AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons): legacies booklet and newsletter

by SOFII

This booklet and newsletter were the centerpiece of a direct marketing legacy promotion programme. Given the huge size of the AARP membership and the substantial range of interests and abilities, Mal Warwick Associates opted to organise the multi-faceted legacy programme illustrated in these materials.

Please note: This exhibit is "under construction"

LA Gay and Lesbian Center: legacy leadership campaign

by SOFII

The centre created an exceptional legacy programme, combining the best of direct mail and telephone marketing with sensitive cultivation and stewardship techniques.

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.

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.

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.

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

by SOFII

Innovative and engaging alumni fundraising from USC shows the education sector how it should be done.

Association of International Cancer Research: 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.

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...

RNLI: the legacy letter

by SOFII

This letter raised £millions. It is a classic example of a direct appeal to supporters for information to help plan for future income. An example of a candid, plain-speaking, respectful letter to remind supporters that RNLI relies heavily on legacy income to fund their work.

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.