Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Winter Roots podcast: Planned Giving with Tess Conroad
5 Plays1 month ago
The Winter Roots podcast features thoughtful, practical conversations with nonprofit leaders about the nuts and bolts of nonprofit work.
Each conversation is shaped by real questions submitted by nonprofit professionals who participate in the Winter Roots learning community. The result is grounded, experience-based dialogue that reflects what people are actually wrestling with in their day-to-day work.
Winter Roots is a seasonal learning space rooted in reflection, shared wisdom, and humane approaches to nonprofit work. These podcast conversations are designed to stand on their own — whether you’re part of the Winter Roots community or discovering it for the first time!
Find out more about Winter Roots: https://www.harlownonprofitconsulting.com/the-way-we-work-winter2026
Connect with Abbey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harlownonprofitconsulting/
Free Planned Giving Website Guide: https://www.fullpotentialfundraising.com/resources
Connect with Tess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tess-conrad-cfre/
Full Potential Fundraising website: https://www.fullpotentialfundraising.com/
Tess' Favourite Planned Giving books:
You can't take it with you: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45022225-you-can-t-take-it-with-you
How to talk about Legacy Giving: https://hilborn-civilsectorpress.com/products/how-to-talk-about-legacy-giving
Email Tess at tess@fullpotentialfundraising.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Winter Roots
00:00:01
Abbey Harlow
Welcome to the Winter Roots podcast. I'm Abby Harlow, and I'm really glad you're here. If Winter Roots is new to you, it's a free seasonal virtual learning space that brings together over 200 people from across the country and Canada, working who work in a in and alongside nonprofits.
00:00:20
Abbey Harlow
It's rooted in the belief that how we gather matters just as much as what we're learning, and that the sector needs more spaces that center care and connection alongside the strategy and skill building.
00:00:32
Abbey Harlow
These conversations in the podcast are one way that we extend that gathering. So even if this episode is your only point of entry into Winter Roots, you're a part of it.
Purpose and Support of Winter Roots
00:00:42
Abbey Harlow
Hello, we're glad you're here.
00:00:44
Abbey Harlow
This podcast and this podcast series is the nuts and bolts piece of Winter Roots. It's where we bring in people who have deep expertise and invite the Winter Roots participants to ask real, very specific questions, because sometimes we all just need the chance to pick someone else's brain and ask them something that's on our minds.
00:01:06
Abbey Harlow
The questions you'll hear today weren't written by me at all. They were entirely sourced from our Winter Roots community. People who registered early shared what they most wanted to ask, specific, practical, sometimes thorny or complex questions that were really fascinating for me to read and share with our podcast guests.
00:01:25
Abbey Harlow
Across the whole arc of the podcast, I'm speaking with experts on topics like databases, programming, branding, recruiting, and supporting leadership, grant writing, and then today, planned giving.
00:01:39
Abbey Harlow
Each conversation is shaped by what the community is actively working through right now. Before we begin, i just wanna take a quick moment to thank our partners in this work.
00:01:50
Abbey Harlow
um Thank you, first of all, to the Alchemist Foundation who support the stability and strength of local nonprofits, Front Porch Forum, which is Vermont's locally owned online space built to help neighbors connect and build community.
00:01:59
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Thank you.
00:02:02
Abbey Harlow
and to Little Greenlight, which is an affordable donor management and fundraising software solution specifically built for the needs of small and mid-sized nonprofits. And you can actually try it for free at littlegreenlight.com.
Expert Insights on Planned Giving
00:02:16
Abbey Harlow
And now today I'm really excited to introduce Tess Conrad of Full Potential Fundraising, and I'll read a little bit about her before she comes in to answer your questions. Tess is a seasoned fundraising professional with over 10 years of experience and has held her CFRE, which is Certified Fundraising Executive, since 2021.
00:02:37
Abbey Harlow
She also holds a certificate in fundraising management from British Columbia Institute of Technology and a BFA in theater performance from Simon Fraser University. While she has delved into many streams of fundraising, from major gifts to grants, her passion is planned giving. It's the type of fundraising she believes drives the most meaningful relationship relationships between nonprofits and their supporters.
00:03:00
Abbey Harlow
She's the founder and principal consultant of Full Potential Fundraising, where she specializes in helping midsize charities create and grow their planned giving programs. With that, let's begin.
