A big thank you to everyone who joined us for last Wednesday’s roundtable!

If you weren’t able to join us, you can find a short summary of what was discussed, along with an audio recording of the session below.

Hosted by Stephen Follows (Catsnake: The Story Agency) and Helen Smith (RNIB), this roundtable focused on how charities can prepare for the upcoming great wealth transfer by improving legacy giving strategies by engaging with their current audiences and improving their communications outlets, team structures and credibility for future donors.

We were delighted to be joined by:

Hamish Shilliday, Head of Individual Giving & Legacies at Canal & River Trust – As legacy fundraising has become increasingly competitive, Hamish emphasised how important it is for both large and small charities to enhance their market reach with better communication, stronger local impact and tailored audience engagement. He continued to stress the importance of credibility over producing products to improve their organisations’ relationships with audiences.

Clare Sweeney, Fundraising Consultant at Keepace Consultancy – Clare focused on the Baby Boomer generational wealth, home ownership and values around generosity as a powerful growth opportunity for legacy fundraising. She also acknowledged that the sector is more competitive, but noted that leadership teams have continued to understand the importance of long-term thinking and investments in order to grow with the sector. Furthermore, Clare recongised that charities are better equipped and prepared to build sustainable legacy programmes for the future.

Highlights included:

• As legacy fundraising rapidly evolves and becomes an opportunity for growth, charities must consider strategic long-term thinking and investments to keep up with the sector.

• The Baby Boomer generation provides a powerful opportunity for legacy income due to the generation’s strong values and generosity to give back to charities.

• With competition continuing to rise, charities must consider how their cut-through marketing approach will not only connect with audiences and ask opinions, but increase their credibility within the sector.

• As charities progress within the sector, leadership teams are better equipped for legacy fundraising work and have a greater understanding of the value behind it.

Hosted by Stephen Follows (Catsnake: The Story Agency) and Helen Smith (RNIB), this roundtable focused on the relationship between legacy fundraising and brand – how the two can align to greater effect, and what happens when they don’t.

We were delighted to be joined by:

Rosie Baker, Head of Brand and Marketing at NHS Charities Together – Rosie shared the journey of a relatively new brand in the charity sector, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of building awareness in a crowded space. She spoke about the importance of consistency, emotional connection, and being front of mind when supporters are making long-term decisions like legacy gifts. She also explained how her team integrates legacy planning with brand campaigns to create more impact, and why brand should be seen as a tool that supports income generation, not just visibility.

Vicki O’Hare, Head of Individual Giving and Legacies at Scottish SPCA – Vicki reflected on the contrast between working in large and mid-sized charities, and how the relationship between brand and legacy can vary depending on culture, structure, and budget. She talked about the need to treat legacy as its own proposition with its own tone and emotional depth, while still aligning clearly with the wider brand. She also gave practical examples of navigating creative tensions, and why open conversations and shared objectives are key to working well together.

Highlights included:

• The idea that brand and legacy should not compete for attention or budget, but work together to build lasting supporter trust.

• How brand’s role in creating long-term affinity complements legacy fundraising’s need for deep emotional engagement.

• Examples of charities creating unified campaigns that serve both brand-building and legacy lead generation.

• Tips on working with brand teams, especially in larger organisations, to shape legacy messaging that feels authentic and on-brand.

• A lively discussion about standout campaigns – including Oxfam, WaterAid, and Hospice UK – that demonstrate how legacy and brand can combine to powerful effect.

This was the focus of our latest Legacy Roundtable, hosted by Stephen Follows (Catsnake: The Story Agency) and Helen Smith (RNIB).

Joining the discussion were:

Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo, Head of Legacy Engagement at Oxfam UK – Sinem took us through the journey of developing Oxfam’s bold new legacy proposition, Stay in the Fight. She shared how Oxfam moved away from a more traditional message (Let’s Finish the Work We Started) to something more compelling and activist-driven, aligning with their supporters' values. Sinem also spoke about the challenges of internal buy-in, the importance of testing, and how Stay in the Fight is now influencing broader brand messaging across the organisation.

Steven Dodds, Managing Director of Beautiful Insights – Bringing the research perspective, Steven highlighted the critical role of supporter insight in shaping a successful legacy proposition. He outlined the ‘Three F’s’ framework (Fame, Feeling, and Fluency) as a way to measure the effectiveness of a proposition. His key takeaway: listening to supporters, understanding their motivations, and being brave with creative choices can make the difference between a forgettable message and a truly powerful call to action.

The discussion touched on common challenges, from overcoming internal resistance to certain language choices (such as Oxfam’s use of the word fight) to ensuring a legacy proposition remains distinct and campaignable. The session also emphasised the need for charities to move beyond generic legacy messaging and stand out in an increasingly competitive space.

Key takeaways:

• A strong legacy proposition is more than just a tagline – it should be a guiding principle that influences all aspects of legacy engagement.

• Internal buy-in is crucial; engaging different departments early on can help integrate the proposition into the wider organisation.

• Testing matters – what resonates internally may not always work for supporters, so research is essential to refine messaging.

• Legacy messaging doesn’t have to be soft or apologetic; bold, direct, and campaignable propositions can have a much greater impact.

A big thank you to our guests and attendees for another insightful session. Stay tuned for our next Roundtable, and in the meantime, if you have experiences or challenges with legacy propositions, we’d love to hear from you!

