Doing Good and Doing Well

This newfound position creates an opportunity planned-giving officers long for: the discovery of a qualified donor who possesses a qualified asset where one didn’t exist before. Fundraisers often find themselves running out of marketing/business development ideas due to the somewhat limited field of opportunity available to them — everyone in the known charitable universe is chasing the same donors and dollars year-in, year-out. Using the above premise as a starting point, the following should provide the enterprising planned-giving officer an additional door to open, one that leads him or her to a previously untapped source.

The who and the what of it
Let’s continue by asking just who and what is this untapped source? The who is a qualified donor; the what is a qualified asset. Typical qualified donors (for GAs) are those with moderate-to-strong donative intent who are of age (at least 62) and have some knowledge of estate and financial planning. This knowledge could have come from your organization, the donor’s trust officer or even a seminar on the topic.

For purposes of this article, a qualifying asset is the cash equity in your donor’s home. Please note: Seniors have billions in untapped equity in their homes. So how can a clever planned-giving officer join the qualified donor with the qualified asset and discover a previously untapped resource? By marrying an uncommon resource (a RM) with a common vehicle (a GA).

Is it coincidental that seniors have greater value in the equity of their homes than any other asset and also are qualified by age for GAs (usually over 60) and RMs (at least 62), too? Remember: qualified donors with qualified assets. Is it also coincidental that those with the greatest donative intent might be those with the greatest need: your senior-age donors?

How does a motivated donor convert the equity in his home into cash without selling or leveraging it? By “reversing” the mortgage process with guidance from the planned-giving officers. Due to the inability of many seniors to qualify for conventional financing, a RM almost becomes necessary to complete this transaction. With this in mind, let’s have our planned-giving officer guide a qualified donor through the process.