Turn your fundraising program into a gift planning culture.
Planned giving alone captures only part of what’s possible. Through integrated charitable gift planning, we help nonprofits align their fundraising strategy with donors’ full financial and philanthropic capacity—creating a culture where generosity flourishes across every level of giving.
Trusted Perspectives
“Heaton Smith conducted a rigorous review of our gift planning program, surfacing insights that clarified both our strengths and our greatest opportunities for growth. Their recommendations were strategic, practical, and actionable — providing a clear, data-informed roadmap to elevate our philanthropic performance.”
Comprehensive development program support that...
Uncovers opportunity
Build a culture where every gift officer understands and embraces gift planning as the path to your donors’ greatest impact
Drives buy-in
Create a compelling case for programmatic change, based on reputable data and real-life success stories.
Creates a collaborative culture
Break down silos between annual, major, principal, and planned giving officers, creating systems where gift planning enhances donor relationships and their philanthropic capacity.
Tailored services that generate real impact for your organization.
Gift planning FAQs for nonprofit development leaders
There’s a vast difference between having a planned giving program and building a gift planning culture. Most organizations are capturing significantly less than their potential because they’re stuck in reactive, siloed planned giving models. We help you shift to proactive, collaborative charitable gift planning that facilitates both immediate and deferred gifts. Organizations like Phoenix Children’s Hospital now generate 50% of their $75-90 million annual revenue through comprehensive gift planning.
We provide compelling data that makes investment a no-brainer. When boards see Federal Reserve statistics showing 96% of household wealth is in non-cash assets, research from Dr. Russell James on the revenue gap between cash-only and comprehensive programs, and case studies showing 3-5x increases in estate gifts, the ROI becomes clear. We help you build a data-driven case that secures buy-in.
Gift planning isn’t an addition—it’s an enhancement. We train your annual, major, and principal gift staff to identify gift planning opportunities in collaboration with the gift planning and the data science teams. Gift planning becomes a natural part of gift officers’ donor engagement. The result is larger gifts, deeper relationships, and more documented commitments without adding to workload. Our collaborative approach breaks down silos so gift planning enhances, rather than competes with, other fundraising efforts.
Our clients typically see documented gifts within 3-6 months and significant momentum by year two. The average blended and documented estate gift from this service is $458,000, and more than 60% of donors with whom we work document a blended or estate gift with clients.