Title: Listening for Black Swans: The Key to Larger Gifts

Presenters: David Jones

Date: November 30, 2021

Time: 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EST

Many donors are reluctant to share important but sensitive family and financial information with their gift planner. Even when they are willing, donors may not know what information would be most helpful for the gift planner to know. This breakout session will emphasize how gift planners can learn to skillfully uncover critical donor information. The session will focus on listening for often over-looked key words and topics as the first step to uncovering "black swans"--clues that can dramatically increase the ultimate gift. In addition, this session will focus on easy-to-use words and phrases that can be used to leverage black swans into deeper, more meaningful gift conversations, and enhance the entire donor engagement process. Finally, attendees will have the opportunity to practice leveraging black swans using role plays, case studies and examples.

          - Describe how listening for specific information can lead to larger gifts.

          - List the three topics where "black swans" are typically found.

          - Apply the listening and questioning techniques in hypothetical scenarios.

David Jones

director of estate strategy, bailard

Dave Jones joined Bailard in 2020 after several years of consulting with the firm, starting in 2017. He leads the estate and philanthropic strategy activities of the Wealth Management Group. His prior work experience has focused on helping ultra-high net worth families on estate, philanthropic and family governance planning. He practiced as an estate planning attorney in San Diego before joining a multi-billion dollar family office at Merrill Lynch PBIG in San Francisco. Most recently, he was a philanthropic advisor to high-level donors at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his BS at Brigham Young University, and his JD and LL.M. in Taxation at The University of San Diego School of Law. He also holds the Certified Financial Planner™ designation. Dave lives in Austin with his wife and three children.

Group webinars are intended for CGP affiliated councils or groups of up to 30 individuals.