Expanding development—Tabor Community Services
In February 2009, Advancement Associates, Inc. (AAI) began an eight month relationship with Tabor Community Services (TCS) for the purpose of strengthening Tabor’s advancement program.
TCS is a nonprofit housing and financial counseling organization whose mission is to rebuild communities by helping families find housing and financial solutions. Located in Lancaster, PA, TCS serves families throughout Lancaster County.
Donor support constitutes approximately one-third of Tabor’s budget and is a vital part of its overall business strategy. A special area of interest for leadership was developing an organized planned giving program that would enable it to sustain and ultimately increase its capacity to serve Lancaster County. TCS contracted with AAI to 1) conduct a comprehensive assessment of its development program and 2) help devise strategies to encourage planned giving.
This contract was made possible by the Lancaster County Community Foundation (LCCF), which provided Tabor a grant that covered in full AAI’s consulting fees.
A development audit
As part of the first step, Principal Becky Drumm spent two days on-site and one day off-site conducting face-to-face and telephone interviews with donors, board members and staff. The assessment focused on the following areas:
- The adequacy of planning to clarify the mission, priorities and funding needs.
- The case to be made for charitable support.
- The support constituency – appeals made to individual contributors, government agencies, businesses, churches, foundations and other potential funding sources.
- The growth potential of special events.
- Opportunities to invite planned gifts.
- Printed materials and public relations.
- Organization, personnel, procedures and budgets.
- Board leadership and participation in fundraising.
Interviewees commended Tabor’s visionary leaders and their steadfast focus on its mission; readily identified the case for support; and affirmed the organization’s capabilities (in terms of personnel, software, internal record keeping, etc.) to effectively carry out the development function. Areas for concern included the use of multiple logos in print materials, weakened connections to certain constituency groups and the number of face-to-face donor visits. Board members demonstrated remarkable commitment to TCS and indicated a willingness to become more involved in the development process.
A unique collaboration
At this point, Becky began working closely with Mennonite Foundation (MF)—a collaboration that exemplifies a unique dimension of AAI’s approach to planned giving. As opportunity allows, AAI and Foundation professionals are available to actually sit at the table with an organization’s development officer and a planned giving prospective donor to help create the best plan for all concerned. While this did not happen in Tabor’s case, in January 2010 MF Representative Marlin Hershey was invited to a board meeting where he reviewed different charitable planned giving tools such as bequests, appreciated asset gifts, charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts.
In addition to building a technical back-office relationship with MF and the LCCF, Becky trained Tabor’s development officer to 1) identify planned giving potential, 2) build the necessary trust in donor relationships and 3) cultivate planned gifts in a way that truly respects, first and foremost, the needs of the donor.
Meanwhile, Tabor added an extensive planned giving section to its website and expanded planned giving articles in its quarterly newsletter.
Next steps for all involved
Since planned giving has a highly technical side, AAI and Mennonite Foundation together committed to the following steps as Tabor moved forward:
- to orient the board in compliance requirements, administrative implications, board/committee roles and how various gift plans work.
- to prepare a case for support and define the scope of planned giving appropriate for Tabor.
- to inventory and allocate the technical and staff resources necessary for effective planned gift development.
- to establish a marketing strategy for the new program.
- to recommend efficient management and administrative procedures.
- to provide ongoing education and counseling for all involved—individual donors, public and staff—on gift planning, gift property and fund management, and gift administration.
Each of these has been covered in some fashion at the time of this writing; work in some areas is ongoing.
Meanwhile LCCF, the third party consulting with Tabor, continues to play an important role. In addition to awarding a challenge grant to help Tabor raise endowment funds, the community foundation is available to assist planned giving efforts through education, referrals and technical needs.
At this point, Tabor’s CEO and vice president of advancement continue to actively enhance their relationships with their donors through a formal calling program. Drumm and Hershey are both on-call for these individuals to answer any questions that arise.