From creating engaging TV ads to using online video to reach and connect with potential supporters, these campaigns require thoughtful planning, investment, and senior-level buy-in. Done well, they can be transformative.

This was the focus of our recent roundtable hosted by Stephen Follows (Catsnake: The Story Agency) and Clare Sweeney (Keepace Consultancy).

Joining our hosts on the panel were:

Elle Cohen, Senior Legacy Marketing Manager at Shelter UK – Elle walked us through the process of creating Shelter’s recent legacy film, ‘The People’s Manifesto’ and the campaign surrounding it. From planning to production, she gave us a behind-the-scenes look at all that goes into a project like this and shared some of the lessons her team learned through the process.

Rosie Kew, Legacy and Stewardship Manager at Centrepoint – Rosie spoke about her experience of working on Centrepoint’s first legacy TV advert, ‘The Runner’ and reflected on the impact it’s had since it was first launched in 2022. She shared how insights informed the film’s concept and their approach to online platforms, and discussed the challenges they faced in developing the ad through the pandemic.

Joining our hosts on the panel were:

Emily Ding, Gifts in Wills Manager, and Kali Milburn, Gifts in Wills Executive, from Canal & River Trust – Emily and Kali spoke about their experience running six legacy events this summer, with the added challenge of being a relatively young charity, with a newly established Gifts in Wills programme. They highlighted the importance of choosing the right venue and shared their thoughts on being direct with their legacy ask in event communications.

Sophie Cannon, Head of Individual Giving, and Grace Cunningham, Legacy Engagement Officer, from the North West Air Ambulance Charity – After scooping up a Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Award for their programme of Gifts in Wills events this year, Sophie and Grace spoke all about the planning and strategy behind their events. They also took us through how they measure event success and highlighted the importance of gathering attendee feedback to enhance future legacy events.

Joining them on the panel were:

Jenny Girdlestone, Legacy and In Memory Officer at HorseWorld – Jenny shared her experience of building a legacy programme from the ground up. She spoke about the importance of getting to know and building relationships with supporters, and how she used direct mailing and events to do this. She talked about what legacy income means to HorseWorld both now and for the future, and how a good legacy programme can not only lead to more pledgers but also an increase in short-term income. Jenny also emphasised the importance of creating a supportive environment where all staff can effectively discuss and promote legacy giving.

Stephen Rowland, Head of Partnerships at Farewill – Stephen discussed the legacy giving landscape and the critical role of data in optimising legacy programmes. He shared insights on will-writing trends and advice for charities on the optimal timing for engaging supporters, methods to maximise legacy gifts, and the most effective channels for communication. Stephen also touched on the demographic differences in legacy giving preferences e.g. pecuniary vs residuary gifts, and the changing attitudes towards will-writing.

Audrey Cornelius, Director of Fundraising at British Liver Trust & Children’s Liver Disease Foundation – Audrey spoke about the exciting new merger between the British Liver Trust and the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF), and the lovely response she’s seen from CLDF supporters. Audrey spoke about the growth of their legacy programme, and how their messaging has shifted from focusing on the mechanics of will writing, to asking their supporters what they want their personal legacy to be. She also shared how they focus on two legacy campaigns annually, utilising email, direct mail, and social media in an innovative way.

Useful Links and Resources

Farewill Insights: Optimising your Legacy Fundraising

We were delighted to be joined by:

• Daisy Board, Senior Legacy and In-memory Executive from Shelter – Daisy shared her experience of being the first dedicated In-Memory Officer at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, and spoke about the work she does now, splitting her time between legacy and in-memory at Shelter. She also spoke about the resilience and potential of in-memory giving as an income stream for charities, highlighted the importance of donor stewardship and collaborating with other teams, and shared her advice on how to engage with in-memory donors.

• Meg Plenderleith, Supporter Development and In-Memory Manager from Royal British Legion – Meg took us through the different in-memory products they offer at RBL, including their Tribute Funds and their flagship ‘Fields of Remembrance’ campaign, and shared some future plans to expand on these offerings to reach a larger audience. She also spoke about the challenges of data capture, the opportunity that sponsorship products bring to the in-memory space, and the importance of creating a solid supporter journey.

We were delighted to be joined by:

• Louisa Emburey, Legacy and In Memory Manager at Prostate Cancer UK – Louisa spoke about the experience of refreshing their Gifts in Wills guide this year, the challenges of finding case studies and selecting the right photography, and also spoke on the importance of having both physical and digital legacy guides available and accessible to your audience.

• Kathryn Moore, Philanthropy Manager at Frimley Health Charity – Frimley Health are currently in the process of redeveloping their Gifts in Wills guide, so Kathryn gave us insight into the process and highlighted the importance of understanding your target audience. She also shared how they reach potential legators in their hospitals with physical leaflets and posters, and she spoke about the importance of getting internal buy-in and engaging with hospital staff, so they feel comfortable having legacy giving conversations.

• Emma Hazlewood, Head of Legacy Development at the National Trust – Emma took us through the National Trust’s Gifts in Wills guide, and spoke about how they updated it and how they try to maximise it’s longevity through the inclusion of inserts. She also spoke about which parts of the guide their supporters find most useful, the importance of data capture and monitoring downloads, and how they find inspirational testimonials and case studies to feature in their Gifts in Wills guide.

