For 35 years I have been helping non-profits grow their legacy/bequest income. I am British but work in over 30 countries and have advised numerous North American non-profits from hospitals to conservation agencies, human rights organisations and universities.
I meet donors (so far about 37,000) and ask all about their philanthropic habits, patterns and information needs.
So, what are the main changes over recent decades?
1 Simplicity
There is a real need to make action easy in our troubled and busy world. There seems to be a far greater emphasis on straight legacy giving (and DAFs). Planned gifts (CGAs CRTs CLTs etc) are increasingly NOT wanted due to complicated State driven tax rules. By offering every possible type of “death related gift” what happens? Nothing. “I will leave it to another day” is the reaction I get in focus groups. Actually, legacies are NOT deathly – they are life driven and only activated at death and they ae NOT the final gift because it is made during their philanthropic journey.
2 Do not force an ask or a pledge.
This might be alien to planned giving officers. The pleas I get are “please tell us the impact MY legacy gift will make” or “the impact of a recent gift”. As the future of our world becomes more uncertain there is a real explosion (not an exaggeration) of comments saying, “do not make me pledge I have no idea what my future financial situation will be” (or the needs of my family).
In other words, give us the freedom of choice to take bequest action or not.
3 Trust and confidence – the changing beneficiaries
A bequest is an investment in the future of your non-profit. It is not a spontaneous donation but “a deep thought gift”.
As trust and confidence in non-profits diminishes prospects are re-considering which non-profits would invest their gift wisely. In the UK we are lucky to see every Will with a non-profit mentioned. In the last 20 years the number of non-profits benefitting from bequests has grown from 1,200 to 12,000. Who are these newer beneficiaries and why?
They are:
Newer legacy causes (human rights, justice, the environment, mental health, hospitals).
These are either due to local tangibility, life experiences or a deep passion for a cause.
4 The barrier to success
All the newer causes are “top of mind” for donations and “bottom of mind” for legacies.
Why? All the newer causes are not always considered to be “charities”. They are service providers or campaigners. If you take the views of the last 10,000 donors I have met (aged over 55) in the last 10 years: 48% have put “charities” in their Will. But only 12% have put service providers or campaigning causes in their Will. Why? “It never occurred to me they needed a bequest”.
BTW – it is amazing how many Americans dislike the word “bequest” and phrase “planned gift” but prefer “legacy”.
Richard runs legacy focus groups, drafts practical legacy plans (about 500 so far) from the global to the local, and has trained over 40,000 people in the art of legacy conversations.