How to Fix Planned Giving Pipeline Leaks from Wills to Reports
Many organizations do a good job of getting supporters to create online wills, but capturing the final commitment is harder. When a supporter completes a digital will and never notifies your organization, your planned giving pipeline has a gap at the exact point where the gift becomes real.
You may have a legacy gift on the way and no record of it, no way to thank the supporter, and nothing to include in your forecasts. Closing that gap turns an anonymous future gift into a measurable, stewardable relationship. Doing it well takes more than a will tool on its own: you need an automation platform that integrates cultivation, documentation, and reporting into a single workflow.
The five stages below walk through that process, from promoting your online will tool to reporting gift intentions to your board. Let’s begin!
Promote Online Will Creation to the Supporters Most Likely to Use It
Supporters who already feel close to your mission are the most natural first audience for an online will tool. Reaching them comes down to three things: how easy the tool is to use, where supporters see it, and how well you know the people you are inviting.
Connect with these supporters using these strategies:
- Offer an intuitive, accessible online will tool: Provide an experience with as few barriers as possible, so supporters can move through their estate planning and name your organization as a beneficiary without needing outside help. Feature it on your Ways to Give page and any dedicated page that supports your planned giving program, with a short note on what supporters get: a guided, free will that lets them name the causes they care about.
- Build awareness with targeted campaigns: Use digital advertising and email campaigns focused on the impact of legacy gifts. Cause-related imagery that reflects the age and interests of your target supporters helps your message get noticed in a crowded inbox or feed, and keeping the first ask light invites supporters to consider a legacy gift without feeling rushed into one.
- Improve targeting with prospect research: Add wealth indicators to supporter profiles using donor data enrichment, so you can spot supporters with a strong connection to your mission early, without long or intrusive intake forms. Combine those fields with giving history and years of support to identify prospective legacy donors, then invite that group first.
Before your next campaign, pull a list of your longest-tenured recurring donors and send them the first invitation. Their completion rate becomes the baseline you measure every later campaign against.
Set Up Email Triggers and Staff Tasks for Each Supporter Action
Every interaction with your online will content tells you something about a supporter’s interest. An automation platform can act on that signal right away, so follow-up never depends on someone remembering to check a report.
Connect the platform to your customer relationship management (CRM) system so that each download, click, and form view is recorded on the supporter’s record. Three trigger-based engagement workflows cover most of the journey:
- The resource download. When your supporter downloads a legacy guide, a personalized email series starts, explaining the tangible impact of planned gifts on the programs that the supporter cares about.
- The campaign click. If a supporter clicks a link about free will creation, the platform schedules a soft follow-up task for a gift officer, who reaches out to offer help or answer questions.
- The returning supporter. Past donors who recently paused their giving move into a specialized legacy campaign. Long-term supporters often maintain a strong affinity for your mission after they stop giving, making them a good audience for this message.
Mapping these triggers to structured cultivation steps gives each message a purpose, from first awareness to a conversation about the supporter’s plans. Build the click trigger first. It is the simplest to set up, and it puts a real person in touch with an interested supporter sooner than any other.
Build a Gift Intention Form Supporters Feel Comfortable Completing
The will is a legal document that belongs to the supporter. The gift intention form is the relationship-building tool that bridges the gap between that document and your internal tracking pipeline, because it is how your organization learns what the will contains and begins recognizing the commitment.
A strong form is short and conversational, and it includes:
- Basic contact information and the name the supporter prefers you use
- The type of gift being designated, such as a bequest, charitable remainder trust, or retirement plan
- A clear, comforting statement that the form is not legally binding
- An invitation to update your organization if future plans change
- A confidential section where gift officers track stewardship steps
Just as important is what you leave out. Supporters complete the form more readily when it does not include:
- Contractual or overly dense legal language
- Mandatory fields demanding exact dollar amounts
- Requirements to provide a physical copy of the entire will
- Pressure that makes the process feel like a final sales close rather than a natural partnership
With those removed, the form reads as a welcome to your legacy society rather than a checkpoint on the way to a commitment.
Ask two or three colleagues outside your fundraising team to complete a draft. If they finish in a few minutes without a single question, the form is ready to use.
Introduce the Intention Form in Three Steps
A well-built gift intention form still depends on a good conversation. The way a gift officer raises it shapes whether a supporter shares their plans, so treat the sequence below as a script for your whole team. Framing the form as a natural next step helps supporters feel that their wishes are being honored:
- Discovery. Hold a conversation about the role philanthropy plays in the supporter’s estate planning, and listen before mentioning the form.
- Invitation. Introduce the form as a simple way to confirm the supporter’s commitment and welcome them into your legacy society.
- Documentation. Guide the supporter through the form together, by phone or video if that is easier. Explain that it exists to help your organization plan for the future and to recognize their generosity today.
Record each conversation in the supporter’s profile right away. The next gift officer to reach out can then pick up where the last conversation ended, and the supporter never has to repeat their story.
Report Gift Intentions and Plan Stewardship Over Decades
Capturing the intention is one part of the workflow; reporting and stewardship are the other. Accurate reporting shows your board of directors the value of the planned giving pipeline, and consistent stewardship means each supporter hears from you for as long as the relationship lasts.
Incorporate effective reporting and long-term engagement into your will process by following these steps:
- Track complex assets: Categorize deferred gifts correctly (whether estate percentages, real estate, or retirement accounts) using written gift acceptance guidelines to define accepted gift types and approvers.
- Establish automated stewardship cadences: Build a stewardship plan using email triggers and staff reminders to celebrate anniversaries, send impact reports, and maintain long-term contact.
- Forecast revenue accurately: Translate documented gift intentions into projected future revenue to guide leadership decisions on hiring, program expansion, and legacy marketing returns.
A quarterly snapshot for your board, showing new intentions by gift type, is a practical first report to build.
Wrapping Up
Replacing disconnected steps with unified workflows gives each online will a defined path into your records, from a supporter’s first click to a lifetime of recognition. Supporters are thanked while they can enjoy it, and your team gains a pipeline it can forecast. Begin with whichever of the five stages your current process covers least, and add the others as each one starts running smoothly.
