Before asking how to secure legacy gifts, first determine whether you’ve built the relationships that make legacy giving possible.
Successful legacy development requires more than adding a planned-giving page to a website or introducing donors to financial strategies.
It requires a compelling mission that people believe in and meaningful relationships with those who want that mission to continue.
The RDA Legacy Giving Assessment looks beyond fundraising mechanics to help identify the strengths, obstacles, overlooked relationships, and opportunities that can shape a successful long-term legacy effort.
Depending on the organization, the assessment may examine:
Is your mission clearly and compellingly communicated? Do people understand why it matters and why its work should continue?
Have you developed meaningful relationships with longtime donors, volunteers, board members, families, alumni, business leaders, and other committed supporters?
Can your team recognize a potential legacy opportunity and confidently begin the conversation without feeling it must become an expert in planned-giving techniques?
When a donor conversation becomes more sophisticated, do you know how to involve the donor’s existing advisors and bring the appropriate philanthropic expertise to the table?
Where appropriate, during an assessment, RDA may also conduct confidential conversations with selected donors and stakeholders—not to solicit gifts, but to listen, learn, and better understand their relationship with the organization and their hopes for its future.
The assessment concludes with an RDA Legacy Development Roadmap identifying priorities, opportunities, potential obstacles, resource needs, and recommended next steps.
One Relationship. A Network of Possibilities.
Meaningful philanthropy can become complex.
A donor’s desire to make a lasting philanthropic impact may eventually involve charitable planning, estate planning, tax considerations, insurance strategies, wealth preservation, complex assets, endowments, family considerations, or other specialized issues.
No one person should pretend to be an expert in all of them.
RDA takes a different approach.
We begin with the relationship. Then we bring the right expertise to the table.
Through the RDA Resource Network, we bring together experienced independent professionals in areas such as:
Planned & Legacy Giving
Helping organizations identify and develop opportunities for meaningful future gifts, while providing education and specialized guidance as needed.
Charitable & Financial Strategies
Exploring appropriate approaches when philanthropy intersects with financial, tax, insurance, or wealth considerations.
Community Foundations
Providing charitable resources and expertise that can help donors and families structure their giving, establish funds and endowments, and pursue long-term philanthropic goals.
Estate & Professional Counsel
Working collaboratively with attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors, and other professionals when their expertise is required.
Whenever possible, RDA also works collaboratively with the donor’s existing professional advisors, respecting the relationships and counsel they already trust.
The value isn’t that one person knows everything. It’s knowing what needs to be done and bringing the right people together to accomplish it.