eGift Success Stories

GiftLegacy users are receiving planned gifts using the GiftLegacy System. We call these gifts "eGifts" because more than 50% of the contact with the donors has been made through electronic means (online, e-mail, eNewsletters, etc.). Below are just a few of the success stories that GiftLegacy users are experiencing. If you would like to share your success story, please contact us.

• New Decade Gift Planners
• Colleges & Universities
• Social Service Organizations & Others

Glenn Pittsford Assistant Vice President for Gift Planning Texas A&M Foundation

"For over 19 years, Crescendo Interactive has been a major influence on my success as a gift planner. Texas A&M is a very special place; Aggies are a special family; they give well and have created a wave of planned giving success. The Texas A&M Foundation Office of Gift Planning uses every service offered by Crescendo. We receive 25,000 page views on our planned giving website per month. We send out 70,000 GiftLegacy emails and over 300 Giftlaw emails per month. GiftLegacy has increased our eMarketing reach to over 100,000 eContacts per month, assisting in bringing in $100 Million in new planned gifts in the last two years!"

Jonathan Rich National Director, Gift Planning Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

"Crescendo Interactive has been a key element to the success of our gift planning program for over 10 years. Ducks Unlimited, Inc. utilizes all the services offered by Crescendo. In the last four years, Crescendo has assisted us in securing over $100 million in gifts during our "Wetlands for Tomorrow" campaign. Ducks Unlimited members are passionate about our critical conservation mission and Crescendo helps us assist our members in making mission changing gifts on a daily basis. Crescendo services free up my time to close current and deferred gifts. They are great partners."

Jennifer Nohelty Gift Planning Counselor Gift Planning Services, LLC

"Crescendo Interactive offers a complete planned giving system through GiftLegacy! It has given us the confidence and the competence in charitable gift planning for working with our donors, and it acts as an incredible silent salesman. We have closed over $100 million in current and deferred gifts in the past two years! Many of our donors visit our GiftLegacy website and play with the charitable giving calculators. The calculators allow our donors to see how a gift will look in their estate plan. A picture is worth a thousand words, and Crescendo’s flowcharts allow people to picture themselves as major donors. These flowcharts have been the starting point for many donors who wanted to turn their ordinary estate into an extraordinary legacy."

Judy Cash Director of Gift Planning McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia

"Our business graduates love the ease of using GiftLegacy to run their own calculations, read stories of fellow alumni, use eLiterature, and keep up with current financial and tax information. Our GiftLaw website has over 2,000 views each week as donors and their advisors find it so easy to view GiftLaw Pro and obtain comprehensive tax information with just a few clicks. These powerful tools have generated millions of dollars in gifts to the McIntire School. The Crescendo conferences and GiftCollege provide recognized certification and life-long learning experiences enhancing one’s ability to stay abreast of changes in our exciting field of Gift Planning. Crescendo offers a complete package, more than we can use, that gives me the sense of adding a team of estate attorneys and an experienced back office to our team. What a bargain!"

Kristen L. Dugdale, Esq. Vice President of Gift Planning

"The GiftLegacy System benefited our gift planning marketing by offering eBlasts for our "Will Power" campaign. These "Will Power" branded ePostcards are also rotating on our GiftLegacy website banner to continue the theme. The GiftLegacy "Guide to Wills & Trusts" was redesigned with CU Foundation photos and donor stories. We are using our branded GiftLegacy postcards, eBlasts and website to encourage alumni to request our "Guide to Wills." The Foundation's gift planning in 2010 received $25 million in new bequest identifications for approximately 70 individual gifts. This is a 700% increase over the prior year. An additional $37 million in total planned gifts from trusts, annuities and estate distributions added to the 2010 year's planned gifts. In 2011, $33 million in new bequest identifications from approximately 56 individual gifts were designated to the Foundation. We raised an additional total of $41 million in planned gifts in 2011 also from trusts, annuities and estate distributions. In 2003 the Foundation had a total of approximately $50 million identified revocable intentions. Today we have close to $150 million."

