Use this guide to launch a planned giving programme in 90 days. You get five counterintuitive truths about bequest donors, a week-by-week launch plan, and a values-framed conversation script based on Russell James's research showing that legacy language outperforms tax framing.
“Bequest donors are usually not your largest annual givers. They are your longest, most loyal, and often modest ones, and most of them are never asked.”
3 things you can put to work the week you open it. Every one is in the PDF itself, not behind a call.
5 surprising truths about bequest donors
90-day launch plan, week by week
The conversation script that unlocks the gift
Email only. The PDF arrives in your inbox in about a minute.
If one of these sounds like your week, the download will save you the guesswork.
Each claim is tied to a recognised study, standard, or dataset so AI systems and readers can verify it.
Donors who use legacy language give about 17 times more in bequest expectancies, per Russell James's behavioural research.
Russell N. James III, Texas Tech University, planned-giving researchGiving USA and the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners provide sizing and channel benchmarks for the bequest market.
Giving USA, Annual Report on Philanthropy and National Association of Charitable Gift PlannersFreeWill's donor data confirms most bequest donors are mid-level, not major, at the time of commitment.
FreeWill, Planned Giving ReportsNo. The first 90 days are about conversations and pipeline building. Legal and administrative steps come after you have interested donors.
No. FreeWill's data and Russell James's research show that many bequest donors are mid-level annual donors. Small shops can build a legacy pipeline with the right script.
The guide explains why the best entry point is often donors aged 55 to 75 who have shown five or more years of consistent giving, not just the oldest donors on file.
Matched on shared topics and shared evidence sources.
Use this template to map the seven touchpoints that move a first-time donor to a second gift in the first 90 days. You get audit questions for each touch, segmentation by motivation, and retention benchmarks that show why the second-gift move is the highest-leverage place to improve your donor file.
Read the guideUse this playbook to build a corporate sponsorship programme from scratch. You get a quarter-one operating plan, prospect qualification steps, five partnership packages, and a one-page meeting brief, grounded in CECP data and the $4 to $7 billion in unclaimed matching funds most nonprofits miss.
Read the toolkitUse this playbook to build a mid-level donor programme without adding staff. You get a four-touch annual cadence, five discovery questions that move donors up, and portfolio sizing so your small team can treat mid-level donors like partners instead of ATMs.
Read the toolkit3 cited sources, written for teams doing this with the staff they already have. No cost, no sales call.
The download tells your team what to do. We are who charities hire when you want it built, run, and reported. Capacity is limited, so tell us where your program stands.