{"id":97973,"date":"2023-08-02T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloomerang2dev.wpengine.com\/?p=97973"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:37:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:37:34","slug":"make-a-will-month-heres-why-you-should-prioritize-planned-giving-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloomerang.com\/blog\/make-a-will-month-heres-why-you-should-prioritize-planned-giving-in-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Make-A-Will Month: Here’s Why You Should Prioritize Planned Giving In August"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know that August is National Make-A-Will Month?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a significant opportunity to increase your nonprofit\u2019s planned gifts by making your donors aware of this.\u00a0Charity Navigator<\/a> has documented that 10% of overall giving comes from bequests made by Wills.<\/b><\/p>\n

The easiest planned gift for your supporters to make is to leave a portion of their estate to your nonprofit as a bequest in their Will. Even if that gift is only 1% of a donor\u2019s total estate, it can have a huge impact.<\/p>\n

According to Giving USA, the average planned gift in the US is more than $78,000 per donor\u2019s estate<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0<\/b>Yet, only about 30% of Americans say they have a Will, which means that most of your supporters probably need to make one.<\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t have a planned giving campaign<\/a> devoted to Make-A-Will Month, you should at least promote it several times via email, social media, and other communications. Mailing a letter as well is best practice. There are many free samples of a \u201cinclude us in your Will\u201d donor letter online if you search that subject.<\/p>\n

You should also include this resource<\/a> in your donor communications to help your donor\u2019s plan their future giving. This free, online resource guides the donor through the process of creating a legally valid Will in 20 minutes or less.<\/p>\n

The fact is that many of your donors mistakenly think that Wills are only important if you have a lot of money or property. That is simply not true. You must debunk this myth<\/a> in your donor communications, and this list of the ten reasons a Will is important<\/a>\u00a0will help you do that.<\/p>\n

When you ask your donors to include your nonprofit in their Will<\/a>, also ask them to let you know when they do.\u00a0Here\u2019s an example from the Palestinian Children\u2019s Relief Fund<\/a>\u00a0of a website announcement and related form that you can model your nonprofit\u2019s message after.<\/p>\n

Thoughts on planned giving from 860 donors<\/h2>\n

Using data from a survey with 860 donors<\/a>, we learned the following:<\/p>\n