00:03:11
Abbey Harlow
Hi, Tess.
00:03:13
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Hi, Abby. I'm happy to be here.
00:03:15
Abbey Harlow
We're so happy to have you and happy to have you here talking about some of these burning plan giving questions. um Yeah. Let's dive in if that works for you.
00:03:25
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yeah, absolutely.
00:03:27
Abbey Harlow
Okay. So again, these are all coming from the the Winter Roots community. um So this first one is, how does how does someone start a plan giving in a state planning strategy, both in terms of launching and how you're making sure you talk to the right folks, as well as tracking that? So it's sort of like a three-prong question. How do you start? How do you talk to the right people? And then how do you track that in your database?
00:03:53
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Absolutely. So i get this question a lot and it makes sense because planned giving can be overwhelming. There's just so much that goes into running an effective planned giving program.
00:04:06
Tess Conrad, CFRE
If you're brand new to this, i would say the first step is to recognize that planned giving is different from other forms of fundraising. So you will have a learning curve. um If you're going to do this entirely by yourself, you'll need to put aside time to read and learn everything you can. um I will send Abby my links to my favorite books on Planned Giving um so you can start there. The key will really be time blocking um and making sure you're setting aside time to learn all these basics.
00:04:40
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Where I see a lot of charities go wrong is trying to find a quick fix and just imitate what other charities are doing. ah But another charity might not have the right strategy for you. They might have a different niche, a different audience size, as well as there's actually a lot of ineffective plan giving messaging and programs out there. So even if you see a large charity,
00:05:02
Tess Conrad, CFRE
publish something related to planned giving, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the most effective thing to do. So really just take the time to learn this form of fundraising. And in terms of practical tips on setting up the program, in preparation for this podcast, I actually wrote like seven things. But I want to be mindful that this is a short podcast and not be overwhelming.
00:05:25
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So I narrowed it down to the top four things that you could do over the next month or two to start your plan giving program. So the first thing is figure out your planned giving why this is also known as a planned giving case for support.
00:05:42
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And it's different than a case for support you might have for a capital campaign or even for your programs at your nonprofit now, because when you're talking about why should a donor give to you in their will,
00:05:55
Tess Conrad, CFRE
you're talking about them supporting your cause decades into the future, where you might be addressing needs that aren't even needs right now, and your programs could look vastly different. So you need to closely align with a donor's values as well in this. um From there,
00:06:13
Tess Conrad, CFRE
I would say the first thing that you should create is a planned giving website because that is the first place donors are going to go for planned giving information and inspiration. And it's also something you can link to when you do other planned giving marketing or acquisition activities. um With this planned giving website, you'll want at least 80% of your content to center around the why of planned giving, that case for support that you're creating.
00:06:43
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Only 20% should be about the how, so like how to write a will and different types of gifts. This is where a lot of charities go wrong as well, is they'll typically fill the up a planned giving page or brochure with all these technical aspects of giving. But if I'm a donor and I'm reading that, learning about the different types of gifts I could give in my will and legal wording isn't going to inspire me to make that gift.
00:07:08
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So 80% of your planned giving content needs to be the why. i actually have a planned giving website guide that includes information on how you can find your why and the structure for a website and even some copy that you can cut and paste and make your own. um So I will link to the guide there as well so you can download it for free.
00:07:33
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So the other important part with this that was mentioned in the question is making sure you're tracking these donors and setting up your database.
Strategies for Effective Planned Giving
00:07:42
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Every database will be a little bit different, but what I want you to do is use a reportable field, so some kind of custom field or attribute,
00:07:52
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And at minimum have two options for planned giving. One is if a donor has left a gift in their will, they told you, yes, I've i've left a gift in my will. um And the other one is if they've told you they're interested in leaving a gift. There's a lot more fields you can add, but if you're just trying to bootstrap this and keep it simple, start with those two.
00:08:12
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And the fourth and would say most important part of a planned giving program is ensure you have systems in place to steward those donors who have left a gift in their will, even if they aren't giving annually.
00:08:28
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So this past April, I attended the CAGP conference, which is the Canadian Association of Gift Planners. And we had a keynote speaker, Dr. Russell James, who's amazing in plant giving, like go look up Dr. Russell James and his research and work.