Toni Jernigan Director of Planned Giving

"Since purchasing GiftLegacy four years ago, planned gifts to MUSC have reached record breaking levels. Last year we brought in $25 million in gifts! We attribute our substantial increase in planned gifts to our consistent branding and eMarketing - with everything, including the print marketing, driving donors back to the planned giving website. Our doctors, researchers, alumni, faculty and friends appreciate the easy to understand gift calculations and flowcharts. Crescendo's customer service gives me peace of mind, knowing that they are available to answer any planned giving questions I may have, all in one place."

Shirley Druggan Director of Planned Giving

"The University of Texas Health Science Center has subscribed to the GiftLegacy Pro System for our planned giving marketing since 2008. This total program replicates my efforts and brings significant results. The 2011 planned giving report totaled approximately $3 million from 15 gifts. Our UT bequest booking policy is to count only $1 for bequest intentions; for 2011 there were 5 bequest intentions in our total. The average planned gift was approximately $200,000. Our Science Center cost per dollar raised equaled $.01. ROI equaled 9,540%! Using the analytics in GiftLegacy’s new 3.0 CresManger, I am thrilled to see some of our eNewsletter receivers, while on their travels from as far away as Tokyo, are reading our eNewsletters and linking to our planned giving website articles. Many are frequent readers; some are visiting our GiftLegacy website daily. "

Eric Schimmoeller Assoc. Director of Planned Giving

"I have found the Internet Marketing Seminar to be very informative and I enjoyed making connections with planned giving professionals from other organizations. Many groups in attendance were sharing materials they had put together using the marketing materials available through the GiftLegacy system. Two items that the Planned Giving Office at Purdue has used in the last 12 months were very effective. The “first wave” of the mailing insert was sent in mid-May 2010, a 70% increase in website traffic was seen in the weeks following. The Wills Guide is being sent either as a hard copy or electronically to individuals who request Wills Kits from our office. A ‘second wave’ of the mailing insert is to be sent later this month. Both items came from GiftLegacy and were ‘Purdue-ized’ by our marketing and graphics team here on campus. Our office is very pleased with both pieces. Thanks again to the team at Crescendo for all your hard work."

Terry Balko Director of Planned Giving

"Our foundation has owned the GiftLegacy marketing system for a number of years, but until recently did not implement the entire system—that is until July 2010. Utilizing the complete system and coordinating our GiftLegacy and GiftLaw outreach, along with starting a mentoring program for our development officers, has resulted in over $22 million in new planned gifts through the first seven months of our fiscal year. With this new approach, we have exceeded in seven months the entire planned gift production for the last fiscal year (2009-2010). I feel that we have just scratched the “tip of the iceberg” and that our best days are ahead of us. Thanks Crescendo!"

Lynda Jacobson Asst. V.P. of Development - Gift Planning

"Iowa State University Foundation has been actively marketing IRA rollover gifts to our alumni and friends. We always direct them to our GiftLegacy web site for IRA information and motivating donor stories of IRA gifts. We also provide our web address on all of our print publications. As of August 2007 ISU has received 108 IRA Rollover gifts totaling 1.3 million dollars! Thank you Crescendo for partnering with us to make a difference."

Mel Friesen Director of Gift Planning

We had two wonderful weeks with GiftLegacy! Last week I wrote a brief paragraph about the GiftLegacy Thought for the Week -Heavenly Gifts - Receiving more than we ask. This very week Grace University received a check for $1,000,000 from an Omaha couple for Chapel renovation and the complete renovation of our Library. Alley-Poyner Architecture P.C. has drawn preliminary plans for these projects and Lund Ross Constructors helped cost out the projects. GU President, Dr. Jim Eckman approached this couple with the need and the check we received in the mail exceeded the amount asked. This week Grace University received a check for $20,000 from IRA custodian, American Funds, from a donor in another city. This woman sends a gift four or five times a year, not always the same amount or in predictable intervals. She is a quiet, private person. She is financially astute and recognized the advantages of the opportunity to make a direct transfer gift from her Individual Retirement Account. She says that the process was fairly simple and the form American Funds provided was easy to follow. This gift will satisfy the Required Minimum Distribution for 2006.

