Fundraising
Services

Are you looking for

Estate Giving Help?

GSB has partnered with Gentreo to make it easy for your organization’s members to remember your organization as part of their legacy plans and also so that you can support your members by providing them with an easy and affordable estate planning solution. Gentreo gives your members the tools to protect their choices, assets and loved ones throughout the changing circumstances of life. Gentreo offers state specific legally binding documents including a Will-based or Trust-based estate plan; Health Care Proxy; Power of Attorney; Pet Power of Attorney; and more for only $85.00.

We chose to partner with Gentreo because their services make it simple to include favorite charities as part of an estate plan.

Why use Gentreo?

• Gentreo offers planned and major giving tools that non-profit organizations can offer to their members
• It’s free for your organization, only $9.99 a month ($99 a year) for members
• Increase your planned giving while helping your members protect their families
• Personalized messages, documents and co-branding available free of charge
• Help your members throughout the estate planning process with free educational materials, webinars, events, and more.

Get Started! Contact:

Jim Schade, Consultant
605-940-2363
schade@gsbfr.com
418 Wren Cir
Brookings, SD 57006

guiding churches to develop charitable giving

Stewardship For All Seasons

“Do it yourself Stewardship.” That’s at the heart of GSB’s Stewardship For All Seasons (SAS). Created to teach pastors and congregation leaders how to design and carry out their own stewardship program, SAS will guide you to increased giving each year. Your congregation won’t have to languish for lack of money to fulfill its mission.

You’ll learn how to build a stewardship program that gets better and more productive each year. People will study the Bible, talk about generosity and money, learn the joy of giving and the joy of asking, and have an enjoyable time doing it.

Taking skills, experiences and know-how from over 35 years of working with charities and congregations, GSB has developed a way of teaching you how to do stewardship development. That’s the key word, development, day after day development – not just looking for the latest and greatest stewardship idea. You can learn to do it yourself.

For an in-depth dive into our Stewardship for All Seasons program, and to see success stories, click here.

Seasons: learn the Four Seasons of Stewardship, how they work together to help your people become more generous and to generate more funds for your ministry.

Annual Giving Appeal: Learn the basics of putting together an appeal for increased giving: focus your message, write your own material, engage your people, inspire them to respond, energize them to build their giving year after year. GSB can guide you into do it yourself annual giving appeals.

Special Gifts Appeal: A project or need not in the budget. Consider a Special Gifts Appeal. Congregations have found that one or two of these special efforts during the year can make project possible and also motivate people to keep on giving more.

Stewardship Seminars: Learning the basics of sound biblical stewardship becomes a foundation for effective stewardship work by your leaders and members. Workshops involve people in applying stewardship principles to their lives and to your congregation’s life.

Bible Study: Dr. Kay Conrad, a GSB Associate, has written Faithful Living+Joyful Giving, a thought-provoking study, suitable for small or large groups. Ties in with the six-week annual stewardship appeal. A Leaders Guide is included. (Available from GSB here)

Individual Study Booklet: Faithful Living+Joyful Giving – A guilt free stewardship study by Dr. Kay Conrad. Cost is $5.00 ea. (Available from GSB here)

Daily Devotional Guide: Prayerful Living+ Joyful Giving presents daily scripture references and prayers to coincide with the six-week annual giving appeal. (Available from GSB here)

Six Steps To Joyful Giving: Written by Dr. Robert Gronlund, founder of GSB, this folder lifts up clear steps people can take along their spiritual journey in giving. (Available from GSB here)

Synods, congregations and church leaders are delighted with the success of Stewardship for All Seasons. You could have similar success.

To reach a GSB consultant that can guide you in stewardship development, click here

developing yearly giving for non-profits

Annual Fund

Looking for more money to fund your operation? If fees you charge do not cover all your costs of operating, you need an Annual Fund: annual recurring gifts for annual recurring needs.

A productive annual fund is the life-blood of a charitable organization, providing a reliable source of significant income. GSB’s fundraising guides will help you generate annual gifts that will increase each year – gifts you can count on.

And we’ll teach you how to organize and manage programs within an Annual Fund. Each year you’ll get better at fundraising. Your staff and volunteers will enjoy the experience. And you’ll have more money than you ever dreamed of available for your work.

GSB will guide you to develop these Annual Fund programs to increase your fundraising capabilities.

Case Development For Your Annual Fund. If people don’t know why you need annual gifts, if they think your fees are too high (or not high enough), if they wonder what you’ll do with the gifts, then you need to develop or clarify your Case For Support of the Annual Fund. GSB will develop your Case so giving will grow.

Direct Mail. Letters raise money. GSB will write letters for you. Preferably GSB wants to teach you how to write your own fundraising letters which will result in significant increases in gifts.