00:08:43
Tess Conrad, CFRE
He literally will put donors in an MRI machine and talk to about legacy giving a report on the results. um But he talked about, i know, right? It's amazing.
00:08:53
Abbey Harlow
yeah
00:08:53
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yeah.
00:08:53
Abbey Harlow
Thank you.
00:08:55
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So he talked about how there is a trend happening where donors are actually removing charities from their will in their final will, which is typically written in their seventies.
00:09:06
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And it's happening because those charities, once the donor stops giving an annual gift, cuts off communication with them. And so they don't feel valued or connected to the work.
00:09:19
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So, That's really common later in life as well. You know, someone might go to old folks home, just have less disposable income, but you they could still give you a transformational gift through their will.
00:09:24
Abbey Harlow
Mm-hmm.
00:09:30
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So make sure you're always stewarding those donors with special touch points, regardless of their annual giving. So ultimately all this centers around the estate giving donor cycle, which is a new training model for planned giving that I'll actually be releasing this week of recording. So probably by the time you're listening to this, it'll be out there. um It'll be on my blog and I'll have weekly deep dives into each section of the cycle, which should guide your planned giving fundraising.
00:10:00
Abbey Harlow
Wow, that's so helpful. Thank you, Tess. It's nice to have, you know, these here, here are some nuts and bolts you can do now. And then things that I think, aside from the tracking and the asking and all that, just the the long-term stewardship and engagement of the space, I know is something that a lot of folks wonder about. So that's very helpful.
00:10:25
Abbey Harlow
I'll go to the second question, which comes from a fellow Canadian.
00:10:27
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Thank you.
00:10:29
Abbey Harlow
um And I'm just quoting directly. It's been a few years since I was active in plant giving. As I consider launching a program, what are the latest best practices, statistics, trends?
00:10:41
Abbey Harlow
As a Canadian, I'd love some level of focus on the Canadian lens and to compare and contrast experiences from both sides of the border.
00:10:49
Tess Conrad, CFRE
yeah Absolutely. I'm always happy to dive into Canadian planned giving. I find that a lot of the resources out there are geared towards Americans, which makes sense because there's just more Americans and more American charities. But I do work with charities on both sides of the border and a lot of the trends tend to be similar.
00:11:06
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um But I can tell you in Canada especially, there has been a huge uptick in people writing online wills. This wasn't even legally possible before the pandemic.
00:11:16
Tess Conrad, CFRE
I'm not sure about America, but I know that in America is becoming more popular as well. um And with that, younger people are writing wills, which also started happening during COVID.
00:11:21
Abbey Harlow
Mm-hmm.
00:11:26
Tess Conrad, CFRE
There's something about a global pandemic that just makes us aware that end of life planning is important. um So with that, we are seeing those younger people actually leave gifts to charities in Canada. um We know this is a trend because of a company called Epilogue, which is one of the online will writing services that have been really generous with sharing their information and data, which I really appreciate.
00:11:50
Tess Conrad, CFRE
But that makes sense because we have unprecedented decreasing birth rates. In Canada, our birth rate is 1.3, which rivals Japan, and the USA is only slightly higher at 1.6.
00:12:02
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So it's yeah, it's becoming a lot more common for people to like not have children and then look to charities in terms of finding meaning and determining what their legacy will be.
00:12:02
Abbey Harlow
wow
00:12:14
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And that also is happening at a younger age. So a cool trend in Canada specifically is that 8% of Canadians are now leaving a gift in their will to charity. And that's up from 5% in 2020. No, absolutely.
00:12:29
Abbey Harlow
Wow, that seems enormous. Sorry to butt in, but it just seems like a a big jump.
00:12:32
Tess Conrad, CFRE
no absolutely It is.
00:12:35
Abbey Harlow
That's great.
00:12:35
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And so there is a reason for this. um so the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, the CAGP, has been working on a nationwide campaign to encourage Canadians to leave a gift in their will and increase the social proof of it.
00:12:48
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And so they're also running these surveys as well. um So that's working. And this is one of the few times where a Canadian trend is leading an American trend. I imagine the USA might actually catch up to us as well in the next few years.
00:13:03
Tess Conrad, CFRE
But that means there's huge opportunities for planned giving because Canadians are thinking about it more and leaving gifts and wills to charities. um So if you have an effective planned giving program, you can inspire these donors to choose your cause for that.
