By Matthew Lagden, CEO of the Institute of Legacy Management
Every year, UK charities benefit from legacy income of around £4 billion.
By 2033, that figure is expected to reach £5.4bn*, doubling over the next 20 years to north of £10 bn.
Effectively, legacy income is a pot of gold to be mined – yet there is a curious reluctance amongst many senior charity leaders to embrace it.
The legacy sector has an entrenched image problem and I believe that’s because death is still seen as such a taboo subject. After all, few charities want to be heard talking about how much they’ve benefited as a result of someone dying.
We all say funerals are about ‘celebrating life’ and, in many cases that does hold true, but the reality is that someone, somewhere, is grieving and isn’t it a bit gauche to bring up the topic of how much money they left in their will?
It’s an interesting fact that the average legacy gift to charity is £30,000 – very few individual supporters are likely to donate anything like that figure while they are alive – yet legacies are almost viewed as a ‘necessary evil’ that are best not talked about.
Perhaps it’s because the legacy field is fraught with misconceptions, such as concerns that there may be negative publicity if a family challenges a will where money has been left to charity instead of relatives. It is true that occasionally this will happen, yet in 99 out of 100 cases, legacies run smoothly and deliver incredible benefits that would be impossible to match – no matter how many summer balls or fun runs are held.
In a recent survey, our legacy manager members (some 700 of them from 400+ UK charities) told how they often struggle to get heard at the top table and for legacies to receive the recognition or support they deserve.
It is for this reason that on 25 September, the ILM is launching its Love Your Legacy Manager (LYLM) campaign, designed to create greater awareness and understanding among senior charity members about the importance of the legacy manager role.
It will include a dedicated webinar for CEOs hosted by the ILM and Legacy Foresight, together with factsheets and statistics underlining the benefits of investing in legacy management, legacy success stories and examples of good practice, a social media campaign and an invitation to CEOs to ‘Take Time for Tea’ with their legacy professionals.
As we have seen, statistics show that legacies will grow hugely over the next decade (and beyond) and there literally is no time like the present to take a more proactive approach to investing in legacy management.
Our members are rightly proud of the results they are producing. Most recently, we’ve heard how one member grew their charity’s legacy income from under a million to over £4m, while another achieved a 158% increase in pledgers – these success stories come not ‘out of the blue’ but as a result of hard work by legacy managers.
Activities such as:
- Bespoke gifts in wills activities and articles
- Events to say thank you to pledgers, stewarding them through the legacy journey so they see how their commitment will make a difference
- Attaining ILM qualifications to boost knowledge on topics such as dealing with probate and IHT issues
- Learning the skills to challenge executors if necessary, to ensure charities receive the gifts that are due to them
- Networking with legal and probate professionals to promote legacy giving
- Producing a wills guide and/or partnering with organisations who offer free will writing for charities
They cannot do all these without the support of their CEO and senior managers.
By highlighting the importance of these activities (and many more) through our LYLM campaign, we want legacies to share the equal billing and attention it deserves with other fundraising streams.
That’s why we are asking you to take time to get to know your legacy teams, to look again and really understand why legacies are so important to the future of your charity.
Yes, investing in legacy teams is a longer-term game, but it’s one that undoubtedly delivers bigger rewards.
*Legacy Foresight, March 2023 Market Outlook