Your thirteenth birthday isn’t the first day you think about becoming a teen! If your memory is even half way accurate, you’ll remember imagining being a teenager long before that. Apply this thinking to your target audiences and give some thought to broadening your appeals.
Recent research offered by marketing services firm Stelter Company reports attitudes toward estate giving, in terms of generation. (Not just the blue-haired ladies anymore—Are there still blue-haired ladies?) Use this data to tailor your planned giving strategies. Stelter reports:
You may not think that donors in their 30s are open to the idea of estate giving, but many are, and they haven’t been approached by nonprofits.
Donors in their 40s show the greatest receptivity to estate giving. With all the conversation about planning for retirement, people are making wills at a much younger age than previous generations - noteworthy because a will is the most common device for making a charitable donation at death.
Donors in their 50s, you may have noticed, were the hardest hit by the economy and are lukewarm on estate giving.
At the peak of their careers and earnings, donors in their 60s know a lot about planned giving, but aren’t especially interested at this point.
Once donors are in their seventies or older, they are less interested in estate giving, feeling not that their money should go to family and friends.
These findings may or may not be consistent with your own experience and thinking, but they’re worth considering. The economic downturn of 2008 has changed the picture of retirement and savings. Take a fresh look!
