“But My Donors Are Different.”

The director of development at an Ivy League law school once told me he discovered that one of his prospects did not understand how planned gifts work, and for this simple reason she was ignoring his messaging. The interesting thing about this prospect is that she is an Ivy grad who makes $1.8 million a year as a litigator. She’s no dummy. And yet, she didn’t “get” what the office of development was trying to get across.

I’ve been in this business for 20 years, and for 20 years I’ve been telling my clients to simplify, simplify, simplify! In fact, don’t just simplify—oversimplify. And for 20 years I’ve been hearing this objection from planned giving and major giving folks: “You don’t understand, Viken. My prospects are highly sophisticated, and they have to be treated differently.”

My answer is, people are people. Your prospects are human beings, just like anyone else.

But don’t just take my word for it. Anne McClintock, our cover story in Giving Tomorrow (page 13), has been working in planned giving at Harvard University for 30 years. If there are highly sophisticated donors out there, surely they’re the Harvard grads Anne interacts with. And yet… here’s what she says about the brilliant, successful alumni who are now at the top of their fields: “Even the most savvy, hard-nosed businessperson is just a person.” And: “It’s still best to speak simply and clearly. Listen to what they are interested in. The details can all come later.”

Anne, thank you for saying that. You’re speaking my language!

You think you are marketing to a sophisticated crowd. But those same people are also giving to their church, synagogue, social services agency, and the SPCA around the corner. They’re having backyard barbecues with their families. They’re skimming the mail at the end of the day and pitching anything that’s overly complicated—not because they’re incapable of understanding it, but because it’s boring and time-consuming and they’ve got a tee-time to make.

It’s okay to learn the details of planned gifts. But please refrain from using them with your donors.