Building Knowledge and Skill

About the Syllabus for Gift Planners

The Syllabus is a detailed outline of knowledge and skills that was developed by a team of experts assembled by the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners. It covers five domains of gift planning practice:

l.   Ethics and Philanthropy

II.  Donor Relations

III. Understanding and Designing Charitable Gifts

IV. Program Management

V.  Financial and Estate Planning

We believe that well-trained gift officers understand the implications of their work in all five of these domains. To the extent possible, we touch on all five areas in all of our training encounters. 

We educate and train your fundraising team in the context of your own strategic plan and the realities of daily work. 

• We interview managers and survey attendees to understand your goals and identify the gaps in knowledge that may prevent the team from reaching them. 
• In a series of on-site or virtual sessions, we systematically fill in the gaps by updating technical knowledge of charitable assets and vehicles and analyzing how they interact to create philanthropic opportunity.
• Each technical lesson includes case studies based on your donors and prospects so the team can apply new knowledge to their actual work and practice collaboration.
• We introduce methods for how your team can integrate Artificial Intelligence to become more efficient and effective in engaging donors in the life of your organization.
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The result: your whole team knows how to collaborate on prospect identification, donor strategy sessions and planned gift asks. To talk with us about customized training for your team, click here.

Case Studies

We believe in teaching the technical and relational aspects of gift planning in the context of donor stories, since this is where gift planning knowledge is called for and applied by our students. We use AI-supported teaching cases that involve donors with problems and opportunities related to their personal, family and philanthropic goals. Our cases are hypothetical, based on our experience with donors, and we can also work with our clients to develop cases based on their donor stories.

In 2026 we will pilot a new case involving a family challenged to transition a business and extensive real estate holdings. Within the specific details of this (and every) case are fundamental lessons about donor psychology, asset and gift vehicle characteristics and income and estate tax implications. Our students internalize these fundamentals as they collaborate on problem-solving for the family in our case.     

For individual gift officers

We offer one-on-one coaching to help any fundraiser become a more effective gift planner. We’ve coached inexperienced new hires and major gift officers seeking to build skills. The agenda for coaching sessions can be set by us, or by the person we’re coaching.  

For philanthropy office leadership

Management turnover is a critical time for any gift planning program. Incoming executive directors and VPs may have gift planning experience, but no management background. Or they may have management experience from fields outside development and the nonprofit sector. We coach any new executive director or VP of development through planning, budgeting, staffing, managing and evaluating the gift planning program. Our emphasis is on integrating gift planning into all marketing and fundraising activities. 

Case Study

Our client had just hired a new director for their gift planning program. This person had a long history with the organization and was perhaps their most productive major gift officer. We were engaged for a series of coaching sessions to help the director transition from major gifts to gift planning and become familiar with the gift planning cadence. Our conversations included long discussions on the various charitable gift planning techniques, how gift planning donor interactions differ from those with major gift donors, managing the gift planning program (metrics, prospect management, supervision, budgeting, reporting to leadership on program success, and the like), implementing a comprehensive gift planning marketing program, and being a sounding board for concerns and questions. 

We used a variety of tools in our coaching, including comprehensive complex case studies, traditional training on gift planning instruments, homework assignments for discussion, and active listening. Within a few months, the director was comfortable in the new role and launched successfully. 

For executive leaders and boards

Boards and executive leaders need to hear regularly about the benefits and basic tools of planned giving. We’ve served on boards and in leadership positions, so we know how hard it can be to get that topic on the agenda. We’ll make the most of limited time with a presentation that helps leaders understand the impact of planned gifts and their role in creating an effective culture of philanthropy. 

For Donors

The best use of fundraisers’ time is in one-on-one discussion with donors. In collaboration with your team, we can take on the planning and logistics. Then we help you present live or virtual group events that introduce creative gift planning possibilities to your prospects. We’ll customize the training to emphasize your mission and tell stories about gifts your donors have made. Prospects will leave the event thinking, “People like me do things like this.”