Turning 60: count to 7 and another Boomer turned into a prospect.

Planned giving is about "the people who've loved you, who loved you over a long time," Margaret Holman said. "You don't have to sell the organization" to them as you might a prospective donor, and with planned giving, it's "quality over quantity."

Holman, president of New York City-based Holman Consulting, Inc. presented "Making the Most of Your Planned Giving Marketing Dollar" during a workshop at the recent Fundraising Day in New York 2006.

People usually don't make a planned giving gift until a "life event," Holman said. Demographics, psychology, technology--all play a part in the strategies that a planned giving marketing program might employ. Holman outlined some of the significant differences in terms of the demographics of potential contributors.

The G.I. Generation, typically those born between 1901 and 1924, is the most philanthropic generation ever. Almost 8,000 members of this generation are dying each day and most of those still alive are women and widows, Holman said. Women of the G.I. Generation favor bequests, she said, because they know it's a time when they won't need their money.

Members of The Silent Generation are generally conformists who started their families at a young age. Born between 1925 and 1945, these citizens are in their "prime planned giving years," Holman said, although they are a very small segment. They have seen lots of change and have different memories of seminal events in history.

Holman explained that capital campaigns currently are suffering because of the fewer numbers of people remaining from The Silent Generation, which tends to support such initiatives.

Baby Boomers "could he the big savings of planned giving," Holman said. There are more than 80 million Boomers and between 3 and 4 million members of this generation will turn 60 this year. In other words, almost 8,000 Boomers per day will turn 60 in 2006. Put yet another way, every seven seconds for the next 18 years a Boomer will be turning 60.

Boomers might be the most affluent generation but they have a fear of outliving resources earlier than other generations, Holman said, sandwiched between taking care of their children and their parents. While their parents had steady pension plans for retirement, many Boomers don't expect much help from Social Security by the time they hit retirement--if they do decide to retire. Boomers are considered the "me" generation when it comes to philanthropy, and are not as charitable as other generations.

Boomers experienced a spike in the writing of wills after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Holman said. The average age for a woman to write a will is 81, she said, while for men, it's 72. The average woman who does have a will usually has seven.