Dr. Steve Seelig Director of Planned Giving

eMarketing Works at Point Loma Nazarene University. The first day we sent out the Gift Legacy eNewsletter to our increased audience of 2,000 alumni constituents we received an eResponse that has led to an $80,000 Gift Annuity and future Endowed Scholarship with the remainder. We have had numerous requests for "Wills Kits" from friends viewing our eNewsletter that has given us opportunity to directly contact donors who desire to remember us with a bequest. While attending the Crescendo Internet Marketing Seminar, our third eGift was received when we checked our e mail messages. It is a gift from a donor family who is in the process of selling their home. eMarketing works if you will work it. We are overhauling our entire marketing process so that we can better impact our constituency and reach more donor prospects. We have found that our alumni read our eNewsletter and are glad that we compare favorably with other major universities and charities in offering gift plan options. Since we started using the GiftLegacy Pro system we have closed 4 eGifts. Our first gift was a CRG for $308,000 followed by a gift annuity for $80,000, a KETRA cash gift of $5000, and a deferred trust for $29,000. Thank you for helping Point Loma Nazarene University Planned Giving to "tune up" our marketing efforts. We expect that many more gifts will be forthcoming because of your excellent coaching. I am a happy customer because you are giving me valuable tools that work.

Dave Miedema Planned Giving Director

"Like many of you, I was hearing about Crescendo GiftLegacy Pro charities that were closing "eGifts" - major direct gifts, large charitable remainder trusts, six-figure gift annuities - all stemming from electronic marketing! I was uncertain whether or not our alumni and friends of the University of North Dakota would respond to this innovative marketing tool. Then it happened. The phone rang. A UND graduate from northern California called and informed us he owned rental property in northern San Diego County. The property had a low basis, high appreciation and was located in a booming market. Plus, the donor and his wife wanted to reserve life income from their gift. It all fit. A FLIP Unitrust was born - a new planned gift totaling nearly $500,000! Some days later, I learned the shocking news. What motivated him to call? It was GiftLegacy!! - It was our weekly eNewsletter with links to our GiftLegacy web site. He read the gift stories about other UND Foundation donors who funded gifts with highly appreciated real estate. He liked it. He studied it. He did it! Without question, GiftLegacy is having a positive impact among our prospects and donors and blends beautifully with our overall marketing plan."

Dan Ferris Director of Development

"I am pleased to report that Olivet Nazarene University received its first online gift annuity. Less than two weeks after our GiftLegacy site went live. We received an online request for more information about a $50,000 gift annuity! I sent this family an e-mail proposal. They called a week later to say that a check was in the mail. Thanks for all of your help in making this gift possible. P.S. We have also received an inquiry from a known donor about a $200,000 deferred gift plan. This family has been running their own proposals on the web and we are discussing options."

Debbie Eliason Planned Giving Officer

"The greatest success I've seen is from GiftLegacy is in one of our member eNewsletter. 43 requests for a will guide resulted from a blurb. If I didn't have Crescendo I could not have responded quickly or efficiently to those requests. One of our GiftLegacy eNewsletters immediately brought in 12 wills guide requests, too. We just sent out another enewsletter and within 2 days, 19 requests for a will guide came through."

Rick Lofgren, CFRE President

"Shortly after we switched over to GiftLegacy 3.0, we received a number of inquiries from our supporters about IRA rollovers. Since then, two donors have executed a transfer and another has discussed doing it later this year. Having the option on our website allowed supporters to make larger gifts and reduce their taxable income - a win/win for everyone involved! One supporter told us they did the same for other charities, and thanked us for informing them it was possible"

Bentley B. Marane Executive Director, Planned Giving

"We're getting a lot of good response from our GiftLegacy eNewsletters. I customized our header with some great donor profiles and it led to a $25,000 annual gift and a confirmation of a $200,000 planned gift. The effort in personalizing my headers these last few months truly paid off!"

