# Applications open for free year-long leadership mentoring programme for legacy fundraisers

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2023/11/07/applications-open-for-free-year-long-leadership-mentoring-programme-for-legacy-fundraisers/
- Published: 2023-11-07T09:36:14+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**The programme to help legacy fundraisers develop into senior leadership roles 
has been launched through a partnership between Legacy Futures and The Elischer 
Foundation (previously The Tony Elischer Foundation). **

The organisations say the initiative is a response to the current gap in legacy 
knowledge among senior leadership roles. It offers a year-long development pathway
alongside additional benefits including quarterly ‘lunch and learn’ webinars and
an annual leadership day. 

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Ashley Rowthorn, CEO of [Legacy Futures](https://legacyfutures.com/), said: 

> “The recruitment and retention of legacy fundraisers is a pressing challenge for
> the sector. A key issue is that there is no clear pathway for legacy and in-memory
> fundraisers to progress into more senior positions, and many feel they need to
> move away from legacies to further their careers. This means many organisations
> are lacking a good understanding of legacy fundraising in their leadership teams,
> which can hinder an organisation’s growth.”

[Applications](http://tonyelischerfoundation.org/apply/) are open now and close 
on 23 January 2024. Successful applicants will be notified by 19 February 2024 with
the programme beginning at the end of March 2024.   

The collaboration supersedes Legacy Futures’ previous _Future Leaders Bursary Award_,
which provided six months of free mentoring. It will also see additional placements
offered on [The Elischer Foundation](https://tonyelischerfoundation.org/)’s existing
mentoring programme, which will now include mentors from Legacy Futures. A minimum
of two placements in the new (2024) cohort for this programme will be reserved for
applicants within the legacy fundraising sector. 

Laura Swan, Interim Director, The Elischer Foundation, commented: 

> “Partnering with Legacy Futures means that even more professional fundraisers 
> looking to develop their leadership skills will benefit from the mentorship programme,
> and in turn more organisations will benefit too. The ripple effect of investing
> in fundraisers is considerable for the charity sector, which gains not just financially
> from highly skilled fundraisers, but also in terms of raising awareness, reaching
> more service users and helping to tell the story of their impact.”

 * **[New mentoring scheme announced at Scottish Fundraising Conference](https://fundraising.co.uk/2024/09/26/new-mentoring-scheme-announced-at-scottish-fundraising-conference/)**(
   26 September 2024)
 * **[Applications now open for The Elischer Foundation mentoring programme](https://fundraising.co.uk/2025/01/09/applications-now-open-for-the-elischer-foundation-mentoring-programme/)**(
   9 January 2025)
 * **[Nine mentoring schemes for fundraisers](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/03/01/nine-mentoring-schemes-fundraisers/)**(
   1 March 2012)