The most impactful teachings, research, quotes, and resources from Tom Ahern's 90-minute bequest marketing training and the 127-minute Q&A with planned-giving legend Professor Russell James — searchable, browsable, and ready to act on.
Every figure below came straight from the training and Q&A. Use them on your board, your boss, and yourself.
Twenty takeaways distilled from the full session. Filter by theme, or search above.
UK researcher Richard Radcliffe's donor focus groups deplored the typical "death brochure." Your first-contact piece should radiate joy: Greenpeace's cover says it all — "Keep your rebel spirit alive. Leave a gift in your will."
Tested with 25,000+ people in focus groups (Radcliffe) and in 30+ experiments (James): people are far more willing to "leave a gift in my will" than to leave a gift "that will take effect at my death." Death language triggers avoidance. Full stop.
For donors: "how to give smarter" got roughly tenfold more interest than "planned giving" — with identical expectations of the content. For your board and boss: call it "major gifts of assets." Same seminar, sixfold larger audience.
Zero technical language when introducing gift options. Not "charitable gift annuity" — say "a gift that pays you income for life." Contract words trigger a competitive market mindset; family words trigger sharing.
All fundraising copy should read like a conversation, not a bar exam. Don't let lawyers or accountants write your bequest materials — technical language turns people off within ten words.
Promoting a tax credit or incentive? Say "the government matches your gift — your giving becomes more powerful." Never "here's how you get money back." The impact story works; the refund story doesn't — proven in experiments.
Over 90% of reliably charitable donors said they'd absolutely consider a gift in their will. Only ~8% had. The reason? It simply never occurred to them. Your entire job: make sure it occurs to them.
Social norms are influential in all giving — and doubly influential in bequest giving, because mortality reminders make us cling to our in-group. One sentence ("Many of our customers like to leave money to charity in their will") produced a sixfold effect.
Bequests tell the world who I was, where I lived, and what I cared about. Greenpeace's personalized booklets let prospects write their own life events next to the org's history — and it worked. Ask for gifts "to support causes that have been important in your life."
Both work — but an identical story about a living donor and the impact their planned gift will make works much better. The living person is "more like me." And if the pictured donor is a different age than the reader, better to skip the photo entirely.
The first time most people commit to giving from wealth (not pocket change) is in their estate plan. Once that reference point shifts, current giving rises 77% on average — and stays elevated for years. Estate giving is the whole camel, not the camel's nose.
Donors know one thing: they're mortal. What they seek is symbolic immortality (Dr. Claire Routley's research). A monk's 1249 bequest to Oxford still funds scholarships 777 years later. "Live forever, like Virginia" — whose endowment keeps creating doctors.
Half of legacies come from quiet non-donors you can't find — so market to the people you can: your active donors. The ASPCA's vast database says bequests come from donors who give often but not very much. Chase loyal Subaru drivers, not Rolls Royces.
Drip marketing is routine maintenance, like teeth cleaning. Wills get updated roughly every 10 years and you can't know when — so keep the offer in front of friendly eyes forever: email footers, newsletter corners, reply-card checkboxes, website ads.
No budget? No problem. Never make it "a communication about death." Fold a legacy mention into what you already send: a donor story that notes the storyteller also put a gift in their will; "3 of 10 missions are funded by estate gifts" (Doctors Without Borders); a checkbox list where the will question is safely buried among ways to give.
Adding your charity as a retirement-account beneficiary takes ~10 minutes online, requires no lawyer — and it's the smartest estate gift: family pays income tax on those dollars; charity doesn't. Ask for percentages, never dollar amounts.
Lost-gift rates across big charities ranged 16%–68%. The secret sauce: any communication in the donor's last two years of life cut lost gifts in half. Yet 30%+ of deceased members had received nothing. Recency-based mailing rules silence you at exactly the wrong moment — age-stratify instead, and never stop communicating past your "magic age" (70/75/80).
Nobody joins for the pin. Motivate membership as a second gift: "If you'd allow us to share your story, it could influence others to give the same way." Public commitment is sticky — it keeps the gift in the next will. Recognize members at your regular events, in front of everyone.
A donor pledges $250 for every will/beneficiary signup before a deadline — suddenly there's a non-death-related reason to act now. Organizations doing this (ACLU, Grinspoon Foundation's Create a Jewish Legacy) have seen legacy societies double and triple. Bonus: it makes the conversation comfortable for fundraisers.
