Fractional Planned Giving Leadership
Build Your Legacy Society, Grow Your Endowment, and Secure Your Organization’s Next Century.
Your donors want to leave a legacy. We help you build the program ready to receive it — without adding a full-time hire.
Most nonprofits are leaving millions behind — not from lack of caring, but from lack of infrastructure.
Every year, $80+ billion passes to nonprofits through bequests and planned gifts. The organizations that receive those gifts aren't lucky — they're prepared.
You're running at full speed on everything right in front of you: the annual fund, the programs, the board, the staff. Legacy giving keeps getting pushed to 'when things slow down.'
Things don't slow down.
Here's what we hear from almost every leader we talk to:
• "We know planned giving is important, but no one on staff has the expertise."
• "A donor asked how to include us in their will. We fumbled the answer."
• "The board keeps asking about endowment growth, and we keep nodding."
If any of those landed — you're in the right place.
Here's how we'll get your organization's legacy program off the ground.
Every engagement uses our LEGACY BUILDER Framework, a structured approach that takes your organization from wherever you are now to a thriving, self-sustaining legacy giving program.
1. Connect: Schedule a free 30-minute discovery call to assess where you are and identify your organization's top legacy giving opportunities.
2. Collaborate: Receive a tailored fractional support plan — scoped to your goals, your timeline, and your budget.
3. Create Impact: Build endowment, launch your legacy society, and start securing planned gift commitments — without adding headcount.
“Lori absorbs the intricacies of the nonprofit, and she is spot-on in delivering an action plan and materials that capture the organization's singularity. Lori is pragmatic and holistic in her approach, and she provides a path for planned giving that can run parallel to or integrated with annual fundraising appeals and events.”
Cheryl, Director of Development
The Fundraising Flywheel: How Legacy, Planned Giving, and Endowment Work Together.
Most nonprofits think of legacy giving, planned giving, and endowment as three separate initiatives — each requiring its own staff, strategy, and budget. They're not. When integrated, they create a self-reinforcing cycle that builds momentum over time. We call it the Fundraising Flywheel.
Small, consistent efforts compound into major results. Each component feeds the others — and the longer it spins, the more powerful it becomes.
The Integration Strategy
The power of the flywheel comes from integration. Planned gifts seed the quasi-endowment. The endowment's stability attracts more planned gifts. Legacy conversations deepen donor relationships and increase annual giving.
Why This Matters for Your Organization
The nonprofit sustainability gap is real. Overreliance on annual giving, and the missed opportunity in planned giving, leaves most organizations one bad year away from crisis. The Fundraising Flywheel addresses all of it: stable, diversified revenue that grows with your mission, not just with the market.
And the best part? You don't need a large endowment, a full-time planned giving officer, or a complex infrastructure to start. You just need a plan and the right partner to help you build it.
“The most valuable accomplishment that I can attribute to our work with Lori was taking the planned giving program from idea to execution. She helped us both strategize and execute. She always under-promised and over-delivered. Virtually every nonprofit wants to have a planned giving program. You need a real organizational commitment to make it happen, especially as you will not see the results right away. Then you need the right partner to work with your organization to tailor a program to your needs. Lori is that partner and she will be with you every step of the way!”
Alan, Development Director
What happens when you have the right planned giving leadership at the right time.
Our clients don't just get a planned giving program. They get back something they'd quietly lost: confidence.
Confidence to walk into a board meeting and present an endowment report with pride. Confidence to sit across from a major donor who says, 'I want to include your organization in my will' and have a real answer. Confidence to plan 10 years ahead instead of 10 months.
What a successful engagement with Link Elevating Philanthropy looks like*:
3–5+ documented planned gift commitments
A qualified pipeline of 15–25 legacy prospects
Endowment growing through gifts
Staff and leadership who can answer legacy questions confidently
A legacy society with real members
A board that's bought in because they can see the progress and the pipeline
*Results will vary depending on the scope of the work and the organization
Our Approach: The LINK Method™ for Nonprofit Legacy Programs
Whether you lead a nonprofit or advise an athlete — every engagement begins the same way: a free 30-minute call to understand where you are and what's possible
| Stage | For Nonprofit Leaders |
|---|---|
| L — Learn | Audit your endowment, giving infrastructure, and donor pipeline. Understand what legacy gifts you may already have in motion and identify where the gaps are. |
| I — Infrastructure | Build gift acceptance policies, establish a legacy society, and create planned giving materials (bequest language, marketing, donor stewardship templates). Get the organization ready to confidently receive legacy gifts. |
| N — Network | Connect with estate attorneys, financial advisors, and key board members. Cultivate legacy prospects through targeted outreach and relationship-building. Build the external ecosystem that sustains a planned giving program. |
| K — Keep the Legacy Growing | Sustain a pipeline of planned gift commitments and endowment growth through ongoing stewardship, recognition, and board engagement. The program becomes self-reinforcing over time. |
See how other nonprofits have leveled up their legacy programs.
Nonprofit Consulting Client Success Story
Let's find out what's already possible in your donor base.
Most organizations are sitting on more legacy giving potential than they realize. A free 30-minute discovery call is all it takes to get a clear picture of where you are, where you want to go, and what it would take to get there.
We keep our client engagements limited on purpose. Every organization we work with gets senior-level attention — not a junior team member assigned to your account.
No pressure, no jargon — just a real conversation about what your organization needs and what's possible.
Not sure if 1:1 advisory is the right fit for your team? Explore our Lead with Legacy group program.
Frequently Asked Questions
Fractional Legacy/Planned Giving and Endowment Support
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We work with nonprofits of all sizes that have an existing individual giving base and 1–10 fundraisers on staff — but no dedicated planned giving specialist. Not sure if you qualify? Reach out. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you and point you in the right direction.
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Bequests are the most common type and the core of what we build programs around — but we also help donors and organizations navigate charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, IRA rollovers, donor-advised funds, and life insurance gifts. We explain all of it in plain language.
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The research says the opposite. Donors who formalize a bequest tend to increase their annual giving — sometimes significantly. A legacy commitment deepens the relationship rather than replacing it.
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Early milestones — prospects identified, legacy society framework built, initial donor conversations started — typically happen in the first 60–90 days. Documented planned gift commitments usually begin materializing between months 4 and 9. Results differ between organizations, depending on factors such as budget, nonprofit input, and board engagement.
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This is dependent on participants’ goals. Some organizations are working on a small number of high-level gifts to the endowment, and some are looking to reach a wider net. We see most organizations bring in a range of 1-20+ for the year.
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A legacy society is a formal recognition program for donors who have made or committed to a planned gift — a bequest, charitable trust, beneficiary designation, or other future gift. Starting one doesn't require a large endowment or a dedicated planned giving officer. It requires a name, a simple acknowledgment process, and a way to talk about it. We help you build all of it as part of every engagement — including the materials, the naming, and the donor communication strategy.
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Most endowment growth comes not from major gifts during a donor's lifetime, but from bequests and planned gifts that arrive after. When a donor includes your organization in their will or names you as a retirement account beneficiary, those assets flow into your endowment at their passing. Over time, a well-run planned giving program becomes the engine of endowment growth — and the endowment's stability, in turn, attracts more planned gifts. It's a self-reinforcing cycle. We call it the Fundraising Flywheel.