Giving Clubs. Your donors will give unrestricted gifts and increase their giving each year. Learn systems and methods to involve volunteers in raising money for your organization.

Events. Necessary to bring positive attention to your organization, fundraising events can produce big results but can also eat up lots of time and resources if not done right. Let GSB guide you to efficient and productive fundraising events.

Memorials. Encourage people to remember your organization at the time of a funeral. Donors appreciate the Memorial Packet you provide them. A low-keyed program that produces gifts.

Major Gifts. Remember the 80/20 Rule: 20% of your donors will give 80% of your goal. GSB will teach you how to concentrate your efforts on your top donors and prospects and raise more money.

Organizational Gifts. Service clubs, fraternal organizations, churches, and other community groups are potential donors to your organization. GSB knows how you can reach these groups and gain their support.

Grants. GSB will guide you into the world of preparing grant proposals. Research to find where you may be eligible, methods to build relationships with granting institutions, and assistance in writing and editing proposals are ways GSB can help you.

start a campaign that keeps on giving

Capital Fund

Big plans. Big goals. Big effort. Big money. Big risk. Capital campaigns can move your organization to new heights. Substantial gifts accomplish significant goals. A sense of ownership of your organization is enhanced. Buildings are built. Momentum for new programs and services is created.

Capital campaigns are too important to fail… and too complex for you to try to do on your own.

GSB people are ready and eager to guide you on this part of your fundraising journey. We’ve been in your shoes as staff and volunteers. As consultants we’ve led hundreds of charities in their capital campaigns and learned from those efforts.

Let us customize and design a capital fund drive just for you, personalized to fit your situation and capability. We’ll keep you from making mistakes others have made. And we’ll engage you in learning how to keep more gift income coming in long after your capital campaign has reached its successful destination.

A successful capital campaign starts with good plans and a Feasibility Study.

Case Development for your Capital Project. GSB will design with you the story of your capital project, clarifying the need, urgency, importance and plans which will inform and motivate people to give.

Master Site & Building Plans. GSB can lead you through the assessment of your site, location of proposed buildings, design of new buildings and updating of current facilities. Good plans, professionally prepared, are essential for successful capital campaigns.

Town Meetings/ Focus Groups. Involving people in the planning process of capital projects means a stronger response to the fundraising effort. GSB will set you up to do your own Town Meetings/Focus Groups to generate understanding and support for your project.

Feasibility Study. When you can’t answer key questions that will assure a successful capital campaign, conduct a feasibility study. Test what people think of your project, of your work, of the goal and timing of a campaign. Take the risk out of a campaign. Call on GSB to direct your Feasibility Study and gain valuable insights that will lead to success.

Capital Campaign. GSB will custom design a campaign to fit your situation. Building on time-tested principles and proven methodologies, GSB will personalize your campaign and make sure it fits into the long-term plan for your development program. Raise big money. Raise up competent fundraising volunteers and staff. Raise up the profile of your organization and lift your organization to new heights of service.

this is more than just investing wisely

Endowment & Planned Giving

Assets that generate earnings for your annual use are essential for long-term financial stability. It’s called Endowment. GSB has fundraising guides with vast successful experience helping charities and churches start and build Endowment Funds and Foundations. A productive planned giving program is more than just investing wisely. Endowments grow most dramatically when this type of giving is promoted, encouraged and aggressively pursued.  GSB can turn your Endowment program from a quiet fund into a dynamic, productive effort, engaging people and securing big gifts.

Case Development For Endowment. Why do you need and want an Endowment? People will ask and they need to know. GSB will work with you to define the rationale behind your goal to build a substantial Endowment Fund.

Seminars. GSB Guides who work in planned and estate giving will show your people the many advantages to them of including your organization in their estate plan. Planned Giving is a real gift to the donor as well as to you.

Training of Volunteers. On-going guidance and training of your volunteers will result in effective fundraising of estate gifts and will assure your people are governing and leading using the best practices.

Promotion and Marketing. It’s never too late to start a planned giving program. Let GSB set up a system of encouraging your membership and friends to remember you as they make their plans. Your organization with either a one-person shop or several staff people will benefit from the counsel and guidance GSB will give. Click here to download our brochure.

Subscription Service. Simple. Proven. A no-brainer. That’s the GSB Planned Giving Subscription Service. Get the word out in a regular, disciplined, informative manner to your people. Be prepared to respond when they respond. Eight Newsletter Articles and Letters on the most popular ways people give estate gifts.

Training Staff in Personal Visits. As a staff person you do not have to know all the details of the various planned giving instruments. Rather you need to know what to look for when visiting your donors and friends. GSB will tutor you to become expert in knowing when and how to bring in the professional technical people.

Building a

Culture of Generosity