Useful Links and Resources

• Poll Results

• Prostate Cancer Gifts in Wills Guide

• National Trust Gifts in Wills Guide

We were delighted to be joined by:

• Chris Lincoln, Smee & Ford – As a Business Development Manager, Chris’s role is all about ensuring charities are equipped with the data, insights and strategic intelligence they need to increase their legacy income. He shared some of these valuable insights with us in the roundtable.

• Ellie Carter, St Barnabas Hospice – Although relatively new to the world of legacies at St Barnabas, in the roundtable, Ellie spoke about the journey the hospice has been on in recent months to develop a strategy for legacy development, including staff engagement and legacy marketing.

• David Pond, Keech Hospice Care – David is responsible for legacy income at Keech Hospice Care, and has over 15 years’ experience in fundraising for hospices. He shared some insightful results and learnings from the hospice’s latest legacy marketing campaign on Facebook, and revealed some key findings from a recent staff and volunteer survey.

• The importance of reaching and effectively engaging with Baby Boomers through tailored messaging and communication strategies.

• Identifying the most effective channels for reaching this influential group.

• How charities are adapting to the evolving landscape of events and digital channels to connect with Baby Boomers.

We were delighted to be joined by:

• Becky Lackey and Laila Awda from GOSH Charity, who shared their insights into how they inspire, and engage with Baby Boomers, and how they’ve tested new ways of telling patient and family stories. They also discussed how they reach this important audience, including the use of TV and radio as key channels, and the return to in-person events.

• Francesca Mills from Asthma + Lung UK, who spoke about the charity’s legacy plans post-merger, and shared how they are aiming to reach, inspire and engage potential pledgers with the new brand.

Joining us to share their experiences were:

Beth Follini, Fundraising Manager at Quakers in Britain, who joined us to:

• discuss some of the challenges (including recruitment) which Quakers in Britain have encountered in getting started with a legacy strategy,

• outline some of the common challenges faced by other faith groups for legacy giving, and

• discuss some of the key elements they are considering in a bid to reach a younger audience.

Jordan Miller-Hughes, Legacy and In Memory Manager at NHS Charities Together, who joined us to:

• outline some of the challenges and opportunities NHS Charities Together are experiencing as an organisation, following the phenomenal growth and change in focus in recent years,

• discuss how and what he is prioritising as he works towards setting a strategy for legacy, and

• share his experience (and tips) for smaller charities with limited resources looking to build a legacy strategy.

Useful Links and Resources

Donor Motivations Questionnaire (Beth Follini)

Sharing their experience and expertise were:

Clare Sweeney, Fundraising Consultant from Keepace Consults, who joined us to:

Tell us more about what she means by a ‘Legacy First’ approach.

• Discuss why she believes that turning the donor journey on its head is a smart approach.

• Share her thoughts on how charities can begin to implement this ‘Legacy First’ approach (and how to get the necessary internal buy in).

Lauren Jones, Key Relationship Marketing Officer from Greenpeace, who joined us to:

• Discuss the quick and playful response they made after legacy gifts to Greenpeace were mentioned in a popular TV show!

• Share her thoughts on why they were able to respond so quickly, and what broad lessons other charities could take from this.

• Explore why Greenpeace often need to think creatively and differently about channels and approaches when marketing legacies.

• To share some great examples of where they have done just that.

Useful Links and Resources

Clare shared some fascinating statistics from this research paper (see p.2423):

James-R.N.-2020.-The-Emerging-Potential-of-Longitudinal-Empirical-Research-in-Estate-Planning

Lauren and Stephen mentioned the following article about Greenpeace and the ‘Succession’ campaign:

‘So, you want to sue Greenpeace…’ by Miranda Barrie

Watch the legacy cinema advert Lauren spoke about: Greenpeace Polar Bears Legacy Cinema Advert

Our two fantastic speakers were:

Christian Taylor from The Kite Factory who covered the following four key areas from a media agency perspective:

• Distinguishing between Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation and uncovering their media consumption behaviours.

• Brand vs Activation – what balance should charities strike between driving consideration of legacy giving generally vs driving activation (engagement/downloads etc).

• Flighting – i.e. when are charities spending (generally March and September) and what is the benefit to this approach or alternatives such as ‘always on’.

• Profiling high value individuals – and thinking about specific tactics to reach this audience.

Dr Claire Routley from Legacy Voice who joined us to:

• share some updates to research conducted in 2018. She shared some highlights from the report “Everything we know about Legacy Giving in 2022” and what’s changed as a result of, or since the pandemic.

• shine a light on the link between legacy giving and psychological well-being.

• talk about her work on symbolic immortality.

Useful Links and Resources

Both speakers shared some useful reports and white papers which you can access here:

Legacy Audience Media consumption

Unlocking the high value heartland of legacy givers

We discussed online will writing, legacy administration and legacy events with particular focus on the transformation we’ve seen as well as looking at what lies ahead.

Our three fantastic speakers were:

Dylan Burke from Guardian Angel who shared his expertise in online will writing, and the growth, transformation and progress in this area, as well as looked ahead what the future might hold for charities in this space.

Victoria Jones, a legacy administration consultant, who shared her thoughts around why she firmly believes getting legacy administration right is as important as legacy marketing! Victoria also gave us some great tips around using Trello and the Lean 9 step process for process improvement.

