point at which we should just continue to treat them as if their donations are current?

• Send them solicitations, newsletters, and invitations in the mail?
• Send them eNews and major announcements over email?
• Send them invitations to Legacy Society events?

Normally, I’m one to suggest that we cut the newsletter off after 15 months and solicitations after five years.

But —

If you agree that continuing to communicate with elderly lapsed donors might make it both more likely that they will write land conservation into their wills and less likely that they will write it out;

If you agree that appeal letters deliver important information even if the recipient never makes a gift;

If you agree that having conservancy literature on the coffee table on the day they pass away might make it more likely that their kids and grandkids will recommend donations in their name “in lieu of flowers;”

And if you agree that seeing solicitation letters and newsletters in the mail will make it more likely that the kids and grandkids will start supporting the land trust as well;

Then I am suggesting to you that there IS a circumstance where you would continue to send them information.

Where would you draw the lines? What criteria would you use to determine that someone is “old enough?”

I suggest 80 years old and two years of giving.

If a donor is 80 years old or more, and if they have made donations in at least two years, treat them almost as if they were “life” members. (Don’t call them life members, and don’t use that label at any time publicly, but treat them that way regardless.) Continue to send them information, newsletters, invitations to special events, appeal letters, and thank you letters (and calls!) when they give.

If their gifts become increasingly erratic, fine.

If they stop giving completely, fine.

Just set their renewal date 50 years into the future and let it ride.

There are a couple of caveats I need to mention just to avoid being misunderstood.

I am not talking about major gift fundraising. There are many stories out there of donors making gifts they never should have made or didn’t understand that they had made. Maybe they were confused. Or maybe they were manipulated. It doesn’t matter. We should always be on the lookout for early signs of dementia, and we shouldn’t be soliciting ninety-year-olds in person, unless we’re darn sure they know what they are doing (or perhaps their kids are also present).

And I am not talking about circumstances where the donor or their kids and grandkids have clearly communicated that they do not wish to receive further communication.

But otherwise, it won’t cost us much to continue communicating. And it might just save a bequest.

Or create one.

Cheers and Have a Good Week!

-da

PS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

Photo by Mario Fanciulli courtesy of Pixabay