# Don't mention legacies to Baby Boomers to secure future bequests, say DMS

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/05/08/don039t-mention-legacies-baby-boomers-secure-future-bequests-say-dms/
- Published: 2008-05-08T09:12:17+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Today’s Baby Boomers who are writing wills are more concerned with providing for
their children than including charitable bequests. However, they are keen to make
such gifts in due course.**

These are the findings of research into the over 50s and their attitudes to legacy
giving by fundraising and direct marketing agency DMS. The agency concludes that
charities need to engage with Baby Boomers on a non-legacy level to secure any future
will bequests.

Focus-group research in April at DMS’ offices with a panel of Baby Boomer donors
revealed that today’s Baby Boomers are concerned about the strains that modern living
is having on younger generations, especially on their children whom are struggling
with big mortgages and student debt.

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On the other hand, Baby Boomers are positively open to legacy giving in the future,
but Wills they are making right now are prioritising their children who they foresee
to be struggling. They will consider supporting charities once their immediate family
is self-sufficient and financially independent.

Helen Prince, Creative Planner at DMS, said: “The post boomer cohort is the first
generation that is likely to be less affluent than their parents are, and parents
recognise this. This however, does not mean that the Baby Boomers are not charitable
to legacy causes, but it does put an unknown timeframe on when a charity will be
considered for legacy giving.”

So, as well as engaging the baby boomer group by sowing the seeds now, the agency
recommends that charities focus much more on targeting for legacies as the Boomer
generation hit their 70s, by which time direct families will have much more of their
own wealth.

The one group of Baby Boomers who are worth communicating with right now about legacies
are those who are childless, as “these make the ideal immediate prospects for legacy
giving”.

www.directmarketing.co.uk

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