# Time to nudge

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/08/09/time-nudge/
- Published: 2009-08-09T19:38:32+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

We are not far from embracing a whole load of nudges in legacies if we take Thaler
and Sunstein’s book Nudge seriously.

 

Holiday reading is an art. You know the moment – you are in the airport and have
to choose a book. One you want to read and unwind. One you ought to read and think
about. I succumbed to the latter and was glad I did. We’d been thinking about ways
to move will writers and those whose business is dependent on will writing to embrace
the world of gifts in wills. It’s a tall order. What’s in it for them? Why get involved?
The truth is simple – we want them to nudge.

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Nudge is about improving decisions, health, wealth and happiness by recognising 
that no choice is ever presented in a neutral way. We are all choice architects –
able to influence choice through simple insights and learning applied deliberately.
In Amsterdam a ‘choice architect’ stencilled a picture of a fly on all the urinals
in Schipol airport. As a result there was an 80% reduction in spillage – users were
all aiming at the fly! Metaphorically, they had been nudged (literally would have
been another story but let’s not go there…). The book outlines the many ways to 
nudge – creating defaults, following the herd, incentives etc. So the challenge 
in legacies, as we create a new social norm, is how do we nudge?

 

Here are five things we could do for starters. 1. Let’s find a way to train all 
will writers to ask every time – have you considered leaving a gift to your favourite
charity after you have looked after friends and family? 2. Start talking about those
who have done it and not those who haven’t 3. Create a default message in wills 
and in every thing we say – a percentage left to charity after friends & family,
4. Create a charity friendly mark for will writers to sign up to – they have been
trained, and agree to treat donors correctly 5. Find a big market leader who wants
to work in partnership and create a new product WITH charities.

 

We can all nudge – focus on conversations not pledges, create an experience people
feel good about, put legacy messages up front, everywhere and online. But maybe 
its time to be more deliberate, focused and frankly radical as a charity sector 
to the will writing sector. Time to create a real nudge together.

 

 * **[Legacy Fundraising Basics](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/08/27/legacy-fundraising-basics/)**(
   27 August 2009)
 * **[The language of bequest](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/08/31/language-bequest/)**(
   31 August 2009)
 * **[And in the future](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/09/01/and-future/)** (1 
   September 2009)