Jen Corbett, Legacy Manager at National Deaf Children’s Society, talked us through all she’s learnt about running Legacy events at NDCS and her plans for events moving forward, based on all the things they’ve tried and tested.

Useful Links and Resources

2021 – A year in review (report from Guardian Angel)

Using Trello For Legacy Administration In Small Charities

In this episode our hosts Stephen Follows and Helen Smith speak to our expert guests on the topic of effective Legacy TV advertising.

Vicki O’Hare, Head of Legacy Marketing & Harvey Kirk, Direct Marketing Manager – RSPB

Finding an agency that understood legacies, storytelling and were able to help make sense of media buying made what was a new experience feel less intense.

Processes can take a while, giving yourself as much time as possible to reach out to the different departments across the organisation that will need to have some form of involvement in the process (Brand, creative, PR, legal)

Creating a legacy TV advert helped gain a large amount of internal buy-in and really raised the awareness and support for the legacy department within the organisation.

Taking a bold risk moving away from live video to try something new using animation was scary but was extremely well received.

Running events and acquisition campaigns alongside the TV ad has helped create high quality leads for the legacy department.

Being aware of campaigns, events and communications happening in the other departments of the organisation can be really important when looking at when to air a TV ad, as there may be opportunity to ride on the tail of brand awareness at a specific time.

Clare Sweeney – Keepace Consults (working with Eden Valley Hospice)

It’s achievable, even if you haven’t done this before, even if your budget is small and this is YOUR cause, so you can present YOUR legacy message in your way.

Focus on INSPIRATION, you don’t need to make people feel bad or sad. Think about the mission you set out to achieve and how this will make the world a better place, this is your legacy message and describe it as investable.

integrating the advert into many communication channels, recycle, reaffirm, and remind people about your message not only to make the most of your investment but to filter through effectively.

This activity can create a sense of community and inclusivity internally – a feel good celebration of what you do and how you do it.

Externally, you are reaching out to your family of supporters, and this is great, not everyone will let you know that they are going to leave you a gift in their Will, but this is an opportunity to invite those that want to, to let you know about their intentions.

Hannah Saunders – The Kite Factory

There is a misconception that people are moving away from linear TV to things like Disney+ and streaming platforms, however this is not the case for ages 55 and above, the level of engagement is growing more steadily in this demographic now than in the past decade.

In the last two years Legacy TV ad response has moved more online with an older audience becoming more comfortable digitally. There has been a surge in online responses to DRTV shifting away from what used to only be telephone responses, it’s important to note that both response mechanisms should still be in use to capture whole audience.

It is key to have a robust digital testing and measuring framework in place before launching TV ad.

To ensure best results, it is advisable to have a deep and thorough understanding of your target audience before embarking on the Legacy TV advert process. Having a clear understanding of what proposition messaging and creatives will work best with your audience, and knowing what makes them tick, is vital to success.

Look at timings in the year which are best for airing your TV ad. A hugely popular and successful time is around Remember a Charity Week, but this is often when many other charities will be doing the same!

Ideally have a budget that allows for learnings in the early phases that can be applied to future (and optimised) broadcasts of your advert.

They discussed the shared value in working closely together to amplify each other’s aims and provide the best experience for supporters who might be open to discussing a blended approach to their giving. They also discussed ways in which the charities can tap into the close connections that Retail volunteers have with the community.

Our speakers highlighted the important role volunteers play in building relationships with supporters and how they can (given the right tools and information) be the key to unlocking conversations around Legacies and further support.

Akhil Anand – Cancer Research UK

Making the case for working together and talking to each other’s supporters:

• The best way to demonstrate the value in working closely together is to come to the discussion with solid stats to support your case. Some examples Akhil shared included:

  • “Research from the University of California has shown that the regularity and value of lifetime gifts increases after donors add a charity to their will”.

• Based on page 2423 of the following Prof Russell James publication: https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/53/5/symposium/files/53-5_James.pdf

  • “Kite Factory research showed that ~80% of HV legators surveyed were also regular donors to multiple charities”. Based on page 8 of the Kite Factory report which can be downloaded here: https://thekitefactorymedia.com/2021/02/unlocking-the-high-value-heartland-of-legacy-givers/

  • Other research into the UK legacy market showed that supporters are 18 times more likely to include a charitable legacy when asked.

• Be patient and tap into the expertise of your colleagues before having the conversations with supporters. It takes time to change the mind of a philanthropist/legator to encourage them to take a blended approach.

• Think about how to steer a Philanthropist (who is likely to be focused on shorter-term impact) to see the value of legacy giving which is far longer term. Covid is a good example “Thanks to legacies pledged 30 years ago, our Charity has been on a solid footing throughout the Pandemic”

• Convincing legators of the value of major giving requires bringing them much closer to the work of the charity and what smaller donations might be able to achieve. This giving may increase over time with the right stewardship.

• Philanthropists are not afraid of big asks being made of them; they expect this. It’s how to take that ask and show the longer-term impact/need.

• Train and work closely together – top-down leadership and support is key. Think who your likely internal champion may be.

Pauline Harvey-Jones – Farleigh Hospice

Does smaller mean easier when it comes to“working as one team”?

• Smaller charities can be nimble when it comes to really working together as “one team”

• Smaller charities often recruit people with mixed skills sets who can turn their hand at many roles and work cross team more flexibly.

