Legacy Fundraising

Whisper received its first legacy donation (£750.76) in 2019.

Legacies account for over 1/3 of the income of UK charities and because of the large average donation size they are the lowest-cost way to fundraise.

Remember a Charity is an organisation that promotes legacy fundraising. Whisper may become a member at some stage.

The following points were made at an Institute of Fundraising talk on legacy fundraising in August 2014:

• People under 58 are probably not worth approaching for legacy fundraising; they are too likely to change their wills later in life
• To help you to work out who amongst your supporters is likely to leave money in their will, the Index of Multiple Deprivation, produced by the Office of National Statistics, is a great source of information linking UK postcodes to houshold wealth, and it’s free. Agencies such as Experian charge many thousands of pounds for similar data.
• People don’t generally write a will just because a charity suggests it. They generally write a will when somebody in their families marries, divorces or has children, so these are things to watch out for when deciding who to approach.
• Another thing to consider when deciding who to approach is, which of your supporters spends the most time thinking about your charity? Evidence would be multiple one-off donations, sharing in social media, volunteering. Regular monthly donations by direct debit don’t count for as much in this context, because they are based on a single decision.
• Once potential legacy donors have been identified, they can be invited to a legacy fundraising meeting, where the charity can present their work.