The Good the Bad and The Ugly of Legacy fundraising.

A Serious and light-hearted look at the market?

Presented at Institute of Fundraising Legacy Conference 2012

by Richard Radcliffe FInstF Cert

Call for good examples

Outcomes•7 charities email me saying “please do not feature my charity I am not responsible for website”•6 send me their materials. 2 feature in this presentation….•4 do not – in my opinion they are either boring, bad or ugly. Sorry

My name is Richard Davies

• A short history of mystery shopping during the week of 6th august

• 7 of the top 20 legacy receiving charities contacted

• Called all charities on Tuesday 7th August. I said: I am off to my solicitor on Friday how do I put charity X in my Will

So what happened?

• If Sally from Marie Curie is here please stand

up. ☺• You have an outstanding telephone manner!• You were my only good experience

Other outcomes

• Letter back “thank you for your enquiry about our free Will scheme”. WRONG

• Telephone call with charity: Why legacy now but no thank you.

• Rang legacy hotline but given 4 options “Press 1 etc” NOT one of them concerning a legacy so put phone down

Next

• Put through to wrong section and then silence for 4 minutes 10 seconds so put phone down

• Switchboard told me legacies team are not there they will phone you back. They didn’t

• Got through to switchboard said they would put me through – 5 minutes 25 seconds later still no answer so gave up

I will NOT name and shame but if you want to know if you were one of the charities come and see me!

Humour

• Can it be used effectively? Let’s listen and watch one of the earliest legacy videos

We can only change the world

• By being different. The future belongs to those who dare

• Or is “daring” dangerous? There is good daring and bad daring…..

Is humour good or bad?

• “Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.” Oscar Wilde

Great Ormond Street Hospital

GOSH

• REAL SENSE of achievement through legacies

Guys Hospital

Guys Hospital

• No sight of the charity website (unlike GOSH which is VERY clear)

If a man

• Sees a fly he aims at it!

Develop a Legacy brand

• If legacy fundraising is to be noticed have you considered a legacy brand?

• A legacy brand (as part of your charity brand): more people will notice, read and hopefully act

Our ageing changing population

2010•12.2 million over pensionable age (20% of the population)•12,641 aged over 100 (was less than 7,000 in 2001)•Due to be 180,000 by 2050.•8 million of us will live to over 100•Aged 85+ - 67% female•Annual number of Deaths by 2050 – 740,000

Older people

• Financial uncertainty is developing fast. Long term decisions are just not being made.

• Older generations are now witnessing marriage break ups in their families which complicates inheritance issues.

• Many men leaving money to “latest wife” on condition they do NOT re-marry! Is there an opportunity here? (only joking)

• Biggest issue: LONG term is not being considered.• Now let’s look at some underwear!

1920

1952

2012

Times are changing fast

• But elderly people change more slowly and they become less tolerant if you do not understand their lifestyles.

Are all campaigns too similar?

• It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. CS Lewis

Unhappy endings?

Review of focus groups involving 247 donors.•Not one was happy with being telephoned and if they have been phoned here are some quotes……•I have struck them off.•When they asked for my bank details that was it! End of conversation.•I have decided that the call was the straw that broke the camel’s back

More

• It was awful – it was just so wrong• I cannot bear any of these calls and there are

so many now. It is intrusive and they have no right to ask me about my Will

• I found out it was an agency doing the calls so that was that. Out.

How many complained and told the charity they were out?

1 Telemarketing might well have a role but in my opinion it is NOT a selling role

Unhappy endings are impossible

• I do not know how to bring this session to a satisfactory completion. Perhaps that sums up legacy fundraising.

• Completion is Impossible – it is the only way of giving (or fundraising) which cannot have a totally useful, true and accurate outcome.

• At the end of the day everyone I have met has said it was their choice and the choice was not influenced by ANY charity. But the idea is SPARKED by the charity

The biggest challenges we face

• Ignorance and mis-information which sets wrong expectations (please put your hand up if your year end legacy income was within 5% of your legacy income forecast?)

• Short-termism by Trustees, SMTs and some Directors of Fundraising who assume legacy fundraising results only come in after they have left and they need money NOW cos it is the recession

• Refusal to invest adequate resources in an unknown.

Tactics

• Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known

knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns;

that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown

unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.

Thank you Donald Rumsfeld

If you need me

• Richard Radcliffe• richard@radcliffeconsulting.org

• Mobile: 0777 1896680• Office 01832 710 893• The Manse, Main

Street, Bythorn Cambs UK PE28 0QR