• Things tend to move faster in smaller charities – the ability to get messages out to certain audience segments requires less forward planning but this ease of getting Legacy messages out (for example) also means that the messages need to be kept fresh and engaging. Just because access and ability to include a legacy message in comms is easier, doesn’t mean it should just be always tagged on.

• If smaller charities have a “dedicated legacy person” other teams’ members can often assume it’s just that person’s role to talk legacies, so the challenge is ensuring others see it as part of their jobs too.

Making the most of retail volunteers when it comes to conversations with supporters:

• Ensure retail staff are fully aware of the impact they have as such a close connection to the community

• Empower them to help supports. Give them all the tools and information they need such as key stats around the impact of legacies, ways to signpost and key pieces of information they can share

• Make the job easy and inspire them to be part of the conversations. Provide visual cues and reminders for them in store

• Provide staff members with the tools they need to have conversations – so clinical staff for example, should feel equipped to have those chats and bring in the right people.

• Ensure all volunteers are regularly thanks. Hold meetings to enthuse new volunteers and show that they are valued and being listened to.

• Consider the hierarchy of needs “knowledge, tools, confidence”

Tim Rogers – Oxfam America

Some notable differences in approach to legacies or planned giving between the US and UK:

• Planned giving can include gifts from wills, trusts and IRAs as well as charitable gift annuities and other life-income giving vehicles – and any combination of these. This blended approach to giving is more commonplace in the US than in the UK currently.

• Conversations often start with the impact the donor wants to have and then connecting the donor to an opportunity where they can have the desired impact and discuss the mechanisms available to them to contribute in this way.

• In the US there are many mechanisms for making charitable contributions. This array of options can also be confusing to donors (it should always be about matching donor’s value to opportunity, not focusing the conversation around tax savings, for example)

• The UK benefits from very clear messages about legacy giving. Partnerships such as RAC exists to promote the normalisation of GIW more generally, whereas in the US its every charity forging their own path to promoting legacies.

Working closely with Major Donor Fundraisers – what works in the US:

• Major Donor Fundraisers work to set income goals – the idea of helping secure a long-term commitment such as a Legacy is not as attractive.

• Trying to train Major Donor Fundraisers on the technical aspects of planned giving is not something that would be of interest. They key is demonstrating how getting a donor to make commitment now plus add legacy, which means they are a donor for life and are part of the family!

• Its key to ensure Major Donor Fundraisers are trained to listen to supporters for cues – e.g. divorce, partner has passed away – these can be opportunities for conversations around longer term/legacy giving.

• 1-1 relationships are also key – in a Zoom world this is tricky. You learn so much more about someone’s life situation through genuine conversation. Keep details about supporters (family, pets, interest) so you can have real conversations where you bring in key details about them.

• The goal should never be about quotas (we need to have X conversations about legacies) The goal is to leave supporters feeling confident that their support has great impact. This needs to be the lead in conversation. The goal/KPI needs to be the goal of the charity.

• Rating donors on their wealth potential can also be a slippery slope. Don’t get stuck on what you see as someone’s “worth” – often the least worthy looking people can really surprise you!

• Never neglect people as they may have unseen potential.

Anaish Parmar – Legacy Engagement Manager, British Heart Foundation

Anaish started his legacy journey 6 years ago with an internship at Cancer Research UK and is now working as the Legacy Engagement Manager at the British Heart Foundation. He discusses the importance of developing a strong proposition to be able to effectively talk about legacies with supporters and partners, as well as internal teams.

To get other departments engaged with legacy giving, the BHF introduce their Legacy Proposition (which is called ‘Will Power’) within the induction phase for all new members. Anaish highlights the importance of empowering colleagues to talk about legacies and sharing stories of legacy donors and the impact they’ve had for the BHF to keep them excited about the potential of legacy gifts. He shares how the BHF integrate their proposition across the board and how having a strong core like ‘Will Power’ helps to get traction with people. One of their initiatives involved identifying the teams that had higher influence in the legacy sphere and developing internal strategies to incorporate legacy giving within their communications. At this time, their supporter journeys are quite linear and they’re developing CRM systems to get a better picture of how each touchpoint for a supporter has influenced their relationship with the charity and to see how they’ve moved through their journey.

Charlie Richardson – In Memory and Legacy Fundraising Manager at Peace Hospice Care

Charlie Richardson works as the In Memory and Legacy Fundraising Manager at Peace Hospice Care, a role that was only created a couple years ago when they identified legacy giving was a huge percentage of supporter contributions and decided to put more focus on it. For the charity, legacy was included within in memory fundraising as they were able to create a stewardship journey for those people who have benefited from their services and seen the impact regular giving donations can have. She discusses her roles and responsibilities at Peace Hospice Care and how she splits her time between the two areas. One of the key parts of her job is talking to patients every day and building relationships with them. She also talks about how to approach legacy conversations with their patients as it’s a sensitive topic and it’s important to provide the information they would like, but ensure they are not unduly influenced and to do this, she enlists a third person to help facilitate the conversation.

