Author Archive

We believe that every nonprofit should seriously consider the idea of asking its volunteers and supporters who work in the financial industry to serve on a Philanthropic Advisory Council (PAC). These professionals can help you create and strengthen your organization’s gift planning culture.

These loyal supporters may be pleased to serve. But it’s important to know that many of them will need training about how to have philanthropic conversations with donor prospects. In a study conducted by Bank of America and ...

Who is Bob? And what does he have to do with ActivateLegacy?

Bob was a long-time member of the nonprofit organization where I previously worked.  He had served on the executive board for over 15 years and truly believed in the organization’s mission.

Bob was your typical “salt of the earth,” guy: recently retired after spending his entire career with the same company; married for 40 years; living in the same modest  neighborhood home for 30 ...

Over the past 20 years, an interesting trend has emerged among donors related to who they consult for philanthropic advice or options. It used to be pretty simple – donors were usually connected with a nonprofit’s Director of Development, Major Gift Officer, or even the Executive Director. 

However, recent studies have shown a significant shift in this line of thinking. According to a 1994 study conducted by the National Committee on Philanthropic Giving (now called the Partnership for Philanthropic ...

At ActivateLegacy our goal is to help nonprofits and charities find the “middle class millionaires” in their organizations – like Bob whom I wrote about in an earlier post.  So who are these middle-class millionaires and what puts them into this category?

We consider middle class millionaires to be individuals or families who have total assets of $10 million or less. People in this category represent roughly 94% (or 7.8 million of the 8.4 million) of the estimated Millionaires in the ...