What Could Cause The Biggest Impact On Funding Your Mission In 2021?

2021 is about to begin, is your fundraising team ready?

Will your nonprofit’s mission funding needs grow smaller or will the need be greater?

Most organizations will fall in the latter grouping with the mission fulfillment needs rising faster than funding could ever achieve. 2021 is unique for so many reasons ranging from the pandemic related changes to a presidential change to future potential estate tax reform.

Add to this the increased need for funding your mission, the fact that normal special events and face-to-face major gift fundraising may be greatly altered for all of this coming year due to the pandemic. This is unprecedented to have mission funding need rising when many core fundraising practices are not possible.

How can you, as a nonprofit executive, bridge this gap?

The answer to the question directly above is:

Bequest Fundraising

Unfortunately, less than 50% of all nonprofits engage in soliciting bequests in any sort of meaningful way. This was illustrated quite dramatically in a previous Bloomerang Blog post containing several informative infographics.  

Some other key data points for the research conducted were:

1. The average U.S. Charitable Bequest is $37,000 versus $5,000 for a major gift, (where should your valuable staff time be spent?)
2. Bequest Giving has topped 30 billion dollars annually in the U.S. since 2016 and is still growing every year, (What part of these dollars can your organization claim?)
3. 95% of Americans over 55 years of age have not included a charitable bequest in their wills, (The potential is huge just within your current donors.)
4. Nearly 29% of charities have NEVER received a charitable bequest with another 26% who did not receive one in the last 12 months, (Are you part of the 55% barely scratching the surface of these billions of dollars?)
5. Two thirds of charities in the U.S do not have a legacy giving society and 71% do not have any bequest giving marketing material, (Proper training and even just a small effort can unlock these options for funding your mission.)

The opportunities in this key area of fundraising revenue growth are now within reach for every nonprofit reading this post. This often neglected opportunity can now be the breakthrough for funding your mission in 2021.

Please allow me to introduce the Fundraising Standard’s brand new four week online training course The Bequest Fundraising Standard.

Brand new for 2021, this self-paced course allows you to interface with other fundraising professionals from around North America, as well as top notch tutors during the twenty hours of training.  

For just $399, each participant will receive these five benefits:

1. Know how to make the case for the investment in bequests to your executive leadership and board
2. Garner the latest research on donor behavior especially as it pertains to who gives and why
3. Knowledge of new and actionable insights in creating powerful and effective bequest communications
4. Confidence in writing copy that delivers genuine donor well-being and interest in bequests
5. Knowledge of how to plan for legacies ad how to create your own legacy fundraising pipeline

More details are here. 

Now is the time to create your plans for 2021. You and your team stand at the crossroads of ever increasing mission funding needs and the opportunity to either create or increase a bold new revenue stream via Bequest Fundraising.  

We wish you the best of luck for 2021 and hope you can take advantage of these opportunities!