The most successful community foundations across the country have close working relationships with professional advisors — particularly trust and estate attorneys — and find that a personal touch is the best way to connect with them.
That’s part of the findings from a recent survey designed by the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties in collaboration with the Council on Foundations. The results were presented in December to the foundation’s Marketing & Community Engagement Committee.
“Professional advisors are critical to the success of community foundations in fulfilling their missions across the country,” said Julie Lauderbaugh, the foundation’s vice president for marketing and community engagement. “Our goal was to identify how those advisors like to engage with their local foundations, and the survey results are invaluable to us as we shape our outreach strategy.”
The community foundation shared the results, which were analyzed by a data scientist, with its peer foundations that participated in the study.
The survey looked at the different types of advisors and the most effective strategies and tactics for reaching them. It was sent to the top 100 foundations in the country based on asset size, and 57 responded.
Nearly all of the respondents (95%) said engaging with professional advisors is either very important or extremely important to their organizations.
Most foundations (96%) have found wills, trusts, and estate planning attorneys to be the most helpful advisors in gaining referrals. Wealth advisors, financial planners, and CPAs follow, in that order.
Personal outreach (96%) was the most effective tactic in engaging professional advisors, the survey found.
Other tactics that worked well include events hosted by the organizations, membership groups, targeted newsletters, board and committee participation, and philanthropic advisory councils.
The foundations that had the most success in engaging advisors reported that more than 50% of new funds and planned gifts in the last three to five years came from their referrals.
The survey delved deeper into analyzing the 13 organizations that have had the most success in connecting with advisors. All of them found the personal outreach and events hosted by the organizations were the most successful strategies for gaining referrals.
Most respondents (49%) fit into the group with up to $500 million in total assets, including the Community Foundation, which has about $270 million in total assets.
The next largest foundations had total assets between $500 million and $1 billion. Of those who responded to the survey, 23% fit into this group.
The largest foundations had between $1 billion and $5 billion in assets, and 28% of respondents fit into this category.
The survey found some differences in approach, depending on the size of the organizations. For example, all foundations found events that they hosted to be effective. However, the top 13 focused more on advisory councils while the others leaned more on mailers.
“The survey results will help us and our peer foundations be smarter and more targeted in our communications and marketing efforts,” Lauderbaugh said.
