How To Develop Strategic Gift Planning

Launching a basic planned giving program can provide long-term security for your organization and ensure you’re not missing the opportunity to meaningfully engage your donors in supporting your work. This course provides you the information you need to get started!

Learning Objectives

• Understand the basics of strategic gift planning.
• Deploy the two most important types of planned gifts.
• Decide whether your organization is ready to start a planned giving program.
• Explain how planned giving and major gifts are related.
• Set up your organization with the fundamentals for success.

Course Curriculum

• Part 1: Strategic Gift Planning
• Part 2: Gift Planning Vehicles
• Part 3: Bequests
• Part 4: Endowments and other Considerations

Links and Additional Resources

• 5 downloadable resources and course transcript
• 12 links to online resources
• 3 book recommendations

Course Access & Duration 

This course is on-demand, meaning that you can take it anytime, at your own pace. The course will take approximately 1.5 hours to complete from start to finish. You have one year (365 days) to complete the course from the date of purchase before it will automatically expire in your account. However, once you open a course for the very first time, you will have unlimited access to complete the course within 3 months. You can choose to take the course in one sitting or in smaller bites. Either way, the course is entirely flexible and up to you how fast you complete it within the 3-month time frame!

Course Level/Prerequisites/Certification Credits

Introductory level, no prerequisites.

Recommended companion courses: How Fundraising Works, Receipting Charitable Gifts, Writing Effective Policies and Procedures

Final Exam –Take the optional final exam at the end of the course. If you pass with 70% or higher, please contact help@charityvillage.com with your exam score to receive your course certificate.

Participation in the course is applicable for 2 points in Category 1.B – Education of the CFRE International application for initial certification and/or recertification.

This training may be used to meet the requirements for renewing the Certified in Volunteer Administration (CVA) credential. One Professional Development Unit (PDU) is awarded for each 50-60 minute session or contact hour in topics related to volunteer resources management. For more details about the CVA program and renewal requirements, visit www.CVAcert.org or email info@cvacert.org.

Continuing education certification may be eligible through the Professional Administrators of Volunteer Resources – Ontario (PAVRO). For more information, please email pavro@pavro.on.ca.

About the Course Author

Paul Nazareth is a leader in Canada’s philanthropic sector with over 19 years’ experience in Planned Giving. Now Vice President, Education & Development at the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, he has most recently been VP at the charity CanadaHelps as they scaled in donations to now over $175M a year. He has been a philanthropic advisor with Scotia Wealth and spent over a decade with charities like the University of Toronto and the 230 Churches of the Catholic Church of Greater Toronto. Paul is on the board of several charities, is Chair of the Advisory Board at the Humber College postgraduate fundraising program, a speaker with every Canadian Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, a national faculty instructor with CAGP and writes on philanthropy and business networking for a variety of publications. In 2016, Paul was named as a “Friend of CAGP” recognizing the top planned giving professionals in Canada and dedication to the gift planning community.