Engagement and Consultant Options
00:13:17
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um with With that, the other trend I would say is that digital plan giving fundraising and multi-channel plan giving fundraising will be really important if you want to be successful.
00:13:29
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Unfortunately, there's a lot of plan giving programs that are really stuck in the past and kind of acting as if like, oh, the older donors that we want to target aren't online. And that's just not the case anymore. Even boomers, I think their average screen time per day is three to four hours or more.
00:13:43
Abbey Harlow
Mm-hmm.
00:13:43
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So you really want to make sure that you have client giving touch points online. And direct mail is still great, it's really effective, but we want to combine that with a lot of digital strategies. um And the final trend I'm going to touch on is donor advised funds or DAFs. If you're not familiar with DAFs, they're basically charitable bank accounts. ah So a donor can give money to the DAF, they'll get a tax receipt for it right away, and they can grant it out on their own timeline. They are vastly increasing in popularity on both sides of the border.
00:14:16
Tess Conrad, CFRE
In Canada, we have $8.5 billion dollars in DAFs. In the USA, it's $251 billion. And in the USA, they're going to become more and more popular because there has been changes to the tax code.
00:14:23
Abbey Harlow
Mm-hmm.
00:14:30
Tess Conrad, CFRE
which encourages batching giving, which basically means it's more advantageous for them to donate a large sum in one year and then nothing in the following years, rather than doing it consistently across multiple years.
00:14:42
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So it's American, that's not Canadian. um But this also means that more people are going to be leaving gifts and wills through their DAFs. So what that looks like is instead of John Smith giving you $500,000 through his estate, the John Smith fund might give you $1,000 a year for many, many years. um So it's also something you want to make sure you're keeping in mind and tracking in your database. um You still want to steward those donor advised funds plan gifts the same way you would if someone gave you a gift directly in their will as well.
00:15:16
Abbey Harlow
those are Those are great tips. And I'm especially intrigued to hear what you say about the multi-channel um engagement, because I feel exactly what you said. Like a a lot of times nonprofits will say, oh, these are older people we're talking to. We have to have...
00:15:35
Abbey Harlow
just a brochure is fine or, you know, just something something like that without sort of taking into account the other ways that they can make this program full and multi-channel. So that's that's a really good tip.
00:15:48
Tess Conrad, CFRE
yeah absolutely. And if you do have a brochure, if you start with that, just translate it to your website. In January, i will be doing some planned giving website audits on LinkedIn.
00:15:59
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And I found this major charity in Canada, and they have an amazing planned giving brochure.
00:15:59
Abbey Harlow
Hmm.
00:16:04
Tess Conrad, CFRE
It's so inspiring. They're doing everything right. And on their website, there's hardly anything. And you have to go through their portal to download the brochure to find the inspiration. So it's it's really just bringing all of it together.
00:16:17
Abbey Harlow
Yeah, absolutely.
00:16:18
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yeah.
00:16:19
Abbey Harlow
um To get to my last official question here, um someone wants to know, do small nonprofits hire consultants to help get planned giving programs off the ground? And if so, how much does it approximately cost?
00:16:38
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yeah, absolutely. There are several planned giving consultants and agencies to help you. I'm one of them and I specialize in mid-sized nonprofits and smaller nonprofits. um I'll give you a quick two minute guide to planned giving consultants. So the first one is there are coaches. So coaches will provide advice, but it's on you to take initiative and implement your program.
00:17:02
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um If you're hiring a coach, you'll want to ensure you're hiring someone with fundraising experience, not just financial advising experience.
00:17:07
Abbey Harlow
you.
00:17:11
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So those are two aspects of plan giving. There's financial advising for clients and then fundraising from donors. make sure you get a fundraiser and then you also want someone with experience with nonprofits of your size um so a coach that has 20 years of planned giving experience at a university that's raising hundreds of millions of dollars every year would have a different approach to plan giving than what say a five million dollar mid-sized charity needs so you want to look for someone with the same kind of experience that your nonprofit is
00:17:41
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And that will typically be, i don't know, I've seen rates from 150 to 350 per hour for coaches. So the second type of planned giving support you could get is direct marketing agencies.
00:17:55
Tess Conrad, CFRE
ah So these agencies, they might also do some annual giving. um Some of them specialize in planned giving, but they will run a planned giving campaign for you. so a campaign, say, to get hand raisers, people saying like, yes, I've left a gift in my will ah well or I'm interested in leaving a gift.
