Creating Planned Giving Conversations Within Your Shop

A Little or a Lot? Creating Planned Giving Conversations In Your Shop

There is an enormous transfer of wealth underway in our country, and if you are not talking to committed donors about the array of planned giving options to meaningfully impact your organization’s mission and vision, you may be missing a big opportunity!

On February 5th, the Planned Giving Council of Middle Tennessee will present a seasoned panel of professionals to share their experiences creating meaningful planned giving efforts within comprehensive development programs in small, medium and larger shops with small, medium and large budgets.

Please join us to hear from Anthony Barclay, Senior Advisor for Planned Giving at Vanderbilt University; Christy Passmore, Senior Advisor of Vision Philanthropy Group; and Paige Matthews, Director of Development at the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia as they share their vast experiences and perspectives on creating planned giving conversations for your specific needs.

Anthony Barclay

Vanderbilt University

Senior Advisor for Gift Giving

As Senior Advisor for Gift Planning at Vanderbilt, Anthony works with all schools and units on campus and senior administration to solicit and close revocable deferred gifts, life-income plans and gifts of unique assets. Additionally, he provides guidance for planned giving marketing and the undergraduate and graduate/professional school reunion planned giving fundraising programs.

Prior to Vanderbilt, Anthony was the Director of Estate and Asset Services for the American Cancer Society in North Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. Anthony also served as the Director of Planned Giving at Mississippi University for Women, the first public university for women in the country.

Anthony is a past board member, treasurer and president of the Middle Tennessee Planned Giving Council and is a graduate of Mississippi State University. Anthony is married to Laurie and they have a daughter, Annie, who is a freshman at Ole Miss.

Paige Matthews

Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia

Director of Development

After earning her bachelor’s degree in communications from Middle Tennessee State University, Paige began her career in admissions marketing with Lambuth University, Jackson, TN. She then became Director of Communications & Community Relations for the Jackson City Schools.

In 1990, she was hired as The Dominican Campus Director of Institutional Advancement where she successfully created and implemented development and marketing programs.

In 1997, she founded PageOne Marketing and Development, whose clients included a Catholic high school and elementary schools, adult day care center, and a retreat center. She also worked part-time as Development Director for Centerstone — Highland Rim area.

In 2004, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia were three years into a $45,000,000 capital campaign. Paige was hired as the first Development Director responsible for completing the capital campaign, and transitioning the community into ongoing fundraising. She completed the campaign’s major gifts phase and developed the campaign’s general phase all of which helped to exceed the goal by raising more than $46,000,000. In 2005, Paige drafted a document to establish and manage the endowment for the Dominican Sisters. She also developed a comprehensive six-year fundraising plan and at the conclusion of the first six-year term in 2012, the Congregation had exceeded its fundraising goals. The endowment started in 2006 with an amount of “0” is well on its way to the short-term goal. Paige is currently directing development efforts for three capital projects in addition to raising annual support for the Dominican sisters’ operational needs and endowment.

She serves as a consultant to 15 non-profits. An Association of Fundraising Professionals member since 1992, she presently serves on the local Board. She is a member of Partnership for Philanthropic Planning and on the local board since 2006. Paige is a CFRE and was named AFP Nashville’s 2014 Fundraising Professional of the Year.

Christy Passmore

Vision Philanthropy

Senior Advisor

Christy Passmore has enjoyed almost 40 years of fundraising success in major and planned gifts, campaign planning, implementation and management, and volunteer and board leadership development. Her addition to Vision Philanthropy Group (VPG) as Senior Advisor (July 2022) taps into each area of VPG’s BOLD ASKING® program (Full biography can be found at visionphilanthropy.com).

Conversational planned giving has been part of Christy’s training and practice since 1990 when she joined the development team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her 21-year career at Vanderbilt was peppered with campaigns, significant major gifts
and several distinguished planned gifts including an $18 million bequest benefitting the School of Nursing and Monroe Carell, Jr. Childrens Hospital.

She retired from Vanderbilt in 2011 and quicky discovered she missed her favored role of one-on-one conversations with prospective donors when connecting them to their passion and philanthropic intent to create change. She joined the Chi Omega Foundation in 2011 and spent almost 11 years raising gifts for her collegiate sorority’s educational mission including leadership development and wellness and safety education. Orchestrating two campaigns during her tenure, she also encouraged the Foundation’s Trustees to invest in a longer term planned giving strategic marketing relationship with a specialized vendor. That relationship began in 2016 with a three-year contract and still exists in 2024.

A native of Union City, TN, Christy is a proud graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM). She graduated (With Honors) with a degree in Early Childhood Education (certified K-9) and was a public school teacher for three years. She is a member of the UTM Alumni Council and the Board of the Planned Giving Council of Middle Tennessee. Christy resides in Nashville.