One short letter a year to everyone who's given 3+ gifts. Open with deep, humble gratitude (Lisa Sargent's Thankology: "What a remarkable thing you have done"). The middle invites consideration — "next time you review your estate plan…" — and offers instant Legacy Society enrollment. End with more thanks. And get your board to pledge first.
Hampton Roads adopted a 10-year horizon and banked $78 million. Gap-oriented "we need money now" thinking almost never works. The institution — board included — commits, not just the fundraiser. The tortoise beats the hare.
Mark Phillips "inherited" 60,000 people who'd requested a will guide — years later, zero had converted. In Australia, fewer than 1 in 5 confirmed legacy pledgers actually followed through. Know the math, keep dripping, and stay in touch through the finish line.
"Local" means any personal, emotional affiliation: your town, your alma mater, your trail system, your community. Denisa Casement grew a small Irish homelessness charity's giving 100× partly through bequests by owning local.
People don't make wills seasonally; they make them when life happens — diagnosis, birth, divorce, widowhood, "death becomes real." Any month is as good as another (Tom likes February). What matters is being top of mind when their trigger arrives.
Click "Copy" to grab any quote for your next board memo.
We have the Himalayas of cash about to transfer from one generation to another. Get in. Your charity needs to be in that race.
Legacy societies do not work unless you do.
People aren't leaving you out of their will plans because they don't like you. They're leaving you out because you didn't happen to come to the top of the mind.
You can't thank them when they're dead. So you thank them when they're alive.
Bequests are life-driven, death-activated.
The barrier is not the donor's comfort level. The barrier is the fundraiser's comfort level. Whatever you can do, that you will do — that's the right answer for you.
Monthly giving is the gold standard… and legacies are where the real money is.
Because they involved me. I'm older and alone. They gave me a community… made me feel like the time I have left matters. My bequest is the least I can do in return.
Inertia is the biggest problem in fundraising. Getting people to actually act is one of the great mysteries.
You're not talking anybody into anything. You can't do it. That isn't fundraising. You just remind them of what they already know — what they already love.
More activity beats less activity. Most organizations just need to get off doing nothing.
If you care about the dollars, here's my complex advice: go see old people.
The work was slow. That's why it worked.
I'm 78… this household probably gives to 30 charities a year. Not a word from any of them about this. I lament the amount of money being left on the table.
Start small, start now. This is much better than "start big, start later." You don't have to start perfect. You can merely start.
Real questions from attendees, with the essence of the answers. The full, unabridged Q&A — with every story, stat, and tangent — is in the recordings.
Yes — but only as a never-lose-contact system, not a list on a shelf. In an audit of Australia's biggest charities, lost-gift rates ranged from 16% to 68%. One communication in the donor's last two years of life cut losses in half; over 30% of deceased members had received none. Age-stratify your file: pick a magic age (70–80) and never stop communicating after it.
Ask permission, and frame it as service: "You're setting an example for others." Public commitment is sticky — it keeps your charity in the next will. Anonymous is fine too: Tom's community foundation lists row after row of "Anonymous," which itself signals strength and safety.
Tom: be where they are — professional advisor committees, annual reports in every lawyer's waiting room. Russell: it's rare for advisors to suggest specific charities (community foundations are the exception), but when you do talk to one, use lawyer language: "Your client is giving up significant rights if they don't let us know" — gift agreements obligate the charity, not the donor, and prevent failed gifts.
Very. Matching-gift campaigns for bequest commitments have doubled and tripled legacy societies (ACLU, the Grinspoon Foundation's Create a Jewish Legacy). The deadline gives donors a non-death-related reason to act now, and gives fundraisers a completely comfortable way to raise the topic.
Do it in your downtime — estate planning is triggered by life events, not seasons, so any month works (February is delightfully empty). And always run the "guerrilla marketing hit-and-run": drop legacy mentions into the donor stories and appeals you're already sending. Zero extra budget required.
Agree enthusiastically — then offer the backup plan: "In case your plans work out differently and there's something left over — you can't take it with you — would you want a percentage to go to this cause?" Always percentages, never dollar amounts.
All of the above that you'll actually do. Social norms and living donor stories are the most powerful, and "to support causes that have been important in your life" triggers the autobiographical visualization that leads to yes. But mostly: more activity beats less activity. Russell's free deck "How to Ask for a Gift in a Will" offers 50 ways.
Totally organization-specific — it depends on how hard you work to uncover them. A donor survey with a soft checklist ("Which of the following have you done, or might you consider? Gift by check… gift of stocks… gift in a will…") buries the death question safely and reveals pre-existing gifts fast. Then pick up the phone.
