Shownotes
BIO: Tony Martignetti is the author of the upcoming book, Planned Giving Accelerated. He's been helping small- and mid-size US nonprofits launch Planned Giving fundraising programs since 1997. Tony is a lawyer, but he doesn't write or talk like one. He weaves in his background in stand-up comedy and improv to make Planned Giving easy, accessible, and affordable.
STORY: Tony returns with a different kind of investment story: how he spent eight months writing Planned Giving Accelerated, a book designed to help small and mid-sized nonprofits launch a legacy giving program in as little as one week.
LEARNING: The best fundraising asset most small nonprofits already have is their most loyal, longest-tenured donors, and putting it to work costs nothing but a conversation.
"Planned giving is not a conversation about death. It's about life, the longevity and sustainability of your nonprofit's work."
Tony Martignetti
Tony Martignetti is the author of the upcoming book, Planned Giving Accelerated. He's been helping small- and mid-size US nonprofits launch Planned Giving fundraising programs since 1997. Tony is a lawyer, but he doesn't write or talk like one. He weaves in his background in stand-up comedy and improv to make Planned Giving easy, accessible, and affordable.
Tony joins the podcast for the second time. In his first appearance, Ep820: A Flattering Binder and $13,500 Down the Drain, he shared how a $13,500 bet on a flashy Manhattan PR agency taught him to check his ego. This time he returns with the opposite kind of story: a low-cost, three-step system that has helped nonprofits raise nine figures without spending a dollar on PR.
What is planned giving, and why does it matter?
Planned giving fundraising is the practice of securing long-term gifts made through a donor's estate or retirement plan, rather than a check written today. Tony's new book focuses specifically on the simplest and most common form: a bequest, meaning a gift left through a nonprofit inside a supporter's will.
For a nonprofit, these gifts function like seeds planted years or even decades before they mature. Since most bequest donors are in their 60s or 70s when they name a charity in their will, the gift itself may not arrive for another 20 to 30 years. That time horizon is exactly why Tony sees planned giving as the foundation of real organizational sustainability—feeding an endowment a nonprofit can grow indefinitely, rather than a one-time cash infusion that gets spent immediately.
The missed opportunity hiding in your donor list
Tony points out that most nonprofits miss donor opportunities because they don't ask. They already have everything they need to start a legacy giving program and simply never ask. Tony's three-step framework, which he calls the Martignetti Three-Step, One-Week Planned Giving Launch, laid out in the first three chapters of his book, is designed to get an organization from zero to a live planned giving program within a week:
- Step one: Identify your top prospects by analyzing donors who have shown consistent giving over at least 10 years, regardless of gift size, to ensure targeted outreach.
- Step two: Start with the simplest planned gift there is, a bequest written into a will, rather than a more complex vehicle.
- Step three: Cultivate and solicit those prospects directly by initiating a personalized, values-based conversation about legacy, making the donor comfortable and engaged.
Tony's point is that a nonprofit does not need a press release, a webpage, or a campaign to say it has launched planned giving. It needs one honest, genuine conversation with the right donor. Have that conversation, and the program is live.
Furthermore, he explains, the size of the gift matters less than its consistency. When a donor has given $5 each year for 20 years, it shows a strong emotional connection to the cause and makes them a better prospect for planned giving than a single large donation made one year ago.
Why the conversation isn't about death
A common excuse Tony often receives is that conversations about planned giving make people feel uncomfortable or even morbid, because bequests are paid out only after a donor dies. However, according to Tony, this is not a conversation about death but about leaving a long-term impact that a donor has already been experiencing.
Planned giving, Tony believes, is different from immediate, urgent appeals based on scarce funds and the need to pay employees' salaries soon. When the conversation starts by mentioning how important it is to keep the nonprofit from running out of money, that is an unsustainable way to fundraise. A nonprofit with enough stability to plan decades in advance is better placed to have a successful planned giving conversation.
The data behind love and money
Tony cites research from Russell James, a professor at Texas Tech University who has spent decades studying the psychology and economics of bequest giving using quantitative methods rather than anecdotes. One striking finding Tony references is that, on average, about 75% of people who add a nonprofit to their will increase their annual giving to that same organization afterward.
This seems to be an emotional factor, not a financial one at all. Once a donor decides to include a cause in their will alongside family members such as spouses, kids, or grandchildren, they feel an even stronger bond with that cause, and that bond shows up in daily donations as well. This finding clearly counters the fears many fundraisers have about planned giving and the idea that donors might consider their bequest their final donation and give nothing else annually.
Actionable advice
First, create your own donor database and filter for longevity rather than monetary contribution, because donors who have been contributing for 15 to 20 years can qualify for planned giving.
When you approach that donor, frame the conversation around the future and sustainability of the work they already support, rather than your organization's current financial needs.
If you're a nonprofit under five years old or without individual donors yet, focus first on building that base.
No. 1 goal for the next 12 months
Tony's number one goal for the next 12 months is to get Planned Giving Accelerated into the hands of 2,000 small and mid-sized nonprofits within a year of launch, with the hope that even half of them implement the three-step framework and successfully launch a planned giving program.
Connect with Tony Martignetti
Andrew’s books
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