Legacy motivations
Howard Lake | 6 June 2010 | Blogs
It has long been my opinion that, for many charities, legacy fundraising might be better targeted with the message “change your will” rather than “make a will”. The truth is that while we talk about (and aim communications at) the many who have never got round to making a will, a substantially bigger majority have done so – they just haven’t been persuaded to include a charity. Yet.
Beyond that rather simplistic point however remains the rather trickier question – how do you persuade them to (a) make a bequest and (b) make it to your charity?
This week I was reading Philanthropy Matters, the journal of The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Within its pages, Adrian Sargeant was talking about a new study exploring the motives for legacy giving, which was quite thought provoking.
As might be expected, he concludes that many of the usual motives for giving apply to legacies (individual prestige, a need to give back, connection to the charity), but additional motives also come into play. Again some are fairly self-explanatory (meeting families needs, tax avoidance). However, there are other factors at play. As well as being appreciated, donors also need to believe the charity deserves a legacy. This in turn is linked to both the donor’s own self-esteem and how well they identify with the charity and, to my mind, this is where it gets interesting.
For example, simply identifying with the values of the organisation may not be enough for a potential legator. A genuinely personal connection is much more powerful and likely to succeed – whether that is with staff, with other similar donors, or with beneficiaries – all of these can help significantly strengthen a donor’s motivation to leave a bequest. The skill comes in identifying how these types of connections can be facilitated and nurtured appropriately and effectively.
The article finishes with some very practical suggestions to help donors identify and connect with your organisation using frequent and quality interactions. The key here of course being the word quality. After all I’m sure many of us are used to frequent communications from the charities we support – I am less sure, going by my own experiences, how often I would describe those contacts as quality!
Food for thought?
You can download the full article (and the rest of the magazine) from The Center on Philanthropy.
Photo: Legacy by Marekuliasz on Shutterstock.com
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.