What We Do and Why It Works
Years ago, I sat across from a man worth over a billion dollars. His children were already wealthy, each worth hundreds of millions. He planned to leave the bulk of his estate to charity. I asked him, “Would you want to give during your lifetime and see your gifts at work?”
He paused, then said, “What if I run out of money?”
His son laughed: “Dad, you’re worth $1.1 billion.”
The father turned and said, “You never lived through the Depression. You don’t know what it’s like to lose everything.”
It reminds me that giving, especially through one’s estate, isn’t about numbers; it’s about memory, love, fear, and legacy.
That moment has stayed with me ever since. It reminds me that giving, especially through one’s estate, isn’t about numbers; it’s about memory, love, fear, and legacy. That’s why our process takes time, care, and trust. In our experience, we see that only 9% of the donors we meet with have charity included in their estate. But, after our process, that average increases to 81% of donors plan a gift to charity.
Here’s how we do it.
Step One: Educating the Organization
The nonprofits we typically work with are ones who understand that legacy giving isn’t transactional. Usually, they’re institutions with deep roots: universities, hospitals, humane societies, faith-based organizations, YMCAs, and so forth. They’ve spent decades earning trust, and they understand that the next phase of growth will come not just from short-term campaigns but from long-term relationships. As Si Seymour said in his book Design for Fundraising, people give to gold, not tinsel. Our services operate best with organizations who have already earned respect, which requires proven maturity of leadership.
Before we ever meet with a donor, we start by investing in the organization itself. We meet with their leadership––CEO, CFO, COO––and make sure their board and development committee understand our vision as well. We walk them through our philosophy, our approach, and the timeline. We want full alignment before any planning begins––legacy work only succeeds when everyone is moving in the same direction.
At the same time, we introduce ourselves to professionals in their orbit: attorneys, accountants, trust officers, and investment advisors. We don’t want a donor to walk into a lawyer’s office with our recommendations and hear, “Who are these people?” We want the professionals in the donor’s life to know us, respect us, and ultimately trust our technical knowledge for themselves.
The first stage is slow but deliberately so. It builds the foundational relationships that everything else depends upon.
Step Two: Identifying the Right Donors
Once the foundation is set, we help the nonprofit client identify the donors with the highest potential for meaningful legacy giving. After about 30 years of experience, we know what to look for.
We work with their database and development team to query their list and flag those individuals who not only have capacity but also demonstrate long-term thinking. Naturally, these are the people most likely to include the organization in their estate plan when approached thoughtfully.
Then, we provide their team with a step-by-step strategy: cultivate the donor, solicit them to the planning table, and continue to steward them. Tools like GO Connect help guide these interactions, ensuring donors are engaged with care and clarity before ever making an ask.
Step Three: Beginning the Planning Process
When a donor is ready, the real work begins.
We meet with planning clients monthly, typically for four to eight meetings over nine to ten months. Life happens, vacations come up, and we account for that. Meetings are ideally held in-person, at the organization, and each one is built around three goals:
- Feel something
- Learn something
- Do something
Donors come in thinking this process is about the organization. When they leave and get in the car, they look at each other and say, “This is about our family.” Once they have that understanding and if we do our job right, we focus on them and their heirs first and second. That shift empowers them to make decisions they’ve put off for years. we help them make these decisions by answering three essential questions:
- Do I have enough to live on for the rest of my life?
- What’s the smartest way to provide for my heirs?
- Would I prefer to give to the IRS or charity?
Only once they’ve answered the first two can they truly consider the third question. We’ve seen remarkable stories unfold from this process––like this farmer I met with several years ago.
In his 70’s, he had arthritis, couldn’t work his land anymore, and was living on the $40,000 annual payment he received for leasing his land. After a few meetings together, he placed half the farm into a charitable remainder unitrust with a nonprofit. That trust paid him $55,000 a year, increasing his income immediately. The trust then sold that portion to a neighbor. The farmer sold the remaining half himself to the same neighbor and ultimately walked away with $1.2 million in cash.
He used the charitable deduction to offset taxes, increased his income, supported a mission he cared about, and secured a more comfortable future for himself. The nonprofit received a significant future gift. Everyone won.
Legacy planning isn’t the end of the relationship; it’s the beginning of a deeper one.
Once the donor completes the planning process, we help our nonprofit client re-engage and steward them over time. Legacy planning isn’t the end of the relationship; it’s the beginning of a deeper one. When donors return onsite for their meetings, they’re building bonds stronger than any capital campaign.
Why it Works
Before working with us, about 9% of donors include a nonprofit in their estate plans, and those are often what we call “catastrophe clause” gifts (“if everyone else is gone, then $10,000 goes to the charity”). After going through our process, the number of plans that include a charitable gift jumps to 81%. Our clients also see an average 121% increase in the size of gifts which were previously designated in a donor’s estate.
More than two-thirds of donors who create a gift in their estate also increase their annual giving.
More than two-thirds of donors who create a gift in their estate also increase their annual giving. In many cases, that increase alone covers the cost of our services. Remarkably, 30-40% of donors who make an estate gift have never made a prior gift to that organization, which is pretty amazing when you think about it.
These numbers tell us something powerful: people want to give. They just need help answering the hard questions first.
Who We Are
We’re estate planners, yes. More than that, though, we’re educators. We listen. We teach. We walk slowly and respectfully with people as they make some of the biggest decisions of their lives. And we help nonprofits build a long-term legacy strategy rooted in trust.
We’re not just here to raise money. We’re here to help people help others.
©2025, Eddie Thompson, Ed.D., FCEP
Founder and CEO, Thompson & Associates
“If we merely aim for the industry standard, then our goal is mediocrity. Emulating the average nonprofit, we are destined to live with all the problems the average nonprofit faces. So, we suggest you aim to be exceptional in your approach to fund development.”
