Legacy giving – money left to charity in a will – contributes £2bn to the voluntary sector, but only 6.7% of charities (less than 10,000) receive income in this way.
Legacy fundraising has been a sensitive subject in the charity sector for some time. Commentators have argued that charities need to tread carefully when approaching the public, but should not be discouraged from taking advantage of legacy giving. With recipients receiving on average £207,000 – it is clear there is untapped potential for more charities to get involved.
So what is the future of legacy fundraising, how can more organisations fundraise in this way and how can the sector best approach individuals? Join us on Thursday 9 April from 12-1.30pm to discuss.
Topics of discussion will include:
- Legacy giving and the future.
- Top tips and best practice around asking the public to leave gifts in their will.
- How an ageing population will affect legacy fundraising and what organisations need to do.
- Incorporating legacy giving into a fundraising strategy.
- The logistics and legalities of legacy giving.
To participate you need to register for a Guardian ID and log in prior to the discussion. To create an ID, click here.
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Panel so far
Scott Colvin – campaign director at Legacy10
Legacy10 promotes the changes to inheritance tax, to encourage legacy-giving, made by the Government in 2012. Legacy10 is personally supported by the three main political party leaders as well as the mayor of London, and it published a report to DCMS in 2013. Scott is also a partner at global communications agency Finsbury and author of How to Use Politicians to Get What You Want.
David Hopkins – senior advisory manager: charities and grant making, at CAF philanthropy services
David heads up the Charities and Grant-Making Solutions team at the Charities Aid Foundation. He has over 15 years experience in the not-for-profit sector in both managing multi-million grant-making programmes and seven-figure fundraising. He has advised and consulted across a wide range of areas including fundraising, charity governance and registration and project and policy development.
Stephen George – vice chair of the Institute of Fundraising and legacy consultant
Stephen has over 30 years experience in a range of charities including Scope, Unicef, NSPCC, Maggie’s and Action for Hearing Loss. He was previously chairman of Remember a Charity, a consortium of over 145 charities promoting gifts in wills.
Alex McDowell – head of legacy and tribute fundraising at NSPCC and chair of Remember a Charity
Alex’s fundraising career has included roles in the higher education sector, direct marketing and community fundraising as well as serving as head of fundraising at The Shakespeare Hospice in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Alex will be online from 1pm.
Helen Shepard – individual giving and legacy fundraising manager at Railway Children
In her four years at the charity Helen has been responsible for developing and driving the charities individual giving strategy involving the recruitment and retention of donors across all channels. With over 16 years of marketing experience working in a variety of sectors her passion for fundraising began at Action for Children and continued while working for charity marketing specialists Whitewater delivering campaigns for charities such as Christian Aid, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, ORBIS and the Brooke.
