Legacy Intents: an important metric for valuing the Advancement Office at International Schools
Recently, our school received a signed Legacy Intent Form from an Alumna and her husband, with a projected value of $5,500,000. That is a huge estate pledge for any international school (or any educational institution, frankly), and the largest our school has ever received.
As the donor said in the note accompanying her signed form, “Here's to a long and warm association!” Because, as we know, the signing of a Legacy Intent Form (which is almost always revocable) may not be the beginning of the relationship, but it is most certainly not the end.
Many international schools that are considering launching a fundraising program (or maintaining one) are, understandably, concerned with immediate results: money in the door, whether for the operating budget or capital projects. While one Board of Trustees may launch the fundraising program with realistic, long term expectations, fast turnover in Board members may mean that very quickly, subsequent Boards feel that the Board’s value-add is to demand justification for maintaining the office (“Is it paying for itself?”).
This mentality, coupled with the limited bandwidth afforded to most Advancement Offices, means that the prospect of large future gifts is overshadowed by the focus on the here and now; the idea that one person (seriously: one person!) will somehow effectively run an Annual Fund, Alumni relations, a gala, and everything else associated with Advancement, is already asking too much. Adding the duties of a Major Gift Officer to this role is out of the question.
And yet, if we are really serious about the long-term health of our institutions, and if it must be an either-or choice, perhaps we should be more focused on these estate gifts than on an Annual Fund (which helps the current operating budget). Of course, it shouldn’t be an either-or situation: many donors who eventually include the school in their estate planning began their relationship with the school by giving to the Annual Fund.
Those of us who have been working in international schools for some time are familiar with the stories of Advancement Offices that come and go. Inevitably, something will cause the school to re-evaluate the benefit of the office versus, say, another student-facing position, and the prevailing winds push the office into extinction… until, after a few years, a new generation hits on the brilliant idea that the school should fundraise.
There are many issues with this cycle, but I’d like to propose an additional metric that may help to sustain an office during those times when its value is being questioned. Despite a lack of focus on estate gifts by many international school Advancement Offices, many do at least “talk the talk” by proposing a Bequest Society on their website, for those donors who include the school in their estate plans. And occasionally, even with little cultivation, a donor announces their intent to put the school in their will. The value of those gifts is an extremely important metric, and should be carefully considered; the value will not be realized until the donor passes away, and (given that they are revocable) may never be realized at all if the school does not invest in the “long and warm association” that it will require to assure the donor that their pledge is well placed. That means at least one Major Gift Officer who communicates and travels regularly, year after year, to maintain those relationships, and to build new ones.
Yes, Annual Fund revenue and current value of the Endowment are both important indicators of the health of philanthropy at the school. But let’s add to that the value and number of Legacy Intents; as the school builds up those pledges, the prospect of losing them due to lack of relationship management should be a clear part of the equation.