Maximising the Legacy Opportunity
For most established charities, legacies are an important foundation of their income, providing a relatively steady funding stream from year to year. While it can fluctuate, legacy income is seen as a key part of the long term fundraising strategy and one which can be relied on with relatively little input from year to year.
For smaller and newer charities, however, legacies can often be seen as a windfall and something they cannot easily influence.
However, there are dangers in both these approaches.
Established Legacy Programmes
For those charities with existing legacy work, it is tempting to let things run and to take the money, while concentrating on short and medium term opportunities, such as cash appeals, grant fundraising or corporates.
The danger here is that the legacy campaign will soon become stale and dated and lose impact. However, this will only be seen in concrete terms when notifications drop off and legacy income falls. By then it will be too late to prevent a medium term hit to your income.
As with all forms of fundraising, things move on rapidly and charities need to keep in touch with the changes in society, in attitudes and technology (and especially in how we communicate with prospects).
Over time, your donor profile may change, your case for support will develop further and the needs you are addressing will also progress. So your legacy campaign needs to keep up with all of this or it will soon lose its edge and fail to engage with your donors. New opportunities may also be missed if you do not keep your campaign fresh and up to date.
So how should you address this challenge? The answer is to review your campaign regularly, at least every three years, to make sure it remains relevant and impactful. Questions to ask include:
Is our legacy case still as strong as we can make it or does it need to be updated?
Is our donor profile changing and, if so, how do we adapt our campaign to take account of their needs and interests?
Are we still communicating with prospects in the right ways (i.e. in ways they will engage with) or are we missing any tricks?
Have any new legacy champions appeared who could help us promote our legacy case better?
Have we got any powerful new legacy stories we can use to underpin our campaign?
Are our legacy materials still up to date and powerful?
How do we know we are still having an impact on donors in a way that will drive future legacies?
These questions and more need to be answered so you can update your legacy strategy and keep your campaign fresh and effective for the future.
Small and New Charities
While it is the case that large charities with big brands still take the lion’s share of legacies, our experience in the last 30 years has shown that smaller and newer charities can also secure their piece of the cake if they plan effectively and promote legacies consistently over time.
Our 3P’s approach to legacy marketing has helped numerous charities to get started and begin to see results over time. By focussing clearly on the Prospects, the Proposition and the Promotional channels, smaller charities have been able to develop effective strategies to generate legacies, often creating a whole new income stream from scratch.
Legacies are not just windfalls and do not happen by accident. They need to be planned for and consistently developed over time. But where this is achieved, even smaller and newer charities can aim to create a steady, long term revenue stream of general funds that can be used where most needed. It is a prize too good to ignore.
Further Information
If you would value an objective review of your existing legacy campaign or need help in developing one from scratch, please call us today for a free initial chat about what we can offer on 01903 723519 or email Ben at ben@wgconsulting.co.uk
There is also further information about our legacy fundraising services here.