00:18:10
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um Or they might help you with parts of your program, like writing some copy for your website or a brochure. um It is on you to create your comprehensive plan giving strategy. um And it's on you to continue the momentum after the campaign if you hire one of these agencies. So that is really something to keep in mind.
00:18:29
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um And there's a huge price range for this. Like I've seen agencies, depending on the campaign and size of their their work, will charge as little as like $8,000 all the way up to like $50,000
00:18:40
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um But there's a big gap in these two services because they both require a lot from the nonprofit to manage and create their strategy. And there could be a lot of gaps if you don't have an in-house plan giving expert to guide your strategy, which is why the services that I exclusively provide are done for you plan giving.
00:18:59
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um So this involves me creating a comprehensive plan giving strategy that's completely customized based off of an audit and analysis. And then I'll do a lot of the hands on work to implement the strategies. That means I'll write your plan giving campaigns, um coach you and basically do all the heavy lifting of your program. um So 2026 is my first year running this specific kind of service. So I'm offering it at a pilot client rate. um It will go up later this year. But right now i have a two month intensive for brand new programs. That's 11,500. Or I have a more extensive service that involves year round support and more extensive acquisition campaigns to get planned giving hand raisers. And that ranges from three to five thousand dollars per month, depending on scope and deliverables. So if you're interested in learning more, um my website will be linked and you could also just send me an email. We can have a consultation to see if we're a good fit.
00:19:57
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um And Abby, I do believe there's one other question as well about Plan Giving Prospects.
00:20:05
Abbey Harlow
um Yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Somebody's asking on ah plan giving prospects, how you identify them, and just any tips you have to offer on that.
Starting a Planned Giving Program
00:20:20
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yeah.
00:20:20
Abbey Harlow
Oh, and as a second part of that, um do you think it's worth engaging with prospects or with planned giving if you don't have a major gifts program yet? Which which sort of comes first?
00:20:36
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yes, absolutely. So I would say please launch your planned giving even if you don't have major gifts. It's a big misconception that planned gifts will only come from major donors.
00:20:47
Tess Conrad, CFRE
The biggest indication of someone being likely to give you a planned gift is loyalty, not the amount they give. ah So someone could be giving $100 a year for 10 years, but give you a $1 million dollar estate gift. um And the reason why is they could have not that much liquid cash in their lifetime. But say they bought a house in Vancouver or New York, like in the 90s when property was more affordable and that property is appreciated and goes into their estate. So don't dismiss anyone based off of the amount they give. Look for those loyalty indicators.
00:21:22
Tess Conrad, CFRE
My caveat to this is you need solid fundraising foundations. So you don't need major gift donors, but you do need annual donors who have given consistently year over year.
00:21:32
Tess Conrad, CFRE
i would look at a fair minimum of 100 donors that have given for multiple years in a row for planned giving to be worth your time. If you have less than that, you'd be better off spending your time and energy building up your annual giving program before you do planned giving.
00:21:48
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And the other thing about this is age So the ideal age for planned giving i is 50 to 70 years old. It's a bit of a misconception as well, but like, oh, hey, we have old donors in our 80s and 90s.
00:22:02
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Those are great plan giving prospects. ah The last will tends to be written in someone's mid 70s, and they typically won't change that will just to add a charity. um So if someone's over 72 in a plan giving program, um I'll pretty much ignore them if they're not already in the plan giving pipeline in some capacity.
00:22:12
Abbey Harlow
you.
00:22:21
Tess Conrad, CFRE
um For donors aged 35 to 49, they're still valuable. You know, like if a 40 year old gives you a a gift in their will, it's not even so much about the that estate gift that you'll get in like 40 years. It's more so that they've raised their hands to say that they're an ambassador of your cause. They care enough about your cause to write you beside their family in this really important legal document. um So you do want to engage them and they're very likely to increase their annual giving and they might even bring in other donors with them and really advocate for your cause as well.
00:22:54
Abbey Harlow
That's, the again, just so helpful to hear because I, you know, working with a lot of small nonprofits myself, they'll say, oh, you know, they they often think of planned giving as something to get to eventually when all of these other programs and giving programs and things like that are in place. um And so it's so helpful to hear, no, just, you know, pretty much not not right at the beginning, but fairly close to the beginning. And also you don't need to have a donor base that looks or gives a certain way. um
00:23:26
Abbey Harlow
That's just very good food for thought for sure.
