Having a Gifts in Wills program in place ensures your charity has one of the most imperative fundraising pillars in place for maximising revenue.
Anyone involved in fundraising for the not-for-profit sector knows that grooming donors up the donor pyramid to ultimately leave a transformational bequest or gift in their Will is the holy grail.
Sadly however, many charities still don’t pay much attention to their Gifts in Wills program, often passively letting bequests trickle in without much attention. You must ask the question; can your organisation afford to ignore a 20-50% boost in annual revenue?
Imagine what that money could do to help your organisation’s beneficiaries and meet your mission over the long term…
The primary issue is that, whilst many charities focus on one-off cash and regular giving, philanthropic and corporate giving, community fundraising and events, more often than not, the Gifts in Wills program is overlooked. In reality however, this cornerstone program should be any charity’s main focus from the get-go.
So, why is the Gifts in Wills Program so Largely Ignored?
It’s simple—bequests are almost exclusively viewed as future giving and are a form of charitable giving which is hard to predict and somewhat unobtainable. In fact, the sector claims it takes 5-7 years on average for a charity to start receiving bequests after rolling out a bequest strategy.
Fortunately (and unfortunately for those that hold this opinion), this is often not the case. We have seen time and time again bequests received in the first year of rolling out a Gifts in Wills program.
Additionally, there is also still the uncomfortable conversation about mortality and money, which many charities feel squeamish about and regard with trepidation. But couple this with a lack of in-depth knowledge on how to roll out a successful Gifts in Wills program and a dearth of estate administration experience and the result is the loss of potentially significant revenue.
Bequests are notoriously difficult to budget for as income is sporadic and hard to quantify, but the longer you have a Gifts in Wills program in place (and the more attention you give it), the better. Many charities don’t budget for bequests as they are often viewed as the icing on the cake in terms of income. Certainly, in the early years of a Gifts in Wills program being in place, it wouldn’t be ideal to budget for any bequest income. But generally, as a rule of thumb when budgeting for bequests, charities can somewhat account for this income by taking bequest income received over the past five years and then taking 80% of the average annual income and budget that amount for the following fiscal year.
Why is a Gifts in Wills Program Important?
For starters, Gifts in Wills programs have the largest return on investment (ROI) of all of the fundraising programs, for every $1 spent you get $57 back on average. Because of this, it is only right that due attention be given to ensure it can be the best it can be.
There really is no excuse not to establish and grow a Gifts in Wills program which can be implemented for minimal investment, yet many charities put this off as they view bequests as revenue that comes by chance somewhere in the distant future. In reality however, the sooner a charity starts promoting its need for Gifts in Wills, the sooner it will reap the rewards.
To start with, some of the key things you can do now to ensure you are optimising your Gifts in Wills program include:
- The number one hack is to include this crucial sentence on all acquisition and retention direct mail response mechanisms: ‘✓ Please send me information on how to leave a gift in my Will to (insert charity name),’ from the day you read this article. Just do it!
This will not ‘detract from the ask’ as many direct mail agencies will have you believe. And it will justify, leverage and underpin the huge investment in direct mail acquisition as your organisation converts leads from what is a prime target audience into bequest leads and ultimately confirmed bequestors, yielding financial results in the most efficient way. It’s a no brainer. - Place bequest advertisements in all of your ongoing communications, hardcopy and electronic newsletters, annual reports and in Law Society charity directories. Consider it drip, drip marketing.
- Make sure you have a designated Gifts in Wills page on your website that is easy to find. Even include a bequest button (similar to your donate button) on your homepage leading to your bequest page. Include a testimonial video from a confirmed bequestor about why they chose to leave your charity the ultimate gift. Ensure all the information a solicitor will need to include your charity in their client’s Will, such as the type of bequest they wish to give along with official wording to include in their Will, your official charity name, physical address, ABN and contact information for the bequest officer in your organisation. Include a downloadable PDF bequest enquirer information pack on the webpage (remember most people won’t tell you about their bequest intentions – make it easy for them).
- Get involved with Include a Charity and Include a Charity Week.
- Send out supporter surveys electronically and through direct mail annually with a series of regular giving, major giving and bequest related questions at the end of the survey. Ensure you collate survey results (we recommend Crystal Clear Data who will do this on your charity’s behalf in Tableau, where you can analyse and drill down into results). This will help you unlock the potential of your supporters as you find out what their bequest intentions are and assist with predicting possible future income.
- Ensure your supporters are recorded as bequest enquirers, considerers, intenders, and confirmed bequestors on your CRM when they indicate their interest in leaving your organisation a gift in their Will.
- Ensure your organisation has both a bequest enquirer information pack, comprising a letter, bequest brochure, response form (to let you know their intentions) and reply-paid envelope; and a confirmed bequestor welcome pack, comprising a welcome letter, bequest welcome brochure, and keepsake pin or certificate.
- Create a named bequest club or product so confirmed bequestors feel they belong to something special.
- Engage with your bequest enquirers, considerers, intenders and confirmed bequestors through tailored communications plans based on their preferences.
- Invite your most loyal regular donors, major donors and bequest enquirers, considerers, intenders and confirmed bequestors to small, intimate ‘high tea’ events to talk about the future goals of your organisation.
Ask your organisation’s beneficiaries/clients, program manager and CEO to speak at these events. At the end, talk about the importance of bequests and make it part of your power point presentation (along with a bequest testimonial video). The aim is to leave a lasting and emotional impact on attendees. Give attendees a goody bag to take away with bequest brochures included.
Follow up with attendees after the event to ask for any feedback. Many charities miss the mark on these events and speak for too long or don’t have the right event format, venue and food suitability (is it too flashy or too downmarket?). Your supporters will tell you where you can improve. The more authentic the better.
Finally, look out for our future blogs where we talk about bequest surveys, solus mailings and handling contested estates to further grow your charity’s bequest income.
Kerin Welford
Director, Bluestone Fundraising
