I’m writing a year-long series of articles for GuideStar to help nonprofits get started in Planned Giving with a bequest marketing program. The penultimate, fifth article, is out today.

While it’s probably too late to start your program in this, the fourth quarter, you can start planning for 2011. The series has been going since February.

If you really want to dig into bequest marketing, here are the first, second, third and fourth pieces. They build on each other to lead you through the process of inaugurating your program.

Bequests are the place to start your Planned Giving program. They are always the most popular gift in any program, regardless of what type of work you do and who your donors are. Why? I explained that in this November 2009 GuideStar gem, “Get Going On Planned Giving.”