A historical society with exactly one full time employee and an annual budget of about $275,000 sent out its first planned giving mailing to around 250 people. Six people checked a box that said, “I’ve already included the agency in my will.”

Those six gifts existed before the mailing ever went out. The donors just hadn’t had a way to tell the organization. Once they did, the organization got to do something better than solicit a new gift. It got to say thank you.

In this episode of Missions to Movements, I sat down with Tony Martignetti to talk about planned giving for small nonprofits, and why bequests, not trusts or life insurance policies, are the easiest place for any organization to start.

Who Is Tony Martignetti?

Tony Martignetti started as a frontline fundraiser in 1997 and launched his own consulting practice in 2003. Since then, he’s built his career around one specific mission: helping small and mid sized nonprofits stop leaving legacy dollars on the table. He hosts his own podcast, Nonprofit Radio, and advises organizations across the country on how to launch planned giving programs from scratch.

This September, Tony is publishing a book built entirely around that mission, Planned Giving Accelerated, a step by step guide for small and mid sized nonprofits to start a legacy giving program in a single week, beginning with bequests. What makes Tony’s perspective distinct is that he’s built programs from absolute zero more than once, including a $20 million program at St. John’s University that started with nothing but a phone and a donor list.

Planned Giving Is a Conversation About Sustaining the Mission

Tony’s biggest reframe is simple. Planned giving is not about a donor’s death. It is about the life and sustainability of the mission a donor and a nonprofit already share. That shared belief is exactly what an organization already talks about with its longest, most loyal donors. The ask is a continuation of a relationship that already exists, expressed through a gift that outlasts a single year of giving.

How Tony Built a $20 Million Program From Zero

Tony took me back to 1998, when he launched the planned giving program at St. John’s University. There were no donor relationships around long term gifts yet. No conversations, no newsletter, no history to build on. He picked up the phone and called the university’s most loyal, consistent donors, encouraging them to think about extending their giving into the long term. He backed that up with a newsletter explaining the mechanics of giving through a will, life insurance, or a trust. That program eventually raised $20 million.

Tony is quick to say he would skip a lot of that complexity if he were starting today. His current advice, and the foundation of his upcoming book, comes down to three moves. Focus on simple charitable bequests, meaning a gift left through a donor’s will. Identify your strongest prospects. Start the conversation.

Who to Ask First

Tony recommends focusing first on donors roughly 55 to 60 and older, since they are statistically more likely to follow through on a bequest commitment. In a young program’s early years, that is a useful place to start. Organizations can widen the range as the program matures.

Age is one signal, but loyalty matters more, and plenty of nonprofits do not track donor age in their CRM at all. Tony’s advice here is worth repeating in his own words: “Loyal, committed, long term donors. Folks who’ve been giving 15, 20, 25 years, or if your nonprofit is only 10 years old, folks who’ve been giving for seven, eight, nine, 10 years. Those are your best, best prospects for a gift in a will.” A donor who has made 18 or 20 gifts over a decade and a half has already shown an organization everything it needs to know.

The Recession That Planned Giving Survived

Tony worked with a college client that had already built a mature planned giving program well before the 2008 financial crisis. When the market crashed and annual fundraising revenue dropped sharply, the college’s planned giving program held steady and helped carry the organization through. The vice president there put it bluntly. Planned giving “saved our ass.”

Your Monthly Donors Are Already Planned Giving Prospects

I asked Tony directly whether he sees monthly, sustaining donors as pathways to future planned gifts. “Absolutely,” he said. Nonprofits with donors who have given monthly for years and years have been practicing smart, sustainable donor stewardship all along, and those long term sustainers become excellent legacy giving prospects. The same loyalty that keeps someone giving fifty dollars a month for years is the loyalty that eventually leads to a bequest.

What This Means for Your Organization Right Now

Starting a planned giving program does not require a legal team or a six figure endowment consultant. It requires a list of donors who have shown up for your mission for years, and the willingness to ask a simple question.

Pull your donor database and look for the names that show up year after year. Those long tenured, loyal donors are your first mailing list. Tony’s upcoming book, Planned Giving Accelerated, walks through exactly this process for organizations ready to start.

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FAQ: Planned Giving for Small Nonprofits

Is planned giving only for large nonprofits like universities and hospitals? No. Tony Martignetti’s client list includes organizations with a single full time employee and budgets under $300,000. Planned giving depends on donor loyalty rather than organizational size, which is why Tony’s approach works at nonprofits of nearly any scale.

What’s the easiest type of planned gift to start with? A simple charitable bequest, which is a gift a donor leaves to a nonprofit through their will. Tony Martignetti recommends starting here before considering more complex giving vehicles like trusts or life insurance, since bequests require the least setup and the fewest outside advisors.

What age should nonprofits target for planned giving prospects? Tony Martignetti recommends starting with donors roughly 55 to 60 and older in a program’s early years, since they are statistically more likely to follow through on a bequest commitment. Organizations can expand that range once the program has matured and built a track record of commitments.

Are monthly donors good planned giving prospects? Yes. Long term monthly, sustaining donors have already demonstrated the kind of consistent loyalty to a mission that predicts a future bequest, which is why Tony Martignetti considers them some of the strongest planned giving prospects in an existing donor base.

Do nonprofits need a recognition society to start planned giving? No. Tony Martignetti emphasizes that most nonprofits already have what they need in their existing CRM database to start conversations with top prospects, without a formal recognition society in place. A recognition society can be built later, once a program has enough commitments to support one.