September always feels like a time for new beginnings. As our long hot summer draws to an end, at Legacy Futures, we are looking forward to starting the latest cycles of our consortium programmes which begin each autumn.
In these programmes we work together with groups of charities who pool their resources, experiences and data to generate insight and share wisdom around some of the common opportunities and challenges they face.
Our benchmarking and research programmes are run by Legacy Foresight who carried out the first analysis of the UK legacy market in 1994 with 13 charities. This has since grown into our flagship benchmarking product, Legacy Monitor, a consortium of over 80 of the UK’s leading charities. Legacy Monitor takes legacy performance data drawn directly from our members’ databases combined with big picture economic and social trends to create an in-depth analysis of the British legacy sector. Please click here for more information and to see how you can join.
In-memory giving continues to grow in prominence and is increasingly recognised as an important motivation for giving in the legacy sector. Our research programme, In-Memory Insight has been exploring a series of themes since 2011. In 2019/20 the topic was Understanding in-memory stewardship, we then considered the impact of the pandemic on the in-memory landscape after the pandemic and last year we looked at the different ways in which digital technology cuts across the in-memory domain. For 2022/23 our research will focus on groups of people who come together to raise money in memory of someone they have lost, alongside updating our analysis of the size and shape of the in-memory giving sector through a consumer survey and carrying out in-memory performance benchmarking. If you would like to learn more, please click here for more information and to download a prospectus.
Launched in 2020 Legacy Fundraising 2.0 aims to generate evidence, insight and discussion on the value of digital legacy fundraising, assessing how best to use digital and social media to raise awareness, acquire new legacy donors and steward existing supporters. Now a rolling programme, the 2022/23 group will focus on three key elements: reviewing best practice communication strategies aimed at a boomer audience; evaluating the content and tone of our member charities’ legacy web pages; and updating and refining the digital legacy benchmarks that were developed in the 2021/22 programme. For more information please click here and download a prospectus.
In 2021 we launched a new product for the Hospice sector. Drawing upon expertise from Legacy Futures the Hospice Legacy Circle provides training in legacy fundraising and administration, expert technical advice, and valuable market intelligence to inform and inspire members working in this field. More information and a prospectus are available here.
Researching the next generation of legacy donors
Each year Legacy Foresight runs a research programme, working with groups of charities to explore issues of common interest, while sharing costs, information and experiences. Recent work has focused on faith-based legacy and in-memory giving, supporter stewardship and 21st century will-making. In 2023 we will be learning more about the differences between the Baby Boomers and Generation X who follow behind them. As we move further in the 21st century the Generation X cohort will become increasing important to legacy fundraisers and understanding the differences between these groups and how to alter communications will be vital in order to secure legacy income in years to come. We aim to launch this programme in January 2023, and the prospectus will be available very soon.
Join us and learn together
With legacy teams experiencing considerable tightening of budgets and a reduction of resources we understand the importance of ensuring the correct investments are made to grow legacy income for your charity. At Legacy Futures we are committed to supporting legacy fundraisers to do their vital role and excel in their practice. We would love to welcome you into our programmes so that you can learn, grow and develop, enabling you to continue to deliver, with excellence.
Ashley Rowthorn – CEO Legacy Futures
Please do contact me if you’d like to discuss any of our programmes.