Legacy Strategy Summit 2022

We kick off the day with a run-through of the very latest data and trends in legacy bequests during 2020-2022, as featured in the new Smee & Ford report.

• Reported legacy income June 2020- June 2021 - up or down?
• Trends in number of charitable estates Jan-December 2021
• Value of all charitable estates & average individual estate value
• Trends in causal area choices
• How many individual charities have been mentioned in wills?
• Very latest update on changing landscape of legacies during 2022

Mark Pincher, Head Data Analyst, Smee & Ford
Delegates will also receive a copy of the new Smee & Ford Trends report, and Mark Pincher will be available for extended Q&A during the lunch interval

No matter what the location or the size, all charity legacy teams need the backing of their board to guarantee resources and agree on income targets. But how can charities achieve this - and what happens when your Board just doesn’t understand legacy giving?

• Identifying the type of board you have – how do they view legacies?
• Moving your senior team from charity leaders to long term visionaries
• Managing senior teams’ expectations of legacy fundraising
• Internal education on legacy giving timelines
• The link between Board level buy-in and legacy strategy investment

Richard Radcliffe, Founder, Radcliffe Consulting

The case study reveals how RNIB, an established major charity over 150 years old, needed a total legacy strategy reset in order to engage with new cohorts of donors, boost its legacy income pipeline and reposition itself in the legacy sector. This honest and open story will focus on their positive efforts to:    

• Reassert their legacy message and influence on the market after a series of challenges
• Realign their legacy strategy to connect with a new audience of supporters
• Raise the profile and understanding of legacy fundraising within their own charity and across senior teams
• React to the adjusted legacy income expectations in the post-Covid era

Lorna McPherson-Reed, Head of Legacy Fundraising, Royal National Institute of Blind People
Gaby Morgan, Planner, Good Agency

Holistic legacy audit - trends we are seeing from partners and through our data. 

How has the landscape changed in 2022? Looking across case studies and partner tests on audience, channels and messaging, we will share the key trends and benchmarks from our data and our partners.

Understanding your audience

• Cold vs. warm approaches – which to choose and when
• Demographics – What types and ages of donors do you have?
• Regions – Where do your bequests come from?

Understanding your channels

• Why email works – case study examples 

Understanding your messaging

• Choosing the right tone of voice for generational cohorts
•  Ensuring your message is clear, concise and accessible for your audiences

Dan Garrett, CEO & Co-Founder, Farewill

Legacy teams of all sizes often find themselves juggling multiple job roles with little time and limited resource. We hear how the manager of an established charity is finding extra resource and staff to extend the reach and impact of their legacy strategy.

• How to find new resource and find the time to devote to the task
• Can fundraisers turn into legacy fundraisers?
• Senior team buy-in – securing the funds to expand & making your case
• Where to base new staff members – central or regional
• Other options – volunteers, outsourcing, internal candidates

Lizzy Knowles, Legacy and In Memoriam Manager, RSPB

10-minute break

Although your team may be adept at discussing the merits of gifts in wills, how knowledgeable is your wider charity in promoting legacy giving? We hear how a charity has empowered all sectors of its organisation to feel confident in spreading the legacy giving message.   

• Background to the training programme - why there was a need and what problems were fixed
• Adopting an innovative approach - how to discuss legacy giving with all potential donors, including family & friends & staff
• Designing your legacy training to fit different internal audiences – CEOs, Trustees, Legacy teams, volunteers
• Role of legacy engagement managers
• Training collateral – videos, printed material, lanyards
• Feedback methods, results, and anecdotal case studies

Hannah Harvey, Marketing Manager, Legacy Giving, RNLI 

Includes live Q&A session with Mark Pincher, Head of Data Analysis at Smee & Ford and David Baldock of MIExact.

Has your charity ever wondered if it received the entire amount of legacy bequest due to them? Was a percentage of the estate lost or overlooked along the way? In this session, we find out how charity legacy teams, and other named beneficiaries, can locate and recover the full value of a charitable estate, and discover any “forgotten funds” to increase the overall legacy total. This session will:

• Estimate the potential value of unclaimed assets per year - shares, ISAs, pension funds etc.
• Reveal how to remove common obstacles – resource, time, data searches.
• Explain how the recovery of lost funds will benefit lay executives, family beneficiaries and of course, charity legacy teams

Bruce Cane, Founder At Perane & Co - Financial Asset Searching, Perane

What are the actual merits of being an executor for one or more of your benefactors? In this session we hear the legal requirements and duties of becoming an executor – as well as the wider implications of the task for you, your team and your charity.

