International Relief Fund Case Study

Executive Summary

This is the true story of an international relief organization that grew its endowment from $75 million to $225 million from 2018–2025, ultimately tripling its size and achieving - years ahead of schedule - a goal originally set for a ten-year period.

This success was not the result of a single tactic or partner. Rather, it was driven by a three-legged stool:

Strategic assessment, plan, and projections by Richard Perry of Giving Pathways.
Effective donor engagement, qualification, and cultivation through MarketSmart
Visionary leadership and execution by the Planned Giving Director at the nonprofit.

Remove any one of these legs, and the outcome would have been materially different.

The Goal: Doubling the Endowment

In 2018 the organization’s endowment stood at $75 million. Their goal was ambitious but clear: double the endowment to $150 million over ten years (2018–2028).

To build a credible plan and secure leadership and Board buy-in the organization’s leadership engaged Richard Perry the Founder of Veritus Group and Giving Pathways to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the organization’s planned giving program and develop a plan to achieve the agreed upon goal. Richard’s role was pivotal. He:

Evaluated the organization’s donor base and long-term growth potential
Modeled realistic planned giving outcomes over time
Identified the staffing and budget investments required to succeed
Helped make a compelling, third-party case to leadership for adequate resourcing
Recommended MarketSmart as a core engagement and qualification engine

At the time, the organization and Planned Giving Director had no prior knowledge of MarketSmart. The recommendation came directly from Richard’s plan and became a turning point in the program’s trajectory.

The Shift: From Fading Print to Scalable Digital Engagement

After years of relying on print for planned giving outreach, the organization recognized diminishing returns and rising costs. This shift in performance ultimately led the Director of Planned Giving to adopt Richard’s recommendation and partner with MarketSmart.

MarketSmart introduced a modernized, digital engagement model, supported by targeted mail, that allowed the organization to:

Reach large segments of donors efficiently
Identify planned giving interest without requiring meetings or solicitations
Surface “warm” and “hot” prospects from a broad universe
Focus limited staff time on the highest-potential opportunities while using automation to nurture supporters still in a “maybe” stage

The results were immediate and instructive. MarketSmart campaigns consistently outperformed internal benchmarks. For example:

Hundreds of supporters self-identified that the organization was already in their estate plans or they had interest in making a legacy gift.
Email open rates through MarketSmart were significantly higher than the organization’s internal emails
Surveys, microsites, and form activity generated actionable insight not previously available to the organization

Beyond planned giving, this data proved valuable across the organization, demonstrating the broader strategic value of donor engagement intelligence.

Building the Pipeline Before Building the Team

At the outset, the Planned Giving Director operated as a department of one. Although a phased hiring plan had been developed with Richard, leadership was unwilling to expand without clear evidence of opportunity. Over the following two years, the Director of Planned Giving built a visible and defensible pipeline of qualified prospects - ultimately earning leadership’s approval to grow the team. MarketSmart was instrumental in this progress, providing concrete engagement signals - survey responses, email interactions, website activity, downloads, and disclosures - at a time when donors were increasingly resistant to traditional meetings and solicitations.

The Planned Giving team recognized a critical truth:

Most planned and major gifts require 18–36 months to move from initial engagement to realization - whether or not meetings occur.

MarketSmart allowed the Planned Giving team to demonstrate progress during that long cultivation window, even when traditional metrics (like face-to-face visits) lagged. Over time, the growing pipeline made the case for the investment in additional staff unmistakable.

As a result, the Planned Giving team was able to:

Expand staffing to engage “maybes” while the Planned Giving Director focused on top prospects
Secure budget increases aligned with proven opportunity
Transition from reactive fundraising to proactive portfolio management

This sequencing - pipeline first, staffing second - proved to be a key driver of the program’s sustainability.

The Results: Growth, Consistency, and Validation

From 2018–2025:

Annual realized planned gift revenue grew from ~$3 million to ~$25 million per year, increasing consistently year over year
The endowment reached $225 million, exceeding the original goal by 50%
Exceptional gifts totaling $75 million help to accelerate the outcome.
Even excluding those two large gifts, the organization still achieved its original goal of doubling the endowment

The organization and Planned Giving Director credit MarketSmart’s prospect identification and qualification as a major driver of this success supported by Richard’s original plan and projections which provided leadership with the confidence to financially support the initiative.

Why This Worked

This case study illustrates a lesson many fundraising leaders struggle to operationalize:

You cannot achieve fundraising success without a comprehensive plan that provides a path that leadership can support and finance
You cannot produce a plan that grows staff and budget without first growing the pipeline

You cannot grow the pipeline if you only engage the same donors year after year
And you cannot prove pipeline health if meetings are your only metric

By aligning Giving Pathway’s strategic roadmap, MarketSmart’s engagement intelligence, and the nonprofit’s leadership and execution, the organization built a modern planned giving program capable of sustained, scalable growth.

Today, Richard continues to provide expert guidance through organization assessments, strategic plans, and coaching via Giving Pathways. And MarketSmart continues to partner with organizations and consultants seeking to grow their planned and major giving pipelines.

About MarketSmart's Engagement Fundraising System.

Fundraisers, nonprofit leaders, and board members come to MarketSmart when they realize their traditional fundraising efforts are no longer working.

We help them implement our 'Engagement Fundraising System’—a powerful ‘done-for-you' software and service duo that helps fundraisers pre-qualify people for outreach and land meetings with the wealthiest and most passionate supporters when they are ready to involve themselves more deeply with your cause.

Unlike big data or mysterious black box wealth screening services, our System is donor- & supporter-driven. It inspires people to engage, explain why they care and whether they would consider giving assets. Then it signals when they need help—so fundraising staff makes outreach at the right times.

This positions your team for success and optimizes your operations. Plus, there’s no risk because it comes with a 10-to-1 return on investment (ROI) guarantee.