Marketing Corner: Seven Touches

Andi Diehn, Editor at Nomad Press, writes the following:

“There's a theory in marketing that a potential customer needs to be exposed to your brand at least seven times before deciding to buy—it’s called the rule of seven. Of course, that number was decided on by movie studio executives in the 1930s, way before social media hit our screens and changed everything. So how many interactions do marketers need now?”

What struck me about this revisit of an old idea is how we have to consider effective marketing a combination of the number of touches and the quality of those touches. That hasn’t changed in almost 100 years, even in today’s world where most people are bombarded with messages of all kinds through social media.

The pervasiveness of social media notwithstanding, planned giving marketers rely heavily on direct mail. With so many planned giving pieces arriving at houses across the country, it’s essential to remember that it’s as much about the people who setup gift annuities and bequests and transform your charity as it is about the gift vehicles. Perhaps more importantly, your seven opportunities must be more interesting to your prospective donors than all the other communications they are receiving, ensuring that you get “tuned in” rather than “tuned out.” Make the most of the chances you have with the people who are waiting to be inspired by your seven messages.

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New PGM Anywhere Release Offers Designer Proposals Module and Much More

PG Calc plans to release the latest version of PGM Anywhere, our web-based software for illustrating planned gifts, the week of May 20. Among the many exciting enhancements included in this release is a Designer Proposals module. This optional module enables you to create in minutes a gift proposal that combines the visual impact of a professionally-designed brochure with images, text, and calculations personalized for your donor. For more information on the Designer Proposals module, and whether you are eligible to get it for free, go here. More information on this PGM Anywhere release will be included in the upcoming PG Calc-U-Letter.

New Mortality Table for Computing Charitable Deductions Expected Any Moment

Section 7520(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code requires the Secretary of the Treasury to revise the mortality table used to compute charitable deductions for split-interest gifts, such as gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts, no less frequently than once every 10 years. The last time this mortality table was updated was April 30, 2009, effective July 1, 2009. We have been keeping a close watch for an announcement of a new mortality table, but have not seen one as of this writing. We expect it to be announced shortly and are poised to update all our software that makes use of this table in short order once the new table is announced. We will inform all of our Planned Giving Manager, GiftCalcs, and GiftWrap customers when the new mortality table is available in their software.

LeTourneau University Foundation Experiences Sustained Growth with Help From PG Calc

LeTourneau University began as a technical institute in 1946 and has evolved into a regionally accredited, nationally-acclaimed Christian Polytechnic University. LeTourneau University is consistently ranked in the top tier among “America’s Best Colleges” and “Best Engineering Programs” by US News and World Report. Until recent years, their planned giving efforts and total endowment value hovered in the single digits, but today has grown substantially. To further grow their endowment, and out of a need to help their constituents in their estate and legacy planning, the LeTourneau University Foundation has been formed to be that financial long range planning arm of the University – and that entity to which it can assign this all-important, and all-encompassing, area of responsibility.

LeTourneau donors are amenable to doing something meaningful for the University, both now and in the future, and they have the capacity to give, but they don’t always know from where those dollars might best come. PG Calc’s Planned Giving Manager (PGM) software allows the Foundation to be part of those important discussions – with detailed gift plan proposals that are on par with what many high net worth individuals and their advisors want to see. University planned giving staff can quickly drill down on the impact tax favorability can have upon a given gift plan – for both the donor and the University. Using PGM gives the University the ability to plan for the future – which is becoming increasingly essential for higher education institutions, and Christian higher education institutions in particular!

Thomas Bevan, Executive Director of the LeTourneau University Foundation, had this to say about PG Calc:

“It’s been my privilege to get to know Director of Sales David Wolfe in these recent years, and benefit from his experience in this space. I’ve equally benefitted from my interactions with PG Calc President Gary Pforzheimer, as well as Bill Laskin, VP of Product Management. Andrew Palmer and his Marketing Services team have been responsive to our suggested changes to our website and to our marketing ideas overall – with execution on their part that is excellent. Finally Tina Yelle and her Client Services team worked patiently with us as we integrated our CRM with PGM in an essential effort at getting cross visibility to our constituency. We’re confident that we have in PG Calc a partner in planned giving that can assist us in growing our University’s endowment by giving us the right tools and the right messages to inform our interactions with our many friends and alumni of our beloved University. ”

Learn more about LeTourneau University.

Learn more about PGM.