New legacy benchmarking research of arts charities

Marina Jones, Executive Director, Development and Public Affairs at English National Opera and London Coliseum, shares key takeaways from recent legacy benchmarking research of arts and cultural charities.

If music be the food of love play on ….

Starting a summary of a legacy benchmarking research with a quote from Twelfth Night about love feels appropriate. Whether it be the love of music, dance, painting, plays  - this passion is the reason why so many supporters leave gifts in their Wills to arts and cultural charities. Their dedication is profound – with one pledger delaying a long-awaited hip replacement operation to see his favourite artist perform. Legacies have been described as a love letter to the future.

So, what did a recent benchmark of fundraisers at arts and cultural charities show about us about the legacy landscape today?

78 arts and cultural charities from small regional charities to national household names took part in this survey in the last quarter of 2024 aiming to give the sector a sense of where it was.

What were the headline figures?

• 78% had received a legacy
• The biggest legacy was £4.7m and the smallest £25 – so a huge range!
• 50% have of organisations had only ever had money but others had been left items in wills including paintings, archival material, musical instruments and even a tiara.
• For half of the charities legacy fundraising was just part of someone’s job. This contrasts with many large mainstream charities that have whole legacy teams specialising in marketing, acquisition or legal. Only one arts charity had a full time member of staff dedicated to legacy fundraising, and only 5% of fundraisers responsible for legacies even had legacies in their job title. Research has shown that having legacies in the title makes it easier for donors to know who to talk to about legacies. 
• Unsurprisingly perhaps, those that had training felt more confident that those who had not had training, but only 17% had specific legacy training.
• 45% of arts fundraisers have been to a donor’s funeral.

70% agreed or strongly agreed that legacy fundraising is a growth area and the most frequently occurring word when people were asked about legacies was ‘potential’ as shown by this word cloud.

Fundraisers recognised that the potential for these gifts to be transformational for their charities with several citing out of the blue calls from solicitors with a pledge that had changed the future of their charity.

Although the potential is seen as potent, 71% agreed or strongly agreed that ‘we want to do more but budgets and capacity means we cannot at the moment.’

Too often legacy fundraising gets pushed down the arts fundraisers agenda as they focus on the in-year target and the next ask of the supporter. We let our own concerns and biases about the subject (the right language, the time, cost of care, fear of death) delay making the ask. Also because the returns are not immediate and can take a number of years to materialise it seems hard to justify the expenses and focus now.

And that fear could jeopardise the future of our charities. There is currently a huge opportunity with demographic shifts as the silent generation and Baby Boomer generation die and their wealth is transferred to relatives and causes that have been important to them in life. The average growth of legacy income for arts charities is twice as much as the growth of the top 1,000 charities.

For many arts charities Baby Boomers are our core audience and our donors. The Baby Boomer generation are those that see the arts and cultural experiences are what made them who they are. Many of these donors are cash poor but asset rich with wealth in their house and the legacy gift that they leave could be the biggest one they ever make.

You may already be in a donor’s Will but because you have never asked you don’t know. Several charities spoke about pledgers who had not been looked after well by charities and had changed the designation in their Will.

Twenty years ago was probably the peak time to be investing in legacy messaging for arts and cultural charities to start drip feeding the legacy message to supporters. But the next best time is now.

The most common ways that people were seeding their legacy messages were online, face to face asks and articles in newsletters. Although half of charities had never had a dedicated legacy flyer or written directly asking about legacies.

Frequently drip feeding the fact that your charity needs, and receives legacies is a great way to get the message across. Supporters need to know that your charity needs legacy gifts and people like them give in this way - to say thank you for a lifetime of memories and to protect and ensure that arts and culture are there for the future.

44% of these arts and cultural charities had legacy giving circles to steward their pledgers.

Arts, heritage and theatres have huge potential to create magical memories for their supporters through a lifetime of memories, continued connection through regular attendance at our venues, and the opportunity for creative stewardship to bring them even closer to the art that they love.

Although as many people pointed out – donors just want to feel special and acknowledged. Something as simple as a badge marking them out as members of the legacy circle gave them status amongst other donors who asked where they could get the badge too! So magic comes in all forms!

There is a real lack of organisational knowledge about legacies – past income, items or stories. If we don’t know what came before how can we know how we are performing now – or share joyful stories of why supporters have left gifts, and how those gifts have transformed your charity’s work.

If you have been given multi millions, or two pizza shops in Derby (as one arts charity had) then celebrate it. If you have legacy pledgers that met on one of your teacher training courses 40 years ago (as one theatre had) then share the story. Sharing stories internally with staff and with supporters helps spread the message of what legacies can achieve.

So refocus on what you can do to promote this way of giving for your supporters to say thank you for a lifetime of experiences, and for the financial future of your organisation.

Thank you to all those that completed the survey and the full results have been shared with those that participated.