Deceased-donor stories work — they shift attitudes. But identical living-donor stories work much better ("the living person is more like me"). And donor photos only help when the pictured donor resembles the reader; otherwise skip the photo and let them imagine someone like themselves.
List all you've got — as checkboxes, in the shortest possible form, with 0% technical language. Say what it does, not what it's called: "a gift that pays you income for life," not "charitable gift annuity" (naming the instrument measurably kills interest). And title the piece "How to Give Smarter," not "Estate Planning."
External audiences: "how to give smarter" (~10× the interest, same expectations). Internal audiences: "major gifts of assets" — Russell's identical seminar drew a sixfold larger audience under that name. "Planned giving" reads as insider jargon and death planning; both trigger avoidance.
Tom: "I have no idea." Russell: "This has been tested, and the answer is yes. Say the number of years." (Tom: "That's why we have Russell here.") Donors love hearing "it's been 25 years since your first gift" — it's personal, not creepy.
You're not drafting documents — you're sharing stories and defining impact. Ask how they got connected, what motivates them, and: "If money were no object, what impact would you like to make?" Design the personally meaningful gift; a non-binding gift agreement that specifies what their gift will do makes it unforgettable — and un-droppable from future wills. Big gifts come with instructions.
Tell stories — congregations already run on parables. Share living-donor stories from your own or similar communities; tell estate donor stories the way you tell any donor story. For Christian ministries, Russell's free "Biblical Fundraiser" section frames it all in scriptural context.
Tom: "Just be friendly. My God, just be friendly. Send a warm letter." You have a keyboard, an e-newsletter, social media — channels that reach the right brains. Russell: fold it into what you already send; the social norm ("people like me make gifts like this") costs nothing to establish.
Tom: "No." Russell: "No — but do it anyway. Do all the things." Integrated is the only option now, and never drop print for older audiences. Pro tip: filter by cost — start with email, escalate non-responders to mail, then phone.
Long-term: declining attendance at religious services (frequency of attendance — not affiliation — predicts giving). Short-term: tax policy whiplash. The pandemic-era above-the-line deduction came and went, and Giving USA's data lags it by two years. Russell's prediction: with the new $1,000 non-itemizer deduction, the numbers will look better again in two years. Price matters; people respond to incentives.
Eleven of the 111 slides from Tom's deck. Click any slide to view it full-size. The complete deck comes with the recordings.
Every resource mentioned during the webinar, gathered in one place.
Russell's entire library, free: books, slide decks (including "How to Ask for a Gift in a Will"), Visual Planned Giving, and the Biblical Fundraiser section for Christian ministries.
encouragegenerosity.com65 short animated videos covering the entire world of planned giving. One 15-minute video a day = a graduate education in a season.
youtube.com/c/EncourageGenerosityFree, frank, irreverent — decades of donor-communications wisdom, delivered.
aherncomm.comA free, vast archive of proven fundraising campaigns. "All the goods… it's all proven, so why not?" (And it needs your submissions!)
sofii.orgJulie and Brett's free newsletter: fresh, practical donor-communications tips for smart fundraisers.
fundraisingwriting.com/get-newsletter
Described by The New York Times as "one of the country's most sought-after creators of fund-raising messages." Author of multiple acclaimed books on donor communications, Tom has spent decades teaching nonprofits worldwide to put donor appreciation at the center of their copy — with results like a billion-dollar capital campaign and a 30,000-donor acquisition appeal. BA & MA in English from Brown University. Based in Rhode Island.
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A true legend of planned giving: University Distinguished Professor and holder of the CH Foundation Chair in Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, and a Hall of Fame member of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners. Author of Visual Planned Giving and The Socratic Fundraiser. He shares his research, books, and 65-video training library completely free.
encouragegenerosity.com →
Fundraising copywriter and designer helping nonprofits retain donors, boost revenue, and build meaningful relationships. Julie combines the science of giving with the art of storytelling: she holds a certificate in Philanthropic Psychology (Distinction) from the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy and is a member of The Case Writers, an elite crew of fundraising strategists and creatives.
fundraisingwriting.com →
Fundraising writer and lifelong storyteller. Before diving full-time into nonprofit storytelling, Brett taught middle-school English for 14 years and holds a Masters of Teaching in English — and he's found that fiction and donor comms aren't so different: a good story is a good story. With Julie, he publishes the free Fundraising Writing newsletter.
fundraisingwriting.com/about →Tom's start-small checklist, made clickable. Check items off as you go. (Progress lives in this browser session — print this page if you want to keep it.)
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