Making the most of our existing relationships

As a gifts in Wills fundraiser, it can feel like our key task is to find new supporters with an interest in legacy giving. However, with only around half of people who say they plan to leave a legacy going on to give[1], the best – and most cost-effective –opportunity to grow our legacy income might be to build deeper, more committed relationships with more of those people who’ve already expressed an interest in supporting our organisation with a gift in their Will.

In this blog I’ll suggest three key considerations to retain more legacy supporters: helping people along the road, focusing on the post-decision experience and delighting supporters.

1) Helping people along the road

Our charities will often receive enquiries from people who are thinking about a gift in their Will and want to find out more about the impact it will make or the technicalities of leaving a legacy gift. Research[2] tells us that when people are considering taking an action, they’ll think about how feasible it is and how desirable it is: or ask themselves can I do it, and is it something that I actually want to do?

The good news from a fundraising perspective is that we can support people to understand both that they can leave a gift and that leaving a gift is a positive thing to do. When people are thinking about whether they can do something, we can support them in a number of ways, such as reminding them that they have done similar things in the past (e.g. supporting a charity in life), showing them how other people like them have left gifts, or simply just telling them how easy it is[3]. Similarly, in order to help people understand that gifts in Wills is an attractive thing to do, we can show them how leaving a gift can help them to deliver on some of their most fundamental human needs, such as the ability to connect to other people, to make a decision that suits them and to make an impact on the world[4].

2) Focusing on the post-decision experience

Often supporters will let us know once they have visited their solicitors and included a gift in their Will – and when they kindly tell us about their decision, we can take the opportunity to say thank you well.

Interestingly, research from the commercial world[5] suggests that people will often continue looking for information once a decision has been made, in order to minimise any regret they might feel about their choices – and it also suggests that this information might be more memorable than information they receive earlier on in the decision-making process. There is some specific evidence that legacy supporters engage in ‘post-purchase evaluation’ paying more attention to information that they receive from charities after they have made their legacy decision[6].

As part of the thank you process, therefore, we might want to ensure that we give legacy supporters good quality information about the work that we do, the difference that our charity makes, and the specific impact that gifts in Wills can have on the lives of the people or cause that they care about.

3) Delighting supporters

Once someone has made their Will, it may well be decades before their gift is received – and their Will may go through several iterations in the meantime. Charities therefore need to maintain relationships with their supporters over a long period of time, and ensure that they stay uppermost in their minds as they update their plans by providing memorable stewardship.

One way to stay in our supporters’ minds is by creating supporter delight. According to research, delight occurs when joy meets surprise[7]. In the commercial world, delight has been shown to create loyalty, perhaps because the element of surprise makes experiences particularly memorable, and joy ensures that these memories are positive ones. We can create delight by providing brilliant service – made up of genuine, authentic, human interactions – and by being innovative, which will create an element of surprise. This could involve, for example, reaching out personally to supporters, and enabling them to see an aspect of our work that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to engage with.

By focusing on these three key elements of the supporter experience – helping people along the road, focusing on the post-decision experience and delighting supporters – we can potentially retain more of those people who express an interest in legacy giving. And importantly, we can ensure that we offer our supporters a great experience that meets their needs, wherever they are in their legacy giving journey.