Making Endowment Doable for Your Nonprofit
The Endowment Building Institute
A six-session cohort program for nonprofit teams ready to build an endowment
Sessions are experiential, combining presentation, interactive discussion, and assignments between sessions. Teams work through the policies, donor identification, marketing, and stewardship an endowment and planned giving program requires. Cohorts run in person or online. Teams leave with a curriculum notebook, a copy of The Endowment Handbook, and the foundational tools tailored to their organization.
Session Schedule
Session One: Understanding Endowment and the Case for Endowment Support
Define endowment and reserves
Explore why it matters now
Draft a case for your organization
Session Two: Types of Gifts and Necessary Policies
Understand the gift vehicles donors use and the policies your organization needs to receive them
Session Three: Identifying, Cultivating, Engaging, and Soliciting Donors
Find what motivates planned giving donors
Identify the right prospects
Learn how to solicit with confidence
Session Four: Caring for Donors and the People They Trust
Design a legacy society
Build relationships with professional advisors
Set recognition and stewardship standards
Session Five: Marketing Endowment and Planned Gifts
Translate your case into messages
Identify priority audiences
Choose the right channels and messengers
Session Six: Measuring Success and Building on It
Define short- and long-term measures of success
Set performance indicators
Develop a performance management plan you can take to your board
Six Sessions
of experiential learning opportunities help attendees bolster their organization's financial stability.
Expert Presenters
lead each session and teach comprehensive, approachable lessons for nonprofit professionals.
Free Resources
like a curriculum notebook, The Endowment Handbook, and practical assignments are included with enrollment.
Our Process for Creating a Sustainable Planned Giving Program
WHO are you now?
We start by listening. Conversations with staff, board, and select donors, paired with a review of your policies, data, and capacity, give us a clear picture of where you stand. You leave knowing what is working, what is not, and what to take on first.
Who COULD you be?
We screen and segment your donors, develop a bequest valuation forecast, and identify near-term planned giving prospects. By the end, you have a number, tiers, and a list of names to work from.
Who WILL you be?
A workshop with your leadership turns findings into decisions. You leave with priorities your board will recognize and a scorecard sized to the team you have.
HOW will you get there?
The plan: an action plan, a starter toolkit, and a staffing and revenue model sized to your team. By the end, you know what to do, when, and who is responsible. Some engagements also include a planned giving case for support: the donor-facing narrative your team uses in major gift conversations, on the website, and at the board table.
Endowments and operating reserves, paired with a planned giving program built for your donors, are how a nonprofit becomes financially strong. They let a board and senior leaders plan ahead rather than react to whatever the year brings. And they give donors a way to put their values into something that lasts.
Our methodology is based on The Endowment Handbook, written by Benefactor Group’s Founder & Partner, Laura MacDonald, CFRE. We start by understanding your mission, your donors, and where you want to go, then design a program around what we learn.
We have worked alongside nonprofits on this since 2000, building endowment programs that teams can run, donors care about, and boards back.
Let's Connect
Whether you are starting an endowment, strengthening planned giving, or building reserves, we will build with you.
Our Endowment and Planned Giving Experts
Senior Consultant
Paul Yeghiayan is a Senior Consultant at Benefactor Group. He supports nonprofit clients in preparing for and running successful fundraising initiatives, and he leads the firm’s Endowment Product Line. His work includes planned giving and endowment building, campaign readiness, donor engagement, and strong execution.
With more than 25 years of nonprofit management, fundraising, and consulting experience, Paul brings both consultant expertise and front-line leadership perspective.
Founder & Partner
Laura MacDonald has worked professionally in fundraising and philanthropy for more than 40 years. Building on these experiences, she established Benefactor Group in 2000; a firm that has applied its founding principle of “serving those who serve the common good” by helping hundreds of organizations fuel their cause with powerful fundraising, people, and systems. As Founder & Partner of the firm, her counsel is sought by leaders in arts and culture, higher education, healthcare, human services, and other nonprofit causes.
Key Insights on Endowment
How Do We Fund Our Future? An Inside Look at The Endowment Building Institute
Wondering how to fund your nonprofit’s future? Get an inside look at Benefactor Group’s Endowment Building Institute and learn how to launch or grow an endowment with confidence.
18 Trillion Reasons to Plan Ahead
The largest wealth shift in modern U.S. philanthropy is already underway. Known as the Great Intergenerational Transfer of Wealth, it will move extraordinary assets from older generations to heirs and charitable causes. In December 2024, studies projected that $124 trillion will transfer through 2048, including $18 trillion to charity. Read on to see how your nonprofit could get a piece of this sum.
The $84/Month Playbook: Turn a Tax Break into a Donor Pipeline
Most nonprofits are trying to solve the same problem right now: Fewer people are giving. Not fewer dollars. But fewer donors. Participation declines are eroding the fabric of philanthropic giving in the U.S. Starting in 2026, the tax code offers something rare: a simple, donor-friendly incentive that standard deduction taxpayers (non-itemizers) can use. Read on to see the playbook.
