Jeffrey Byrne recently joined Stephen Proctor, CEO, and Laurel Shaffer, Vice President of Mission Support, both with JB+A Client Partner Presbyterian Senior Living, for a presentation at the 2015 LeadingAge Annual Meeting and Expo in Boston. The Annual Meeting is the gathering place for the field of aging services. Multi-specialty, interdisciplinary providers can get the training and resources they need to enhance all their services in a single conference.
“Planned Giving for a Philanthropic Future,” outlined best practices, proven approaches and the components necessary for implementing and sustaining a successful Planned Giving program in a Senior Living community. The session was based on firsthand experience in launching a formal Planned Giving program for Presbyterian Senior Living. Based in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, Presbyterian Senior Living is one of the nation’s largest senior living organizations providing retirement and senior care services to more than 6,000 seniors in 30 locations.
Philanthropic giving reached record highs in 2014, especially from various forms of planned giving. According to Giving USA 2015, gifts from bequests, trusts, charitable gift annuities, estate giving and other forms of planned giving accounted for $28.13 billion, or 8% of total annual giving, which is an increase of 15.1% over 2013.
This incredible movement is not expected to slow down anytime soon–an estimated $59 trillion stands to be transferred from American estates between 2007 and 2061, posing extraordinary opportunity for nonprofits today and in coming years. Jeffrey, Stephen and Laurel stressed now is the time for Continuing Care Retirement Communities to position themselves for maximum benefit from this trend, through a comprehensive and sustainable Planned Giving program.
Using Presbyterian Senior Living as a case study, the panel shared real-world examples to illustrate how a CCRC can successfully plan for, implement and grow its Planned Giving program to deliver the care and services residents not only require, but deserve.
The panel highlighted the following elements as important in creating and sustaining not only a planned giving program, but a strong culture of philanthropy in a CCRC community:
- A strong case for support
- Buy-in from leadership
- Fully understanding the ways in which donors can give
- Being knowledgeable in the programs gifts can support
- Remembering the importance of relationships and keeping the “who” in fundraising
The mission of LeadingAge is to expand the world of possibilities for aging. Its 6,000+ members and partners include nonprofit organizations representing the entire field of aging services, 39 state partners, hundreds of businesses, consumer groups, foundations and research partners.
To learn more about LeadingAge, visit http://www.leadingage.org/.
To learn more about Presbyterian Senior Living, visit http://www.presbyterianseniorliving.org.
