Planned Giving Days 2009

The premier planned giving educational and networking opportunity in the Mid-Atlantic region for planned giving officers, fundraising professionals, and legal and financial professionals.

Thursday & Friday, May 14 - 15, 2009 - Hilton Arlington (Ballston metro) 950 North Stafford Street, Arlington, Virginia

Track 1 - Introductory - Basic Ingredients for Success

What Everyone Should Know About Gifts of a Lifetime
This session explains the basics of life income arrangements and trusts, what they are, how they work, who does these gifts and why, how to identify and market to your best prospects, and what are typical motivations and common characteristics based on Sharpe’s proprietary studies. It will also address ways to use these plans without waiting for donors to die.

John Jensen
Senior Vice President and Consultant
The Sharpe Group

Starting Your Shop
This presentation will explore some fundamental ideas for launching a manageable bequest and charitable gift annuity program in today’s tough market. We will examine marketing, stewardship, and solicitation best practices through a variety of real stories and personal anecdotes.

Introduction to Philanthropic Planning: How to Identify Prospects, Schedule Visits and Ask for Bequests
In this session, we will first put philanthropic planning into context as a partner in the fundraising process. Then we will learn how to identify which prospects are the most interested in these types of gifts, how to schedule and conduct visits with these prospects, and how to ask for bequests and retirement plan beneficiary designations.

Brian M. Sagrestano, JD, CFRE
Gift Planning Development, LLC

Discovering the Secret Giver: Ground-Breaking Research on the Behavior of Bequest Givers in America
Recent research answers the question of who names charities in their wills, when do they name them, and why do they name them. Surveying adults age 40 and older, results from this research will enlighten the work of charitable organizations as they cultivate likely donors in the 21st century.

Larry Stelter
President and CEO, The Stelter Company

Track 2 - Intermediate - Put Gift Planning on Your Fundraising Menu

Working with Life Income Options: Moving to the Next Level
Take your working knowledge of some of the more straightforward applications of life income gift vehicles to the next level. This presentation will address life income gifts, including CRTs, CGAs, and PIFs through the prism of two categories: your prospect’s objectives and the gift vehicles at your disposal.

Jeff Lydenberg
Vice President, Consulting, PG Calc

Gift Planning Opportunities in Turbulent Times
In times like these each gift planner and major gifts officer needs to focus their attention on meetings their organization’s current needs. This financial environment offers many strategies to maximize each market’s unique opportunities. Our session will discuss those strategies, such as partnering with the Major Gifts team on donor strategies, securing current, outright gifts while in the process of closing deferred gifts, harvesting gifts from your life income donors who may no longer need all (or even any) of their regular payments and are willing to relinquish these funds, increasing bequest notifications through marketing to donor needs, not your needs.

Jay Steenhuysen
Steenhuysen Associates

Movin’ On Up: Advancing Your Career During a Downturn
In a world of uncertainty where do you fit in your professional career? Should you stay put? Should you shoot for that promotion or raise? Are you marketable? All of these questions and more will be discussed and career advancement tools will be shared in a lively session sure to get you focused on your career.

Nancy K. Racette, CFRE
Principal and COO, Development Resources, Inc.

How to Work as a Partner with Your Donor’s Professional Advisor
This interactive session with a Financial Planner will uncover the relationship between a financial advisor and the donor and how the planned giving professional can bring value to this relationship. You will learn best practices and how you can help the advisor best serve the client/donor while furthering the mission of your organization.

Steve Mohyla, Jr., CFP
Fee-based Executive Retirement and Estate
Planner, Bridgeland Wealth Consultants, LLC

Track 3 - Advanced - Savory Ideas from the Iron Chefs of Planned Giving

The Connoisseurs
Join this powerhouse panel of experts as they reflect up close and personal on their vast collective experience and unique perspectives. Participants will have an opportunity for Q&A.

Moderator: Shira Oler, Director of Leadership Giving, Suburban Hospital Foundation.

Panelists: Robert J. Brennan, Executive Director, Foundation for Physical Therapy; Jeffrey W. Comfort, Executive Director of Principal & Gift Planning, Georgetown University; Angela W. Sosdian, Director of Philanthropy for Gift Planning, The Nature Conservancy; Kathy Ward, Senior Vice President, American Institute for Cancer Research

Simmer on Slow and Stir Occasionally
A look at financial investing in a down market and lessons learned—emphasis on strategies to work smarter, safeguard your charity and steward philanthropic relationships through today’s turbulent economy.

What’s Cooking with Uncle Sam?
Stay on the forefront and seize opportunities through a legislative update on the latest news about the estate tax, the Pension Protection Act extension and more, including insight into implications for planned giving.

Jerry J. McCoy, Esq.
Law Office of Jerry J. McCoy

The Proof of the Pudding Is in the Eating (Results Are What Count)
The measure of any planned gift is how well it meets donor objectives. In donor-centered philanthropy, discovery is the most critical phase of the gift planning cycle. This session focuses on covers in-depth discovery techniques, through in-session demonstration and case studies, that flow though all subsequent stages of the gift

John McKee
Director of Gift Planning, University of Maryland

Track 4 - Marketing - Kick Your Marketing Up A Notch - BAM!

Deepening Your Awareness for Greater Creativity
Learn some simple ways to deepen your ability to be truly aware: rising above the limits of your mind, your emotions, and your history to see yourself and the world around you in a bigger way that strengthens your well-being and inspires your creativity. You may find that you are better able to think outside the box in developing your fundraising and marketing strategies.

Michael Radkowsky, Psy.D.
Personal Growth Zone, “Deepening Your
Awareness for Greater Creativity”

Five Ways to Use Your Best Stories for Marketing and Stewardship
Stories are emotional, and emotions—not spreadsheets about tax benefits—ultimately drive giving decisions. But what makes a good nonprofit story and how can you use them in your program to generate new leads and to keep existing donors happy? We’ll teach you time-honored storytelling techniques by reviewing good planned giving stories and break down why they work and how to apply those lessons to your organization. We’ll also discuss how to sort through what you already have on your website and in your other marketing materials and show you how to use it to more effectively tell your planned giving program’s story.

Kivi Leroux Miller
President, EcoScribe Communications
& Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com

Using Legacy Societies to Engage Gift Planning Donors
Legacy societies help us to engage donors in our organizations’ missions, ensure that revocable gifts come to fruition, and can sometimes even lead to additional planned or outright gifts. Come learn about what charities across the country are doing to steward and build relationships with these especially loyal donors.

Direct Response in Support of Planned Giving
In this session you will learn about the distinctions between encouraging bequests through reminders and generating planned giving leads through response devices and “tease copy;” how to market CGAs using direct response; how to select names from the annual fund mailing list to mail for planned giving to maximize Return On Investment; and how to personalize and localize your planned giving mailings.

Geoffrey W. Peters
President/CEO, CDR Fundraising Group