Peace Hospice Care are currently working on a campaign which will launch in October after ‘Remember a Charity Week’ and Charlie shares the details. As a medium-sized organisation, they were able to use their limited budget to create bookmarks and postcards for their charity shops which feature common myths within the hospice sector. She talks about how they’ve engaged their local council to get their literature included on media boards and magazines, and how helpful it can be to get local stakeholders involved as they can support getting the message out to the local community. Charlie also talks about connecting with bigger organisations who can be a great avenue to share leaflets and talk about the work the charity does. Drip-feeding legacy messaging is important throughout the year and she makes sure to work a legacy pitch at the end of every speech given by the organisation and discusses their year-long free wills initiative.

Chris Millward (Founder, LegacyGivingExpert)

Chris is the founder of LegacyGivingExpert and has been working in legacy fundraising for 15 years. His work involves helping charities of all shapes and sizes and at different stages of their legacy journeys. He discusses measuring success with legacies and the challenges that come with that. When working with clients, he finds the starting point is often internal, focusing on the culture and attitudes within the organisation. He stresses that we should always try to measure success in whatever capacity we can.
He divides legacy measurements into three parts:

• Short-term: looking at the specific activities undertaken as a wider campaign, measuring metrics such as reach, level of engagement, number of positive responses, cost of impressions/response/enquirer generation and any feedback received.

• Medium-term: charities should be running activities for a few years and use the cumulative effect of that to provide a framework from which the measurements can be tagged. This can also help to put people into different categories and see over time the potential movement across that model

• Long-term: looking at the money that’s realised and closing the loop on gifts left, which can be decades.

Some of the challenges mentioned by Chris included making sure to think wider rather than looking at how close competitors are performing, as organisations differ a lot and each one has its own journey. He talks about improving the culture within the organisation to embed a long-term approach and promote legacies, as well as focusing on immediate response programs. It’s important to make sure you try approaching legacies in different ways and to set you own benchmarks to aim for. Legacy fundraising requires a leap of faith as you can only offer a potential return and so internal stakeholder engagement is crucial to secure the resources and investments required to run our programs.
Chris has kindly put together six top tips for Legacy measurement and setting KPI’s. You can find a copy here

Ali O’Neill (Legacy Engagement Manager, RNLI)

Ali is part of a six-strong Legacy Engagement team across the country. Her role as Legacy Engagement Manager for the South East sees her focusing on stewardship of approximately 200 ‘high level pledgers’ worth £70 million in pledged income. High level pledgers are identified as those pledging above the average for the RNLI i.e. 50% of their estate or £100K pecuniary gift. In addition to the pledgers she is also responsible for engaging a variety of internal stakeholders including RNLI staff, fundraising volunteers, volunteer life guards and lifeboat crew. Each of these groups requires different levels of legacy knowledge and understanding. Key to her role is making sure all the different groups are on message.

To this end the RNLI are working towards a big training piece and have been segmenting their internal audience in preparation. They’ve developed a complex matrix in order to prioritise who needs training and to identify the level of knowledge various segments require. They have narrowed it down to who needs to be:

• Expert

• Understand

• Aware

Having identified these groups they are now looking at channels to deliver the training and a new approach to how they share legacy information and inspire and equip staff.

Tom Newton (Legacy Administration Manager, Shelter)

Tom has been working in legacies for the past decade and shared valuable insights around having legacy conversations with everyone involved in the administration process. He discusses that the key starting point is identifying the key audiences and taking the time to understand who we’re communicating with, as each person will have different needs and levels of understanding.

There’s a wider audience to be considered at this stage, including professional and lay executors, accountants, solicitors, family/friends, estate agents and funeral directors. We need to recognise that they all have their own responsibilities and it’s important to set expectations from the start, making sure we take a collaborative approach. His main point is to remember the professionals involved are humans and we need to engage with them on a personal level as well, reminding them how important they are in the process. It’s good to have a rough framework to follow, but we need to be flexible as we progress.

He discusses the current lack of innovation in commemorating everything and the importance of being more inspirational. Books of remembrance and lists of names in annual reports are good starting points, but he mentions some great examples of different approaches charities have taken to make this a positive and memorable experience for those involved. The Jewish Foundation of Manitoba create a book of life, capturing pledgers and legators and the National Trust tell stories about legacy supporters at their properties. We need to remember that we can only get those stories if we have a process of engagement established from the start.

Rob Cope (Director of Charity Development, Remember a Charity)

As part of the Remember a Charity team, Rob shared his perspective on legacy messaging and how to nudge people into legacy giving. At the moment, we can see a disconnect between the intention of leaving gifts in wills and the actual numbers of people who do it. He shares a key metric that shows just over 16% of all wills that probate include charitable gifts and the number of people who say there are happy to leave a gift in their will is increasing to 35% now.

Rob talks about how a charity’s job is to encourage all the people involved in the will writing process to open up and normalise the conversation around legacy giving. He discusses a benchmark report they had conducted which showed that the number of solicitors who have charitable giving conversation with their clients increased from half to over two-thirds in the last 5 years. Making sure solicitors, will writers and other advisors embed this conversation maximises everyone’s charity efforts and improves conversion.

He discusses residual legacy message and how there is a better joined up process as legacy admin and marketing teams are working more closely together. We need to understand it’s not just about asking, but our use of better language and education. Rob mentions a guide Remember a Charity have developed for financial advisors on best practice for charitable giving which will be released in a few weeks and will provide advisors with specific learning around this.

