Legacy Roundtable 1 – 3rd April 2020

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Below is the slide Stephen is referring to in the opening segment

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

During this period, the RSPB’s top priorities include getting their digital legacy pack onto their website, prioritising pledge stewardship, organising virtual events including using their existing spotlight talk format as a stewardship tool, and prioritising their In Mem offer.
RSPB have stopped all their enquire activity, face-to-face fundraising and are not making any appeal asks, they are only making renewal asks.
They have changed their expenditure plans and their income will be re-forecasted in April.

Scope are not re-forecasting at this point as they feel they don’t have enough information. Instead, they are choosing not to panic and are taking time to make big decisions.
For now Scope have pulled their telemarketing activity and stewardship events, but are continuing their stewardship calls.
Scope are investing their advertising spend in digital, website and pay per click google adwords, and they have seen an uplift online.

MediaLab are seeing bigger charities that typically run TV, radio and print advertising have pulled back their activity, while smaller charities are continuing to monitor the situation.
MediaLab are seeing strong performance across legacy campaigns. The ‘free will’ search term has increased by 45% from 9 Mar. They are seeing that people are writing wills and leaving money, but charities have to be sensitive in their execution of legacy campaigns. Matthew recommends changing the language and excluding the most vulnerable groups. Move away from fearful messaging to more informative messaging of how to leave a gift. There is still a demand for leaving gifts in wills and the role of charities right now is to support those people in that process.
Matthew also noted how TV, radio, press have seen an increase in viewers, but the prices have gone down as advertisers have been pulling activity, so it is a very cost-effective time to advertise.

Humankind have found they are still able to conduct research with potential legacy audiences, and they have been doing that by having online and remote conversations with people.
Jess recommends initially screening people to make sure they are comfortable, phoning respondents rather than video calling, and making sure it’s a pleasant experience for the respondents.