Opening Remarks for Estate Planning Seminars

Good Evening. I’m (____name and title____) and member of Planned Giving for Portage County. On behalf of _________(sponsor) and Planned Giving for Portage County, I want to welcome you to tonight’s seminar.

Planned Giving for Portage County is a unique collaboration of nonprofit organizations and professional advisors who are working together to educate our community on the value of planned giving. We are very fortunate in our community to have such a collaboration.

For more information on Planned Giving for Portage County, please visit with one of our members here this evening or visit our website at: www.plannedgivingportagecounty.org.  We also have placed nonprofit and advisor booklets on your tables for you to take at the end of the seminar.

Tonight you’ll hear a little bit about how charitable giving can be a benefit to you.  You may be surprised to hear that there are many tax saving advantages to taking care of your family and your favorite charity at the same time. 

At “half-time”, I invite you to visit with each of the nonprofits that are with us tonight to learn more about their missions and how you can leave a legacy through your planned gift. If nothing else, the cookies will be interspersed amongst the non-profit displays. We hope that as each of you leave tonight, you feel more confident and comfortable considering your favorite nonprofit organization as you do your planning.

I’d like to extend a special thank you to _________(sponsor) for their expertise in developing and presenting tonight’s program. We appreciate their continued willingness to co-sponsor these educational opportunities on behalf of the nonprofit organizations involved in Planned Giving for Portage County. In addition to those presenting this evening, we would like to particularly thank the staff ___________(names) who performed much of the behind-the-scenes work.

Also, thank you to _________________ for the use of this fine facility.

Following tonight’s presentation, we will have a question and answer session. There are index cards on your table to write your questions on anonymously. These will be collected at the end of the presentation and answered by the presenters. 

Did everyone get an index card?

Does anyone need an outline?

There will be a break about halfway through with refreshments located on each of the nonprofit’s display tables.

Restrooms are located ______________________________.

You should have received an evaluation form with your outlines. These evaluation forms provide valuable feedback to help with the planning for our future educational opportunities. They will be collected by the nonprofit organizations as you leave.  

At this time, I’m pleased to introduce our first speaker ____________________.