Legacy and in memory 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.
Action on Hearing Loss: put a gift in your will
by SOFII
Action on Hearing Loss has calculated that this legacy campaign is likely to generate around £2 million in the future.
Read moreAARP (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"
Read moreLA 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.
Read moreIs 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.
Read moreIn 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.
Read moreRhode 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.
Read moreUniversity 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.
Read moreAssociation 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.
Read moreYMCA: ‘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...
Read moreRNLI: 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.
Read moreGreat 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.
Read moreSouthern 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 outstanding effort in legacy marketing by one of the leading practitioners of the direct marketing art in the USA, the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Read more