# Legacy donors say they are aiming for ‘symbolic immortality’

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/08/24/legacy-donors-say-aiming-symbolic-immortality/
- Published: 2014-08-24T10:32:18+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Many people who leave legacies to charity do so as a way of extending their identity
into the future.

In-depth interviews with 20 legators to a large British charity – conducted by legacy
consultant Dr Clare Routley and Adrian Sargeant of Plymouth University’s Centre 
for Sustainable Philanthropy – found that interviewees considered their estate as“
an extension of the self”.

When people die, they aim to “strategically dispose” of their estate to achieve “
generativity” – extending the self forward in time by using their bequests to provide“
symbolic immortality”.

## Advertisement

Routely and Sargeant say the research – published online in the [Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly](http://nvs.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/07/17/0899764014542687.abstract)–
contrasts with a lot of previous research on disposition of estates. This has found
that individuals have aimed to physically preserve their assets.

However, charity legators aim to “symbolically preserve” assets by having them spent
on “making a significant impact on charitable beneficiaries”.

They add: “Through a bequest gift to a charity, the donor can extend particular 
aspects of his or her self forward in time, making a statement about the experiences
and people that shaped him or her, and the values that he or she holds.”

This has implications for charity legacy marketers, who should demonstrate how a
bequest gift can make a difference by showing how previous legacies have been used
to achieve an impact.

One suggestion made in the paper is to offer bequest supporters community membership
of a “bequest society”. And marketing messages, while stressing the importance that
individual bequests have, could also show how they collectively make an impact.

 

_Photo: [Legacy](http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-103711184/stock-photo-legacy-isolated-word-in-vintage-letterpress-wood-type.html)
by Marekuliasz on Shutterstock.com_