Legacy consideration on the rise, league table shows
Melanie May | 11 October 2019 | News
More people are open to the idea of leaving a legacy with legacy consideration on the rise, according to fastmap and Freestyle Marketing’s latest league table.
The Legacy Potential Premier League Table 2019-2020 ranks charities on the propensity of their supporters to leave a gift in their Will to them, based on factors including motivations and barriers to giving, the number of supporters a charity has, as well as on how often supporters consider and reject a charity for legacy giving.
On the index, a value of 100 is considered average, with scoring over or under this meaning the charity is either over or under performing.
As with last year, animal charities top the league table, now taking the first five places. Cats Protection retains first place, followed by The Donkey Sanctuary, Battersea, Dogs Trust and Blue Cross.
Completing the top ten are Breast Cancer Now at number six, followed by Cancer Research UK, RSPCA, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and PDSA. Each of the top ten charities have a legacy consideration score of over 100, ranging from 150 for Cats Protection to 109 for PDSA. Down at the bottom of the table, in positions 29 and 30, British Red Cross and Royal British Legion score 64 and 58 respectively.
Changes in this year’s ranking include Cancer Research UK, RSPCA, Macmillan and RNLI, which dropped in their individual rankings, while WWF, Diabetes UK and Blue Cross are amongst those to have entered the top 20 for the first time.
This is the second year fastmap and Freestyle Marketing have compiled the league table. Overall, the data shows legacy consideration has risen by 4% since last year, showing that more people are open to the idea of leaving a legacy to a charity.
David Cole, fastmap Managing Director, said:
“This is a good news for the sector. Legacy consideration is a window into the future as regards to likely legacy revenue.
“It’s significant that some charities have improved individually but relative to their competitors are losing ground. In my view there are three reasons for this: a lack of understanding about how to truly differentiate the legacy message from the competition; it can also be difficult to align cause and effect with legacy marketing so not enough investment is made in marketing; and there is a tendency too to repeat what has been done before, but with a market that is changing so dramatically, this is not good enough.
“Charities need to create a unique proposition, invest more in marketing, and not be afraid to make changes.”
Emma Hazlewood, Gifts in Wills Manager, National Trust, said:
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“It’s encouraging to see legacy consideration rising and it’s crucial therefore that charities understand their strengths and potential barriers to giving so they can more easily engage future supporters with tailored marketing for their unique causes. fastmap’s Premier League has highlighted the importance of legacy marketing to our senior stakeholders and helped secure the budget we need to protect this exceptionally important income.”
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.