On this week’s show, I return to my favorite topic – fundraising. Many, many organizations – even 30, 40 or 50 years old – are not encouraging donors to remember the organization in their wills. It’s a huge lost opportunity and yet, planned giving can be an easy and natural fit into the fundraising and communications you’re doing now. It does not have to be complicated and it can be about gifts for today and tomorrow.

My guest this week is Michael J. Rosen, a certified fundraising executive, and President of ML Innovations, Inc, a fundraising and marketing consulting firm based in Philadelphia. He’s the author of the bestselling book, “Donor-Centered Planned Gift Marketing.” He also is an adjunct professor at Drexel University where he teaches a course on advanced fund development. Finally, he is a recipient of the prestigious Skystone Prize for Research in Fundraising and Philanthropy from the international Association of Fundraising Professionals.

You’ll come away from this show with just enough information to talk internally about how to incorporate planned giving into your current fundraising program and to get started. A great companion Nonprofit Spark episode is Planned gifts and endowment primer which aired on September 19, 2011.