On this episode of the podcast, Brent gets a Planned Giving crash course from Greg Knott, Senior Director of Principal and Planned Gifts at the University of Connecticut.
This episode is for you if…
You want to catch a “Planned Giving 101” session.
You’re interested in the basics of annuities, tax optimization, DAFs, and estate endowments.
You are curious to learn how COVID has influenced the Planned Giving world.
You want to know about the key indicators of a good Planned Giving prospect.
About Greg…
Greg subscribes to the RAISE podcast, and he noticed that we hadn’t yet featured a guest with a Planned Giving role. So, he emailed Brent saying, “I wonder if you’d be willing to feature someone in gift planning on the podcast. I think you might be missing some good talking points in regard to the interplay between annual gifts and planned giving, among other things.” Well, Greg was right, and we’re grateful that he reached out to be our inaugural Planned Giving connoisseur.
Greg Knott’s first career aspiration was to be a chemist. And while studying Chemistry at the University of Delaware, he realized that many of the top players in the field were based in Germany. So, to Germany he went, and during his study abroad experience, he fell in love with Germanic languages and decided to pursue a career as a German Professor.
As fate would have it, Greg met his wife during their mutual pursuit of the academic’s lifestyle, and the two decided that it would be best to diversify their career paths. So, Greg set his sights on pursuing a law degree with a concentration in gift planning at St. Louis University.
Life and its twists and turns.
After completing his legal studies, Greg looked to the areas of the University that were actively hiring, and he landed his first job in fundraising at Bradley University. Since then, Greg has been using his international experience, legal training, and love for meeting new people to build a successful fundraising career in gift planning.
On this episode of the podcast, Greg essentially delivers a Planned Giving 101 lesson, and shares useful tips such as the characteristics that indicate a great planned giving prospect (hint: age and wealth don’t weigh as heavily as you might think). He also shares insights into how the pandemic has affected the Planned Giving world, how transparency and trust play a huge role in gift planning conversations, and how technology has affected older folks’ giving behaviors. He also talks pipeline challenges, young people making planned gifts, and how the nitty-gritty of planned giving conversations should always come after the storytelling and relationship building.
Greg got his start as a Professor of German, and his love for teaching is apparent on this episode of the RAISE podcast. Thanks for teaching us, Greg.
Want to work with Greg? The UConn foundation is hiring! Reach out to him on LinkedIn or via email at gknott@foundation.uconn.edu to learn more.