The final discussions with Rob centered on legacy marketing throughout the pandemic and the research carried out by them last year has shown that as long as messaging uses the right language at the right time for the relevant audience, legacies are always relevant and communications for it should still be continued. The metrics revealed that people broadly felt comfortable talking about how they can support their charities and people are thinking about end of life planning now more than ever before. We have an opportunity now as a cohort to take hold of this spike and maximise this opportunity

In this episode, we looked at the ideas and strategies for turning warm supporters into legacy supporters. Below is a summary of some of the key thoughts from our guests.

Jenny Kronbergs (Head of Gifts in Wills, UNICEF UK)

Jenny co-hosted the episode with Alexis Kreager, and shared valuable insights into her experience in the legacy sector, the importance of warm audiences, and why talking to warm supporters should be a core pillar of any legacy strategy. One of the biggest hurdles in legacy giving is getting your audience interested in your cause and gaining their trust for your charity – with warm supporters, these hurdles are already overcome.

She encouraged legacy teams to take the supporter’s viewpoint into consideration as often they see legacy giving as a natural progression of their lifetime support towards a charity. Jenny mentioned that someone who receives communications from a charity asking for legacy gifts is 17 times more likely to leave one than someone who has not been asked. This came from a Dame Greene study* and shows how crucial it is that sharing legacy messaging with warm supporters is prioritised as part of every legacy strategy.

Jenny shared UNICEF UK’s focus on legacy activity, including working with internal comms to talk to other teams about how important it is to communicate the legacy message to their supporters. She talked about the challenges around cross-selling and the fear among fundraising colleagues that supporters would stop their regular giving. However, according to a Russell James study*, the the lifetime giving for supporters goes up by 77% after they’ve made the decision to leave a legacy gift.

Richard Hill (Development Manager, Legacy Foresight)

Our discussion with Richard was based around insights from the Legacy Inspire project*, which had been conducted at Legacy Foresight. The project involved mystery shopping the top 100 legacy charities in January, looking at timing and accuracy, as well as quality of communication. The main aim of the project was to shine a spotlight on really great examples of legacy communications and inspire other organisations to improve their communications. As part of this project, they developed key elements on which the scoring was based, called the 5 I’s:

• Implementation

• Impact

• Inspiration

• Integrity

• Information

Together, all these elements help make an effective legacy communication which will leave a lasting impression on your supporters. Richard explains how a GiW pack can offer big opportunities for warm audience conversion and gave suggestions for maximising the value of a pack for warmer audiences. A couple of the top tips he shared included ensuring the pack is sent out promptly after enquiry and to capture the reader’s attention with envelope by using something like a handwritten address or imagery.

Alexis Fairclough (Head of Regional Development , Bequeathed)

Alexis has been working in the fundraising sector for the past few decades and joined us to discuss free will schemes. She explained that the first hurdle in legacy giving is getting supporters to write their will and barriers to this are price, convenience and reassurance. A free, trustworthy online will service can help remove these barriers – especially as in the current environment, people may not feel comfortable physically going to a law firm.

She shared some case studies showing the impact of using a free will service. One charity with 9,000 employees sent an all-staff email to promote their service with a legacy ask. Through this, they were able to uncover 50 new pledgers amongst the staff and 5 of these were residuary gifts. Alexis also discussed engaging with a wider audience such as existing corporate partners, who can offer their employees a free will. She encouraged anyone looking into a free wills service to do their homework and make sure their chosen provider is able to support them in the way that best suits their needs.

Helen Smith (Senior Legacy Engagement Manager, Cancer Research UK)

Helen joined the panel for this episode, with an insightful discussion around audiences we should be approaching and talking to. She talks about thinking of legacies as a “destination” and that all supporters should be aware that they can leave a gift, although we need to acknowledge not everyone will. It’s important that all staff in your charity understand the longevity of legacy gifts and your supporters should be the last to know that you’re implementing a legacy strategy.

She talked about the wealth of supporters we have across the board, including huge audiences such as volunteers, especially in trading. She explained why we need to make sure shop staff and volunteers understand how vital legacy giving is to a charity and we should always celebrate any success they bring for the charity. Helen also discussed the increase seen in legacy pledges from the lottery audience recently, which is catching up with the regular giving audience. There’s also a younger cohort who have come through digital advertisement on social media.

Helen reminded us that people will only give if they’re asked and that they need between 11 to 13 meaningful touchpoints with charities to consider leaving a legacy gift. It’s vital to have a supporter-centric attitude and make sure that legacy is in every communication, letting people know how much you’re funded by legacies. She also discussed how to build cross-selling into your strategy, starting with your closest supporters and looking at loyalty and frequency over value of gifts.

References

• Dame Greene Study: https://legacyvoice.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Legacy-Voice-lit-review_full-report_03.pdf

• Russell James Study: https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/53/5/symposium/files/53-5_James.pdf

• Legacy Inspire Report: https://legacyvoice.co.uk/legacy-inspire-communications/

Below is a quick summary of some of the key thoughts from our guests.

Helen Smith – Senior Legacy Manager, Cancer Research UK

Helen co-hosted this episode of the Legacy Roundtable and led discussions around the topic of KPIs within legacy fundraising and the unique skillset required to be a successful legacy fundraiser. She reflects on how legacy income has become more important in the last year because physical events could not be held and highlights their plans to take forward the different ways of working over the past year such as virtual contact for supporters, which has opened a new audience for them who were previously unable to attend physical events.

