Planned Giving Conversations for Portfolio Managers
Folding legacy into a major gifts portfolio: the blended ask, the bequest conversation, and coordinating with the donor's advisers. For the fundraiser who manages relationships and has been leaving the largest gift in them unasked.
Through the Arts & Culture lens
A portfolio manager for a museum or theater running the legacy review typically finds patrons who made a named gift for an exhibition or production and have never been asked whether they would want that support to continue permanently through an endowed fund. A blended ask fits naturally around a program a patron has already funded once, a current gift for this season's production plus a bequest that endows the program for seasons after the donor is gone, which many arts patrons find genuinely moving once named plainly. Coordinating with advisers is usually straightforward here, since arts patrons at this level typically already have established relationships with financial and estate counsel.
Continuing education
1.00 points
Securing the Gift · Relationship Building
Learning objectives
- Explain why a major gifts portfolio contains the organization's most likely legacy donors, and how legacy fits the relationship's arc rather than interrupting it.
- Design a blended invitation that combines a current gift with a deferred commitment, and coordinate with the donor's attorney, accountant, and financial adviser without giving advice.
- Hold a bequest conversation that is an invitation, not a pitch, and honor whatever the donor decides.
- Review a portfolio for legacy readiness and set the conversations for the year.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 18 min
Video lesson
Folding legacy into the portfolio
II See · Securing the Gift
- 20 min
Field guide· PDF
The blended ask and coordinating with advisers
IV Invite · Securing the Gift
- 18 min
Template· DOCX
Bequest conversation guide and blended proposal outline
IV Invite · Securing the Gift
- 16 min
Worksheet· XLSX
Portfolio legacy review
III Discern · Relationship Building
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
More in this stage
Major & Principal Gifts
Building a Major Gifts Portfolio
Move from reactive asks to a managed portfolio: qualification, moves management, and a caseload you can defend.
Donor Communications & Stewardship
The Case for Support That Writes Itself
One master case document that powers every appeal, proposal, and conversation, built from your mission's real evidence.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Annual Giving Systems: Calendar & Segmentation
Graduate from one-off appeals to a segmented, scheduled program with lapsed-donor recovery built in.