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 Environment lens
A portfolio manager for a land trust or conservation group running the legacy review often finds members whose giving has been steady for a decade or more around a specific place, a preserve, a watershed, a species, and who have never been asked whether they would want their support for that place to continue permanently. A blended ask fits especially well around land protection, a current gift toward an acquisition plus a bequest supporting the stewardship fund that will monitor and defend that same parcel forever, giving the donor a concrete, permanent connection to a specific place. Coordinating with advisers sometimes involves a donor's own estate plan for land they own, which can extend the conversation into questions the module rightly refers straight to 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.