Would you like to plunge into planned giving but you’re not sure how to get started? In this session KUOW Public Radio fundraisers Melissa Laird and Sarah Freeman will share strategies and marketing ideas to help expand legacy giving at your organization from the ground-up.
The presenters will walk you through how KUOW created its new Legacy Society, the lessons that they learned and some tools you can use for planned giving marketing, stewardship, and major gifts integration.
If you are at a small organization and on a tight budget, this presentation will demonstrate easy and inexpensive ways to generate leads and grow your program. Veteran fundraisers will find new ideas to expand donor outreach and refine your messaging.
Sarah Freeman
KUOW Planned Giving Officer
Sarah Freeman earned her B.A. in English and French Literature from Western Washington University in 2004. She later earned a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature at The University of Connecticut where she remained to teach English Composition and World Literature for four years.
Sarah has worked in public media and fundraising since 2010, previously at KCTS 9 Public Television and as the Development Director at Hanford Challenge.
Sarah first joined KUOW in 2016 to help build the station's monthly Evergreen Membership program. In 2018, she changed roles to become the station's first Planned Giving Officer.
Melissa Laird
KUOW Philanthropy Officer
After a B.A. in English from Stanford and M.A. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, Melissa entered the world of financial planning at the James Feek Corporation in 1984. While serving in a customer service role there for nearly three years, she was introduced to strategies such as charitable remainder trusts. In 1987 she became the Planned Giving Officer at KCTS/9, Seattle’s PBS station.
Nine years later, Melissa became the Planned Giving Officer at The Nature Conservancy in Seattle. She remained at the Conservancy for 20 years and expanded her role to include major gifts. She was intrigued by many donor stories, including one that emerged in her novel, “Messing with God’s Country,” released in 2014. Still interested in stories about the Northwest and this place we call home, Melissa went to work at Seattle’s premier NPR station KUOW in 2017 where she works as a Philanthropy Officer.