00:23:30
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yes, absolutely. And that actually brings up another ah important point that if, sorry, I actually lost my train of thought, but there's a really important point here with, uh,
00:23:44
Abbey Harlow
Yep. I do it all the time.
00:23:46
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yes, with the with the donors. um Yes, it is that the planned giving donor cycle is very long. Someone might take five or even 10 years thinking about a planned gift before they actually put it in their will. So the earlier you get a planned giving program together and to kind of send out these like drip marketing messages and have it on your website, the better that donor gives.
00:24:12
Tess Conrad, CFRE
will be primed for plan like more extensive plan giving asks and campaigns later on. So the sooner the better if you have a solid annual giving base.
00:24:19
Abbey Harlow
That's, yeah.
00:24:22
Abbey Harlow
And to that point, this is a question that i just came to mind for me. So no pressure with an answer. I'm just curious, with that long donor cycle for a planned gift, how, you know, especially if you're working with a small nonprofit that um it's unusual for them maybe to put this kind of investment into creating a planned giving program, how do you show to the board or the executive director the um the sort of return? how How do you sort of show the value of that well while you might not see um some of that legacy gift being left for decades?
00:25:01
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yeah, absolutely. And that's the the catch 22, because nonprofits can really be stuck in such short term mindsets. ah But i would say just because you won't see the money doesn't mean you can't track your progress. um So that's where tracking you know people's stages in the planned giving pipeline is really important. So that someone says they're interested is a pretty big step.
00:25:22
Tess Conrad, CFRE
And then how you're cultivating that. So look at the touch points you're doing. And then just show them a lot of the stats that we have around planned giving that it does take a long time, that we have like this many people who are interested planned giving. can also say this is how many long-term donors we have. Like we have this many donors that have given for five or more years. And so if just 5% of them leave a gift in their will, it could be a certain amount of money. um The average estate gift size is $50,000. So you could spend a fraction of that really and get huge returns.
00:25:55
Abbey Harlow
Wow.
00:25:55
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So yes, it's definitely educating your board about the process for plan giving and tracking your plan giving activities and where people are in the cycle and asking for hand raisers to express interest so you can cultivate them.
00:25:56
Abbey Harlow
Yeah, that's. Mm
00:26:10
Abbey Harlow
Well, yeah, thank you. that's That's really helpful, too, to think about. Like, we have our donor base currently looks like this. And based on that, here is a reasonable um sort of forecast into what this could look like. Yeah. um Well, Tess, thank you so much for the generosity and thoughtfulness you brought to this conversation. um It was really great to have you here and talking about this topic, which is just so interesting.
00:26:39
Abbey Harlow
Just so confusing, but also wanting, you know, wanting to implement this for so many nonprofits. um So that's really appreciated. Before we close, where can people, and I know you mentioned a few things throughout our conversation, but where can people find you or learn more about your work?
00:26:58
Tess Conrad, CFRE
Yeah, absolutely.
Resources and Reflections
00:26:59
Tess Conrad, CFRE
So there's my website, there's LinkedIn, I'm pretty active on LinkedIn, I'll post once or twice a week there. And my email list is where I'll have depth planned giving articles. I usually every week, my goal is to try and make planned giving as simple and less confusing as possible.
00:27:17
Abbey Harlow
And I know for me, you have definitely done that on any of these points. So that's great. um For those listening, if something in this conversation stayed with you, I just invite you to notice that, consider what a next step might be for you in terms of your own work. um And as for me, you can connect with me, Abby Harlow, on LinkedIn or visit harlownprofitconsulting.com, which is where you can also learn more about Winter Roots. Join my email list, which is where I'll put the information out about future gatherings, including I'm i'm putting it out there now, Winter Roots 2027.
00:27:55
Abbey Harlow
And I'll put all this info and all of the Tess's info and the resources she shared into the show note as well. um Just to close on the idea that the nonprofit sector can ask a lot of people. And my hope is that conversations like this offer you not just ideas, but a sense of belonging and a sense of steadiness as you move back into your work and as you move through this season of winter. So thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you soon.