Helen suggests that it’s a great time to include legacy messaging into your communications, especially as the profile of charities has been raised in the last 6-12 months. Another key change in legacy communications is ensuring that content is tailored to a digital audience rather than a physical one. It’s important to see legacy as relationship management and supporter loyalty, rather than fundraising, and that legacy giving is a gift of trust. Therefore, a key skill for legacy teams is quickly being able to build relationships and trust, solving customer problems efficiently and making supporters comfortable.

Katie May – Gifts and In-Memory Engagement Officer, The Brain Tumour Charity

Melanie Day – Individual Giving Manager, The Brain Tumour Charity

Melanie and Katie talk about the importance of having resilience when working in legacy fundraising. You need a spend lot of time proving yourselves and proving the work is valuable which can be challenging without having immediate financial results. Trusting and having confidence in yourself and the work you’re doing is essential. Its also important to be continually learning – attending webinars, looking at Legacy Foresight reports, keeping up to date with the will-writing sector are all a part of building that confidence.

One of the biggest differences between legacy fundraising and individual giving is the timeframe as legacy has a long time between marketing going out and seeing results, whereas IG streams have a much shorter timeframe. This adds to the challenge of defining KPIs due to the uncertain nature of legacy giving. To overcome this at The Brain Tumour Charity, they think more about engagement metrics for legacy which give a view on how their messaging is landing and the long-term awareness being created.

A point both Mel and Katie make is that one of the opportunities for charities to increase their legacy fundraising is to see every supporter as a potential legator and that you’re creating a lifetime relationship. So, whether you’re fundraising for events or are on a support line, that relationship puts the supporter on a legacy journey. It’s really important to think about creating awareness by including legacy messaging throughout charity communications, framing it as a celebration of life and the impact a gift can have for many years. It’s important to remember to take advantage of the technology and use digital platforms to make legacy events accessible to more people.

Ben Eden-Davies, Assistant Head of Individual Giving, St Mungo’s

Ben draws on what he’s learnt from his time in telephone fundraising and how it applies to legacy marketing. He’s found that legacy supporters want that deeper connection and understanding of who you are as an organisation and it’s not as light touch as someone who is making a cash donation online. Although telephone fundraising has evolved over time and is used less, dialogue still has a huge part to play in engaging legacy supporters in all areas of their journey.

He talks about how with any marketing activities, you will start by defining the aims and KPIs and if there’s enough data and you’re able to build the right quant analysis from that, then you’re able to create a report which gives insight into the project. However, that’s not always possible and it’s important to look at all the different elements which come together to give insight at the end of your marketing.

To make legacy fundraising a priority and motivate peers in other departments to be part of the legacy funnel, someone from above in a leadership position has to recognise the importance of legacy and prioritise it within the organisation. It’s also important to remember that your job as marketers and fundraisers is also to sell legacy internally. Ben discusses how you can celebrate legacy supporters by using the experiences of the legacy givers to promote it and the importance of seeing legacy as marketing rather than fundraising, with messaging being drip-fed to supporters over time.

Jon Collins – Legacy Partnerships Team Leader, Cancer Research UK

Jon manages a team or partnership managers who build relationships with solicitors. He discussed the importance of engaging solicitors who are part of the free-will service and the best way to approach them.

When speaking to solicitors, it’s important to build a connection first rather than jumping straight into things. It always helps to acknowledge the legal/business environment and the uncertainty that applies to their business model, especially currently. His team’s approach to relationship building involves a solicitor journey which models the supporter journey they have in place for Legacy supporters. This tiered journey approach helps solicitors build an understanding the charity and become comfortable, over time, with supporting the charity through their legal services.

It’s crucial for solicitors to understand what your charity does so that if they are asked a question by a client relating to your charity, they are well-informed, and in a position to support. It should be front of mind that you’re not trying to sell something, but rather are simply providing information. KPIs for improving solicitor relationships and free-will services look at performance level and output from the free-will service to see the outcome from the session. If the output isn’t high, then it’s often the solicitors aren’t fully briefed on what the charity does and how the free-will service works. You can build on the solicitor relationship by letting them know the value of legacy gifts they have facilitated over time.

Ben Garner – Senior Consultant, Charity People

With his expertise in recruitment for the charity sector, Ben discusses the challenges with hiring legacy roles and the key skills that people should be focussing on if looking for a new legacy role or looking to move into a leadership role in Legacy fundraising. Some of the key criteria for candidates include:

• Experience in direct marketing.

• Understanding of acquisition and retention.

• Experience with online and offline channels.

• Experience in setting and successfully managing annual budgets, reporting, forecasting.

• Ability to communicate with a wide range of audiences and stakeholders.

• Digital skills such as engaging on social media and relating case studies.

Ben talks about the shift to stand-alone legacy roles that has happened over the last few years as charities recognise the significance of legacy giving and how legacy roles vary from larger charities to smaller ones. He also highlights that one of the big challenges for legacy fundraising is a shortage of candidates. He suggests that whilst being experienced in the charity sector is great, candidates from an agency background who may have worked with charities should also be considered. There’s also a crossover between the publishing sector and marketing/direct marketing within charities, a role which can lead on to legacy teams. Legacy fundraising is a challenging area to recruit for and building long-term relationships with candidates will benefit the consultant.