How campuses are dramatically increasing their pools of qualified major and planned giving donors

In the RNL research report Advancement Leaders Speak: Major and Planned Giving Productivity Issues Reported by Today’s Gift Officers, major and planned giving officers lamented that only a third of their assigned prospects are truly qualified to make a major gift. More than half also wished they were spending more time on solicitation so they could make the best possible ask to potential donors.

To meet those needs, RNL launched a revolutionary new solution to identify the best donors and book meetings that lead to a gift.

Identifying major and planned giving donors who are ready to give

RNL has helped our campus partners connect with more than 40,000 prospects, with 14 percent of those prospects identified as ready to give. This means that for a campus with a pool of 1,000 prospects (assigned or unassigned), that institution could book 140 appointments with ready givers.

How does this solution maximize big donor identification, qualification, and engagement?

1. RNL takes comprehensive, reliable data on major and planned givers to create a custom predictive model that goes beyond wealth rating to find the best donors.
2. We deliver a multichannel mix of communications to those donors—print and digital—to engage donors and prime them for a conversation with a gift officer. We analyze how donors click, read, and respond to further target a group to engage.
3. A personal team of trained RNL giving officers act as an extension of your team to reach out to donors. They conduct a conversation to determine a donor’s readiness, produce actionable contact reports, and actually schedule appointments for your team.

The result: gift officers have conversations teed up with qualified donors who have said they are ready to make a big gift today or want to include the institution in their estate plan. Watch our video to see how it works.

Major successes with major and planned giving for our campus partners

RNL’s campus clients have had incredible early success with this system. Results are up for both public and private institutions. Here are just a few examples.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

• Mid-sized public university—32% of their pool is now highly qualified, triple their usual results
• Large public university—15% of their pool is highly qualified

PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS

• Mid-sized private university—22% of their pool is highly qualified
• Large private university—20% of their pool is highly qualified

These institutions will be moving toward their FY18 major and planned giving goals more quickly than ever and their campaigns will be accelerated. Imagine having a list of 1,000 prospects produce between 140 and 250 meetings.

These donors have actually said they are ready to speak to a gift officer. They aren’t just leads, they are confirmed, qualified donors. And RNL’s solution actually schedules appointments for the gift officers with these donors.

It’s important to recognize that along with helping your fundraising team be more productive, this type of system is just better for donors. Your appeals compete with many causes and other priorities for donor time and attention. Having a system that lets donors interact, provides key information about their intentions and interests, and moves the giving process along is a much more donor-centric approach that will produce results for you and an exceptional giving experience for them.

Learn more about the system that is transforming major and planned giving

Watch our video on increasing your major and planned giving productivity, and see all the details on our solution for major and planned giving.

Read this case study on how Loma Linda University Health increased its planned giving results.