Time - our best friend?

We all know that legacy fundraising is not about jam today - in fact this is the key reason why so many charities under-invest in it and let it slip down their priority list. After all, they have work to fund this year and next and fundraisers have targets to meet!

However, some feedback I have just had on a campaign I designed in 2002 has underlined for me again the real value of legacies and the importance of taking a long term perspective.

The campaign I am writing about was planned in 2001 for a small national charity. We ran focus groups to develop the proposition, recruited and interviewed some legacy champions, developed the campaign literature and planned the launch. In March 2002 it all kicked off and the charity then took it over to run things itself. The head of fundraising eventually moved on and - as can easily happen - we lost touch with the charity.

By chance I was recently back in touch and learned that the campaign, which is essentially still the same, has so far raised £3 million for the charity. While I no longer have the budget details, I reckon this means an ROI of up to 100:1 - a pretty good return by any reckoning.

So what has made the difference here? Well the campaign has clearly been effective but there was nothing revolutionary about it. Fairly standard stuff in fact. What has made the difference of course is time - 8 years down the line, it has had time to work (and is still working).

We hear a lot these days about the many things we need to get right in legacy fundraising (the vision, the strategy, the copy etc), but in fact the most important thing is probably to give things enough time. The best campaign will not work if not given time, whereas even a standard, competent campaign can have fantastic results if maintained consistently over a longer period.

This is an important message for fundraisers and trustees to understand. Invest in legacies now and, if you take the long view, you WILL get the return you are seeking, provided you get the basics right.

For more details about our legacy planning work, please visit:

http://www.wgconsulting.co.uk/fundraising-services/legacy-fundraising