Legacies and DM Appeals
Howard Lake | 16 March 2010 | Blogs
So a DM agency has identified that adding a legacy info tick box to direct mail appeals reduces the cash response rate (3rd Sector magazine 16th March). Big deal!
Of course anything you do to water down an appeal will reduce the response rate. The best results are always achieved by making a clear and direct ask for one thing at a time, not by presenting the donor with a range of options. But then we knew that didn’t we?
As a result of its findings, US based Pareto Fundraising claims that “Separate communications about legacies are much more effective than peripheral efforts such as tick boxes on appeal response forms.” Again, this should be no surprise to anyone. But I’m still not convinced about dropping legacy offers from appeal communications.
Firstly, a small reduction in response rates to cash appeals may well be a price worth paying to achieve more legacies, given that the average cash gifts quoted by Pareto were just £29.11 (with no legacy tick box) or £27.64 (with legacy box). When compared to the current UK average legacies (around £4,000 for cash gifts and £30,000 for shares of estates) the difference is paltry and therefore it has to be worth a punt.
More importantly of course, we know that for most people, leaving a legacy is a big decision which they do not come to quickly. They often need to be gently reminded over time that keeping their will up to date and remembering a charity in it are good things to do. Few people will rush out to do so at the first mention. So as well as asking for legacies directly, drip feeding low key messages also makes a lot of sense, whether it is on response coupons, email footers, web banners, stationery etc. It all helps.
So as for me, I will keep advising my clients to give donors the legacy option, even if it may reduce their short term cash results on occasion. It has to be a good investment for the future.
For more on legacies, see http://www.wgconsulting.co.uk/fundraising-services/legacy-fundraising
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.