• Understanding and fulfilling your legacy donors wishes and intentions
• Allocating resource – what time and skills are required from your team?
• Processing more complex wills or multi-charity bequests
• How to assess when you need extra support
• Considering wider implications of acting as executor - PR benefits and potential pitfalls

Andrew Wilkinson, Partner, Shakespeare Martineau LLP

In this session we hear from the legacy experts who built and established national legacy campaigns in their countries, and examine how charities of all sizes can benefit from joining in with legacy awareness campaigns. In this session we look at:

• Who is leading the field and why – UK, EU, and other national campaigns
• Effects on legacy pledges and income
• What will it achieve - timescales and expectation management for your charity
• How smaller charities can benefit from raising the profile of legacy giving
• Belgium case study – outcomes from a 15-year journey

Carine Coopman, National Coordinator, Testament.be
Jan Rachels, External Relations, Testament.be, Belgium
Rob Cope, Director, Remember A Charity

With pledgers and potential donors returning to legacy events in greater numbers after the pandemic, we hear from Marie Curie’s regional manager who will reveal how they have evaluated the success of their events and encouraged new audiences to attend, and suggest how to accurately predict the size of a gift from each bequest.

• How to reach different generations of potential donors
• Moving beyond traditional legacy event age groups
• Type of event – location, format, size, frequency
• Estimating the size of potential gifts – methods & accuracy
• Potential income

Claire Mackie, Legacy and In Memoriam Development Manager, Scotland, Northern Ireland & Northern England, Marie Curie UK

With a potential wealth of beneficiary stories within reach, how can charity legacy teams gather and make the most effective use of these potentially motivational experiences in their legacy campaigns?

In this panel, we hear from a range of legacy experts who will reveal how they have gathered and shared stories to motivate donors, increase pledges and, ultimately, raise legacy income.

• Understanding your donor base - what beneficiaries, donors, pledgers, and their families want to share (and how they want to share)
• Sensitivities & trust - building strong relationships with your supporter network
• Methods of using stories that resonate with the lived experiences of your supporters - format, frequency, local and national campaigns.

A case-study with a charity and online wills provider, on where to begin with your digital will’s strategy.

• Where to start – choosing the right time
• Expectation management
• Examples and options
• Timelines

Dan Garrett, CEO and Co-founder, Farewill

• Mapping local & regional pledger trends
• Understanding postcode mapping using the Smee & Ford Legacy Analysis Portal
• Causal areas and their links with particular regions

David Baldock, Sales Director, MIExact

• A walk through the search process – How to begin
• What we need from your legacy team
• Working with lay execs and other third parties
• Expected Timelines
• Outcomes

Bruce Cane, Founder At Perane & Co - Financial Asset Searching, Perane

Beatrice’s role at animal care charity FourPaws tasks her with managing their international legacy fundraising strategy. Given the differing legacy-giving traditions, stewardship styles and campaign approaches in different countries, adopting a unified approach to fundraising can be a challenge for any international charity – no matter how big or small.
In this pre-recorded session Beatrice will look at:

• How to build an international legacy strategy that works in different legislations.
• What campaign activity are you able to do in different locations?
• Comparison of legacy fundraising in four different countries.

Beatrice Heintz, International Legacy Specialist, FourPaws Animal Welfare, Vienna

Thanks to modern neuroscience, we now have the ability to watch the human brain as it thinks, feels and makes decisions. This new knowledge shows us that much of what we’d assumed about donors just isn’t true. What do your donors think and feel? Like and dislike? What makes them passionate and what makes them disinterested?

Join Canadian legacy author and fundraiser Fraser Green as he takes you on a half-hour journey through your legacy donor’s brain. Because after all, if you truly understand your donors better, you’re going to raise more money!

Fraser Green, CEO, Goodworks, Canada

Andrew Wilkinson, Partner, Shakespeare Martineau LLP

Kuldeep Chauhan, Associate, Shakespeare Martineau LLP