The world of planned giving can take you places you never thought possible.  If you have worked in the industry for a long time, the previous sentence may have unleashed your imagination. You could be remembering stately homes you’ve visited in unexplored neighbourhoods, or perhaps the gorgeous gifts-in-kind you’ve received; that glorious artwork or piece of jewelry. Well, yeah, those things are pretty interesting, but what’s really neat is reading obituaries.

Every day the planned giving department at the University of Victoria undertakes this strange and wonderful task.  Every day we scour the online obituaries and compare the names there to the ones in our database.  Every day we’re brought to tears, or giggles, or a state of bewilderment by the stories we find.

Here are a few "obit" excerpts that have recently caught our eyes (names have been changed to maintain privacy):     

• She was one of "Churchill's geese" and as with many who found themselves part of this secret and clandestine world, listening and decoding the enemy's day-by-day war plans, Astrid was challenged and pushed to her limits. Yet in her words, she "did the job because that is what one did." 
• Emily and her sister Elizabeth Whitney enjoyed an active retirement together for 21 years, visiting their children and grandchildren across Canada, aka "The Greyhound Grandmas."
• He'd gladly have stolen the shirt off your back and he was generous to a fault with other people's money…Of late, Edward had to travel to and from these places on his senior's scooter, which he drove as recklessly - and sometimes as drunkenly - as he had driven his cars in earlier years.
• He had been blind from birth, but as he wound down, he told his caretakers that he could finally see - and that everything was beautiful…I've never believed in Jesus, angels or karma, but Marc embodied the mystery of human life as much as anyone I've ever known. I was proud to be his brother.
• Hey Old Boy, it's been four years since you last graced our shores. I've been working with your "friends;" wonderful young faces, many lost early, and none left now, I don't think. You would have loved to hear of my research this summer…I was so excited some nights I couldn't go to sleep. I'll send you the stories when they're ready. We are part of you all; and you are our taonga. The Storyteller.

We’re not perusing the daily roll call of death because we’re maudlin, ghoulish, or generally weird.  It’s an integral part of UVic’s stewardship plan.   We search for the names of deceased students, alumni, donors, current and former staff and faculty, current and former members of our Board of Governors; in short anyone who has had a relationship with the university.  If we find one of these friends of UVic, we immediately flag them as deceased in the database so no one will make the mistake of attempting to contact them.  We then alert the staff member who has the closest relationship with the person who has passed away.  This could be anyone from an Alumni Relations officer to our university President Jamie Cassels.  These individuals honour the deceased in a way that demonstrates the value of their relationship to UVic.   That might be a condolence note to the family (always hand-written, of course!), attendance at a memorial service, a tribute in the media, or another expression of appreciation for a life well-lived.

We’ve worked in small charities before, so we know many of you may not have the time or resources to do this every day.  We recommend a service call ObitMessenger provided by Legacy.com that sends you an email when the name of your charity shows up in an obituary.   We also know that small shops don’t deal with the deaths of their donors very often, but we hope we’ve given you a few ideas about how to commemorate the deceased when it does happen. 

They say nothing in life is certain except death and taxes. We find that reading obituaries is not only a great way to keep our records up-to-date, but also a unique way for us, personally, to deal with this reality. Nothing tells you more about someone's life than what people say about them after they die.  We find ourselves wondering what others might say about us and - we’re not kidding! – we have actually changed the way we deal with the people around us.  Life lesson learned.

After a career in print and radio journalism, Deborah Walker became a free-lance publicist.  She “fell into fundraising” when one of her clients, a small charity, asked her to be their Donor Relations manager.  Three jobs later, in 2008, Deborah joined UVIC's Planned Giving team and became Manager in April 2015.  She intends  to stay there until her expected retirement at age 82! Contact her, dgwalker@uvic.ca 

Miranda Harvey had her first taste in fundraising when she worked as a student caller during her undergraduate years at the University of Victoria. After graduating, she joined the Development team officially and is now Acting Co-ordinator, Planned Giving. Dabbling in everything from stewardship to campaigns, Miranda counts her Planned Giving experience as the most rewarding yet! Contact her, mharvey@uvic.ca