Getting Started in Charitable Gift Planning

Planned giving has always seemed out of reach for anyone other than planned giving specialists and professional advisors. Brian Sagrestano and Robert Wahlers want to change all that.

In this Getting Started in Charitable Gift Planning: Resource Book, written to accompany Getting Started in Charitable Gift Planning: Your Guide to Planned Giving, the authors break down barriers and present an easy-to-understand guide to the 21st century version of "planned giving," known as charitable gift planning. They intentionally avoid application of complex concepts and gift structures that have made gift planning inaccessible to nonspecialists for decades, instead focusing on relationship-building, having the gift planning conversation, and building a gift planning program.

This Resource Book provides the technical information behind gift planning in easy-to-understand language using a donor-focused approach. Instead of detailing CRTs, CGAs, PIFs, and CLTs in an alphabet soup that drowns everyone except the most technically minded, this Resource Book introduces the different gift planning tools by when the prospective donor might consider them.

With over 40 years of combined gift planning experience and conversations, the authors have heard "I would like to make a gift to support your cause, but..." over and over again. The purpose of gift planning is to resolve that objection, whatever it may be. For example, if the prospective donor states, "I would like to make a gift but am worried about disinheriting my children," the answers on how to overcome that objection lie in Chapter Three, Gifts that Maximize Inheritance. If the objection is, "I love what you do, but am not sure I have enough saved for a comfortable retirement," the answers lie in Chapter Two, Gifts that Provide Income. Gift planning solutions to the most common objections can all be found in the opening two parts of this Resource Book.

Part Three provides additional tools for organizations building or enhancing their gift planning programs. Need to convince the board to pursue gift planning? The template internal case will get you started. Are the organization's policies a mess? A sample gift counting policy, gift acceptance policy, and gift agreements are at your fingertips. Worried about how to collect estate gifts once they mature? Estate administration materials will guide you through. Not sure what to ask when having the gift planning conversation? Questions to use on visits and model forms covering what you should learn about a prospect are included, plus clues of financial capacity. There is even a detailed marketing and stewardship plan.

Consider the table of contents:

Part One--Deciphering the Alphabet Soup - An Introduction to the Basic Tools of Charitable Gift Planning

Chapter One: Gifts That Maximize The Donor's Charitable Legacy Through Beneficiary Designations

Chapter Two: Gifts That Provide Income

Chapter Three: Gifts That Maximize Inheritance

Chapter Four: Gifts of Complex Assets

Part Two--Gift Planning Basics

Chapter Five: Answers to Common Gift Planning Questions

Part Three--Tools to Help You Build Your Gift Planning Program

Chapter Six: Infrastructure

Chapter Seven: Prospect Interaction

Chapter Eight: Marketing

Gift planning doesn't need to be complicated, even when it's technical. Let this book serve as your resource for technical gift planning questions.