Stewarding the Ultimate Gift
CURRENTS Article Medical schools hold memorial services to honor donations to anatomy programs.

Bizarre Bequests and Strange Scholarships
CURRENTS Article The National Scholarship Research Service gathers data annually on some 250,000 scholarships. This story is about the 1 percent of those that are quite unusual, even silly.

Keys to a Fruitful Future
CURRENTS Article Planned giving experts discuss the strategies and vehicles that can be particularly successful during a recession.

Advance Work: A Will to Give
CURRENTS Article If older alumni and donors are your bequest prospects, you might want to lower your age range, according to a recent report on the topic.

Motive Operandi
CURRENTS Article Author Cindy Sterling conducted research concerning gender differences in planned giving at small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast. Among other things, Sterling quantifies the amounts and types of planned gifts women and men make, explains why women made their giving choices, and suggests strategies planned giving officers can use to strengthen their solicitation efforts. A sidebar identifies key planned giving terms with which all development officers should be familiar.

AdvanceWork: Managed Philanthropy
CURRENTS Article Last fall the U.S. Internal Revenue Service approved a new planned giving vehicle that allows donors to manage how their gifts are invested for up to 10 years. Developed by Winklevoss Consultants, the Donor Managed Investment Account program will likely appeal to donors seeking flexibility, accountability, and control in their giving.

Give and Let Give
CURRENTS Article Charitable gift annuities are a great tool for shepherding planned gifts to an institution, but unfortunately, few people fully understand how they work. The author, a director of gift and estate planning with 19 years of banking experience, explains the basic structure of a charitable gift annuity, predicts the future giving habits of CGA donors, and offers guidelines for marketing the CGA option to prospects.

AdvanceWork: Planned Giving Gets a Boost
CURRENTS Article A new alliance of American, Canadian, and European planned giving organizations is providing support to fund raisers around the world as they seek to launch new planned giving groups or improve cultural understanding and government support of charitable giving.

Seeing the Light
CURRENTS Article An informal online survey of more than 30 development veterans offers strategies for building and sustaining support despite a recession, problems with the stock market and state and federal budgets, and military actions. Advice includes continuing to conduct asks of leadership prospects, emphasizing the value of the institution’s mission, focusing on the most resonant priorities, and promoting creative forms of giving. This article is of interest to campaign and major gift fund raisers.

AdvanceWork: The Power of Planned Giving
CURRENTS Article Debunk these five common misconceptions to gear up this valuable area of development

A Big Plan for Small-Office Planned Giving
CURRENTS Article Coppes, a consultant who specializes in independent school planned-giving programs, offers advice for small development offices getting started in planned giving. Important steps include: 1) Articulate how major gifts fit into your institution's mission and vision. 2) Create a budget. 3) Get CEO commitment and board approval. 4) Hire a planned-giving adviser. 5) Identify potential givers and recruit a leadership team. 6) Adopt planned-giving policies and guidelines. 7) Coordinate plans with the business office. 8) Create a planned-giving society. 9) Create a marketing plan, newsletter, and other support materials. 10) Work planned giving into your major gift cultivation process. 11) Make personal visits. 12) Ask for gifts, but don't push. 13) Create a stewardship plan. 14) Organize, delegate, and follow up.

Eternal Gratitude
CURRENTS Article Effective planned-gift recognition and stewardship can prevent donors from changing revocable gifts and help cultivate future planned and outright gifts. An initial problem is identifying planned-gift donors, who sometimes do not wish to make their plans known. Once you do identify them, you can thank them with personal visits, letters, or phone calls; by maintaining personal contact; by developing a planned-gift recognition society; by offering token thank-you gifts; by conducting special events for planned-gift donors; and by naming them in publications. For donors of life-income gifts, mail checks with a personal cover letter and conduct periodic "customer satisfaction" surveys. Endowment givers should receive annual letters from the beneficiaries of their gifts and be invited to annual endowment appreciation events.