Claire Routley questions the current norms in legacy fundraising, after research shows that gifts could be increased three fold by just ensuring potential donors are asked.

There’s exciting news for legacy fundraisers this week: a trial conducted by the Cabinet Office Behavioural Insights Team in partnership with Remember A Charity and the Co-operative Legal Services has shown that when solicitors or Will writers simply mentioned to people that leaving a gift to charity was an option, the percentage of people who did so rose from just 5 per cent to 10 per cent. They rose again, to 15 per cent, when people were also asked if there were any charities that they were passionate about.

The findings suggest that this relatively simple intervention could potentially triple the number of people leaving legacies: fantastic news for our sector and the causes we serve, and a great advertisement for the power of the private, public and charitable sectors working together.

The news does make me wonder, however, about our individual charities’ current approaches to legacy fundraising. We have tended to work on the principle that, as a legacy is the largest gift most donors will make, legacy fundraisers must carefully build long-lasting relationships.

However, this study suggests that a process as simple as reminding someone about the possibility of leaving a legacy as they make a will could be one of the most effective interventions.

Might the time and energy invested in relationship building be wasted? Might we have been going about legacy fundraising in the wrong way all these years?

Yes and no. Firstly, the results show the basic importance of asking supporters to consider a legacy. The study also suggests there may be rich rewards to be had from paying careful attention to the insights gained from behavioural economics in, for example, how we, as individual charities, phrase legacy questions.

However, one of the other key findings of the research was the importance of asking donors what causes they were ‘passionate about’. The research shows that the responsibility for generating legacy income can’t sit only with the legacy fundraiser. Legacy fundraisers working alone can make the case for legacy giving to a donor. What we can’t do on our own is engender passion for our causes. Creating passion in our supporters’ hearts has to be an objective that is owned right across a charity, from the chairman in the boardroom, to the receptionist at the front door. The charity as a whole has to focus on connecting the donor to the cause, demonstrating the difference that their gifts make, and going above and beyond the call of duty to show donors that they are valued.

Time and effort put into building strong donor relationships will not be wasted. It’s this time and effort that will mean, when a donor is asked by their solicitor which charities they feel passionate about, and to which charities they would like to leave a legacy, the answer will be yours.

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