The Pentera Blog
COVID-19 - Claudine and Stacy Sulman of the Weizmann Institute Discuss the Importance of Educating Donors About Planned Giving
3rd in a series
By Claudine A. Donikian, President & CEO, Pentera, Inc.
Pentera CEO Claudine Donikian recently spoke with Stacy B. Sulman, vice president for personalized philanthropy at the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, about her department’s experience with donors during these uncertain times due to the coronavirus. Here are excerpts from their conversation.
Claudine: Stacy, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I’m so curious to hear how you are working with donors during this pandemic; Weizmann is a bit different from other types of organizations and actually is doing research on the coronavirus. I’ve written some recommendations to our clients regarding how to work with donors during these unprecedented times, and I have also been getting insights from people in the field about how organizations are handling things with donors. One of the things I am telling our clients in regard to stewardship is that this may be a good time to reach out to your donors and connect with them—though not to ask for gifts unless they lead the conversation that way. How are you and your organization interacting with donors? What sort of strategy do you have in place?
Stacy: We are sort of still figuring this out. But yes, we decided that for the most part we should be doing stewardship. By that I mean checking in with donors, especially those donors who are near and dear. Because we are a research institute, we are asking select donors to participate in research on the coronavirus; that may be their way of helping.
Claudine: How are you doing the check-ins?
Stacy: Donors we are close to, we each are calling them. But we are trying to not jump too fast; they are under stress. This is the loyalty-and-legacy crowd; they are the most vulnerable right now. So we are not doing anything too quickly. We are planning a Zoom call with our CEO in May. We will invite our loyalty donors to participate and hear what is going on at Weizmann. We figure that for the people stuck at home, it will give them a little connection. We may do some other things that are science-related, not planned giving-related.
Claudine: How is your staff handling all of this with your office closed?
Stacy: We already had a disaster plan, so we fairly easily migrated that to digital. It has been pretty seamless. I would say my team is fine; no issue.
Claudine: Are there things that you have had to postpone?
Stacy: We have stopped our honor society events, of course; we do events around the region, but most of them we had already completed. There is one in Boston we are not doing, and then we only have Chicago left and we are still planning that for July. We may do a digital version of some of these things.
Claudine: What about your marketing publications? Our marketing materials are not really direct gift solicitations; they are educational. And the information they contain tends to be really helpful, especially at a time like this. People are wondering about their plans, or they may need to be reminded to look at their plans. On the other hand, organizations have to be sensitive about discussing estate planning right now.
Stacy: Yes, we do several mailings, and we are continuing them. One is to our loyalty donors, people over 70 who give modestly. That went out last week. It focuses on our mission; it’s just an update, really. Then we have our more significant mailing that we do with Pentera. That is going out in June. We have looked at it and for the most part are not changing it. We are going to change some of the images to show what we are doing around the world. We wouldn’t do active solicitation of legacy gifts right now, but we never really did a lot of that.
Claudine: That’s the art of planned giving: when do you make an ask? And clearly now may not be the right time, but we are hearing from clients that some donors are continuing with planning their gifts. If the down economy continues, it may be a good time to educate people about what gifts would work. People are more receptive to certain messages when the messages are especially relevant. For example, if they are concerned about the economy and financial security, they may be more receptive to learning about certain gift types like gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts since they provide fixed income.
Stacy: We have always had more of an educational focus. That’s part of who we are. I have been thinking a lot about gift annuities. From a donor perspective it could be a really interesting opportunity in these times. Funding it with cash, possibly, and not with stock, of course.
Claudine: Yes, we provided an article to clients about what could be attractive, including gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts. It might be a good resource for you to share internally.
Stacy: That sounds like it would be great to use as a resource. … I’m looking at the article right now. … I am going to send this alert out. It’s an awesome resource!
Claudine: That’s wonderful. Have you heard from any donors asking about specific gift opportunities like these?
Stacy: Not a lot, but there have been a few. One donor was about to do a gift annuity funded with stock, and she called to say she was going to wait. But another donor wants to use some real estate to fund a gift annuity. He doesn’t even care about reducing the capital gain, he just wants to turn property that is just sitting there into an annuity. So we are seeing people hold off on stock and looking at other assets of value.
Claudine: Sounds like you’re still getting leads?
Stacy: Honestly, we had so many leads from the (Pentera) mailings we did last fall that things are just now beginning to slow down!
Claudine: That’s wonderful! I’m so happy to hear that!
Recommendations to clients from Pentera CEO Claudine Donikian, JD, MBA
These are unprecedented times because of the rapidly changing landscape due to the coronavirus. We have the following recommendations for our valued clients:
- Steward donors. Personal updates about happenings at your organization and letting them know that you will be rescheduling any canceled events will be reassuring.
- Schedule phone or virtual meeting with planned gift donors. Scheduling calls and using other technology such as Facetime with donors would be the preferred alternative, even with local donors.
- Serve as a resource to donors. While only the occasional gift can be traced directly to the marketing resources we provide, it’s important to remember that those resources lay the fundamental groundwork for planned gifts by educating your constituents about estate and financial planning and prompting them to take action. You can and should provide this valuable educational resource to your constituents, and your office should remember its main purpose is to serve as a resource as well.
- Make sure that your messaging is timely. Uncertain economic times are usually ideal for featuring gift annuities and charitable remainder annuity trusts that provide fixed income. Or donors may want to make a revocable gift such as a bequest provision or a beneficiary designation. However, given the current environment, a more timely approach would be to inform donors about the charitable implications of the CARES Act.
- Help donors take the long view regarding life-income gifts, and provide reassurance to your donors about them.
Read the details of these recommendations here.
Biography of Stacy B. Sulman, JD
Stacy B. Sulman has worked for the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science for more than 11 years. She oversees planned giving, the organization’s loyalty and legacy societies, bequest and gift annuity administration, and other areas. Previously, Stacy served as associate director and general counsel for the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, New Jersey.
Stacy teaches planned giving at New York University’s Heyman School for Philanthropy and Fundraising and speaks on various aspects of planned giving to local, regional, and national groups. She has also taught at the University of Arizona College of Law. Stacy serves as president of the Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York and as a member of the Goucher College Hillel Board. She has also served on the board of directors of Daughters of Israel Geriatric Center.
Stacy received her JD from the University of Arizona College of Law and her bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College. She also spent a graduate year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar.
