fastmap research examines how benefitting from a charity affects legacy giving
Melanie May | 30 July 2019 | News
British Lung Foundation and National Autistic Society top a new table by fastmap and Freestyle Marketing that shows the effect the perception of personally benefitting from a charity has on supporters’ desire to leave a legacy.
The Importance of Helping Stakeholders was compiled by fastmap and Freestyle Marketing. They looked at a sample of 10,000 people aged over 50 and the charities they support as well as which ones they would leave a legacy to, correlating this against two motivations to leaving a legacy:
- They have helped me in the past/helping me now
- They helped or are helping people I care about
fastmap then indexed this data against 84 different charities to create the ranking, which puts British Lung Foundation and National Autistic Society at the top. Overall, the league table is dominated by health and cancer charities with smaller charities also amongst the top performers.
However, fastmap also found that that the reality of who directly helps and who doesn’t is not necessarily reflected in the supporter perspective. Having an emotional connection with a charity also plays a big part in influencing whether a supporter wants to leave a legacy gift.
Macmillan is ranked 19th in terms of the charities that people have benefitted from for example, while Cancer Research UK is 38th. Fastmap points out that while this feels logical as CRUK is not in the “care” sector, this isn’t a consistent outcome as research charities Prostate Cancer UK and Institute of Cancer Research are ranked 6th and 7th: higher than Macmillan.
The emotional connection is not just limited to health or cancer charities: PDSA is the highest-ranking animal charity, taking 11th place with an index of 174: a reflection of what they do, helping animals that supporters care about.
The report states:
“Emotional, practical and instinctive support, even if that is not actually the direct objective of your cause, could be seen as one of the reasons for leaving you a legacy.
“Whilst the supporter perspective is not a surprise it reinforces the importance of emotion in legacy decision making. It also reinforces understanding the importance of understanding the legacy choices your supporters are making and how you need to really understand this in developing your legacy proposition and your legacy messaging.”Advertisement
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.