Legacy fundraising

Whether you call them legacies, gifts in wills or bequests – asking a donor to remember your charity, with a gift that lives on beyond their lifetime, is a delicate yet important conversation. In this section we share inspiring examples of how charities have spoken to their donors about legacy and in-memoriam giving. If you have an innovative or successful campaign to share, please let us know.

Is this the best way to develop bequests?

by Rich Fox

Most organisations are surprised when they receive bequests. Many of the people who leave bequests do not even appear on the organisation’s donor file, and most of the others have been only low value donors for a number of years (and are often lapsed) -- not the kind of people who you might expect to leave a large bequest.

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In lieu of flowers: how to write lively memorial donation thank-you letters

by Lisa Sargent

Are your in-memoriam donation thank-you letters destined for donor oblivion?

This copywriting clinic looks to help you rescue them from a fate worse than, well… death.

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Rhode Island Foundation: why less can be more with the annual report, particularly when it comes to legacies

by SOFII

To send or not to send? If you ask your donors if they want to receive your annual report, why do you think they don’t reply? It could be inertia, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’. Maybe they think they'll be saving you time and money, they’re nice, considerate people after all. By the same token intertia will stop them going to your website to view your report online – and you will never know. If you send a printed copy, you know they have it and might they not be more likely to look at it, if it’s there in their hands? The stories here from Tom Ahern and the Rhode Island Foundatio show the power of the printed word.

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University of South Carolina: ‘We are South Carolina Y’ALL’ (Young Alumni Leaving a Legacy)

by SOFII

In another piece from our archive, this innovative and engaging alumni fundraising from the University of South Carolina (USC) is a great reminder to the higher education sector that communicating with young people about legacies can and should be done.

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Association of International Cancer Research: Inspiring Stories Book

AICR’s Inspiring stories book.

by SOFII

By creating real, personal, one-to-one conversations, AICR not only inspired their supporters, they also made them feel as though they really cared.

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YMCA: ‘soft sell’ legacy advertising

by SOFII

In the mid 1980's, the YMCA offered a free legacy information service to generate a list of potential prospects...

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RNLI: the legacy letter

by SOFII

This is a classic example of a direct appeal to supporters, asking for information that will help plan future income. The candid, plain-speaking, respectful copy reminds supporters that RNLI relies heavily on legacies to fund their work. You can read the whole thing here.

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Great Ormond Street Hospital: legacy marketing 1856

by SOFII

Why is it that the giving and receipt of legacies figured strongly in Victorian literature, yet is largely absent today? The announcement in the annual report of The Hospital for Sick Children (later Great Ormond Street Hospital) appeared just four years after the hospital was founded, but it was already obvious that gifts of legacies would be very important to the health and development of the hospital.

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Southern Poverty Law Center: Partners for the Future legacy letter and brochure

by SOFII

These two items – a single page letter and 16-page booklet, which together constitute a single legacy-promotion direct mail package, represent an outs…

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WWF integrated legacy marketing campaign

by SOFII

This is truly ground-breaking communication for fundraising. Not only did these press advertisements and posters herald a new approach to the promotion of legacies (bequests) but they were also the first ads to use jargon-free language and to talk about legacies in plain, everyday terms that any one could understand.

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Greenpeace Australia: The legacy beer mat

by SOFII

The copy you see above is a line that every writer wishes he or she had written. If half the challenge with legacy marketing is how do you raise the delicate subject with donors, then this brilliant promotion hits every button perfectly. Without doubt, it is a fundraising classic. But did it actually generate many bequests? Click to find out...

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Nature Conservancy of Canada: Legacy mailing

A warm, attractive package with the maple key emblem, symbol of Canada’s national tree, acting as an intriguing involvement device.

by SOFII

Step into our archive as David Love shares how Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) accessed the ‘pot of gold at the end of the fundraiser’s rainbow’ with a classically straightforward but very appealing legacy piece. Without doubt, this carefully and sensitively crafted pack will have raised funds very effectively for the cause and the organisation that created it.

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