So where's all the money?

Remember all the excitement about the billion-dollar (or more) wealth transfer? Most charities haven't seen the windfall they were told to expect. In Gift Planning in Canada, Helen DeBoer-Daggett's been thinking about those missing-in-action legacy donors. Here's what she's noticed:

• People are living longer and need their money for retirement living. And if they're affluent, they may be surrounded by gatekeepers: friends, family and advisors.
• Some older donors have lost faith in the management and effectiveness of the charities they once supported.
• A donor's power of attorney who isn't familiar with the donor's lifetime commitment to a charity may steer the donor towards conventional, seemingly logical bequests to family rather than charities.
• Many women lose their husbands before old age. The average age of widowhood in Canada is 56. At that age, a widow may still have dependent children and elder care responsibilities, all supported by a substantially reduced income.
• Poor stewardship by charities. For all of the reasons above, charities can't take a legacy for granted even after donors have recorded their intention.

What's the one factor over which you have most control? The last one, of course. Keep communicating with our legacy donors, DeBoer-Daggett urges. Thank them. Engage them. Share how their investment is changing the future of our world for the better. It's the best case for support you have to offer.

Each month's issue of Gift Planning in Canada gives you tips and strategies to do just that - keeping your legacy donors close and proud. And there's more - how to identify your best candidates for bequests, how to cultivate, and how to ask for that once-in-a-lifetime gift.

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