Dr. Barton on Planned Giving

You know, many colleges and universities are uncertain how much time they should put into planned giving work to develop resources for the future, and part of the challenge is they only have so many dollars to put into development staff, and those folks need to focus on raising the budget for this year. But it's not good stewardship to always be looking at only short-term. So I really encourage small Christian colleges and universities—even though you probably can't afford a full-time planned giving staff—that your major donor staff be trained in planned giving and know the basics of planned giving so that when they're out there talking to constituents, talking to donor prospects, they just know enough about planned giving to be able to encourage people to leave them in their wills and trusts. And if someone wants to do an immediate planned gift, a charitable trust or a gift annuity, have professionals that will volunteer and help and come alongside their staff to help complete those planned gifts.