Harry Pittman Director of Planned Giving

"We just received a $12,000 rollover gift, a smaller $3,150 rollover with that same amount next year from the same donor and a $6,300 rollover gift for next year from the other donor. We know of more that will come in during the 2009 year. Next year rollover gifts that are pledged to date total over $56,000. All just from our GiftLegacy program. We are so grateful that as a local church First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks is well position year-end. "

Pat Bilow Gift Planning Counselor

"A number of people I've worked with have commented about the excellent material in our gift planning website and wonder how I find the time to write so well and so much. Of course, I tell them about the great Crescendo staff that does all the work for me. Thanks, Crescendo! You've made such a difference! I love all the print material that can be customized to LWML. Aside from imparting a boatload of great information to lots of people, you're also making me look good!"

Sarah Lower Development Associate

"I received a request for a Wills Kit a few days after launching our GiftLegacy Website. Two days later a gentleman called me. He had used the Wills Kit I sent and was calling to obtain our Tax ID number so that he could put Kids in Distress in his will!! This was our first bequest DIRECTLY generated from our website. Thanks so much!"

Randall J. Sweeney Executive Director

"Having just instituted a brand new Charitable Gift Annuity program at Chautauqua, I can firmly say that the Crescendo services have made a considerable impact on our early success. With the launch of our GiftLegacy website last fall and the use of illustrations provided through the Crescendo Pro software, we are not lacking in marketing or administrative ammunition for our new program. This has been proven to us by the fact that we are currently in the process of closing two new Charitable Gift Annuity contracts, totaling over a half million dollars. It's no coincidence that these contracts have come at the same time we began publicly promoting our new website and software. Additionally, we have seen our GiftLegacy website hits increase in each month since its launch. We haven't even scratched the surface as to what Crescendo can offer, and we are already seeing measurable success!"

J.R. Loofborrow Director of Advancement

"Mount Hermon Association, Inc. recently completed two significant gift-annuities. The largest was $500,000. Crescendo's eMarketing tools not only allowed us to provide illustrations, but also assisted us in answering the donor's specific questions. Thanks Crescendo!"

Beth Berger Autrey Divisional Planned Giving Director

"I received a call in my office from a woman, age 82, who was interested in a $15,000 Charitable Gift Annuity. As we discussed how Charitable Gift Annuities worked I found her to be very informed and inquired if she had other CGA's. She informed me that she did not, so I asked how she knew so much about them. It was then that she told me that she had learned about them from our web site. While surfing the web she had come across our GiftLegacy site and had been intrigued. She had already researched how CGA's worked, what her benefits would be and had looked at the calculations. We set an appointment and within three days I had met with her and had a signed CGA application. When I returned with her document she was very excited to have become a part of The Salvation Army."

Diane Hutson Director of Gift Planning

"In August a donor's nephew e-mailed Union Rescue Mission using the "Contact Us" button on our GiftLegacy web site. The nephew requested information on setting up a $100,000 gift annuity for his aunt, an 86 year old widow living in a nursing home. The woman's husband had died recently and he had left a gift to URM in his estate that was going through probate. The woman was moved to the nursing home shortly after his death. The nephew explained that his aunt needed income to cover the cost of the nursing home and her husband had always thought of URM as a worthy cause. After receiving the nephew's e-mail, I visited with the nephew and set up the gift annuity to begin in September. The aunt received payments from September to December. In January of this year, the woman died and URM received the remaining annuity. Thank you, Crescendo, for providing this invaluable service!"

John M. Wall Senior Divisional Planned Giving Director

"A woman donor age 60 years old was looking for information via the Internet. She typed in "charitable gift annuities" and ended up looking at the sites of a few different charities that issue CGA's. Somehow she ended up on a Salvation Army site and was referred to me since she lived in Florida. The woman indicated she had no children, was not married and was looking to increase her income. She felt this would be a good way to provide for herself and support the local Salvation Army corp. She indicated she had visited the corp on previous occasions and ended up taking out an annuity over $100,000 using cash that was in a CD."

Ralf Stores U.S. Director of Ministry Partnerships

"Our planned giving web site has been up and running for just over 3 months. It often takes considerable time before a major gift is generated. Last week a person who visited our site inquired about a very significant gift annuity. Today Trans World Radio received a check for a gift annuity in the amount of $130,000. Praise the Lord for his wonderful provision!"