What is legacy giving and why explore it?
People in your community might be interested in leaving a gift if they have volunteered with your Trust, used your facilities, benefited from your services, or simply care deeply about their local community, a legacy gift gives them the opportunity to leave something behind for future generations.
Legacies is also one of the few areas of charitable giving that continues to grow, however it remains a relatively untapped market for local place-based organisations, with 10% charities receiving 70% of all legacy income.
Recent research from Remember A Charity, the national charity for legacy giving, found that:
- Nearly one in three charity supporters with a Will (32%) have already included a charitable gift.
- A further 35% of supporters who haven’t yet left a gift say they would consider doing so, showing significant potential for future growth.
What could a legacy gift support?
Legacy gifts can help Development Trusts:
- Protect and develop community assets
- Invest in future community projects
- Support long-term financial sustainability
- Build reserves for future opportunities
- Continue providing services that matter to local people
Every organisation will have its own story to tell about how a future gift could make a lasting difference.
Our Legacy Giving Support:
This support is only available to DTAS members at the moment
As part of our Democratic Finance Programme, DTAS is developing support to help Development Trusts explore and develop legacy giving.
Our support is built around a simple five-stage journey:
Explore: Learn what legacy giving is, why it matters, and whether it’s the right fit for your organisation. Our team can talk you through the basics of legacies through an early stage call or email.
Decide: Consider the level of commitment that’s right for you and build internal support.
Prepare: Plan your legacy offer by identifying your audiences, developing key messages, creating campaign materials and preparing for launch.
Do: Launch your legacy giving offer with support on communications, campaign planning and practical resources.
Sustain: Embed legacy giving into your ongoing communications, keep supporters engaged, and refresh your approach over time.
Current support includes:
- One-to-one advice and guidance on getting started
- Support to develop a simple legacy giving plan
- Help identifying key audiences and shaping your messaging
- Peer learning with other Development Trusts exploring legacy giving
- Access to practical tools, templates and research through our partnership with Remember A Charity (for pilot participants)
- Support planning and promoting your legacy offer, including around Remember A Charity Week each September
Is legacy giving right for your organisation?
Some useful questions to consider include:
- Why are we interested in legacy giving?
- What difference could a legacy gift make to our organisation?
- Is there a particular project or long-term need that legacy gifts could support?
- Do we have the capacity to start with a simple legacy webpage or campaign?
Reach out for support:
You don’t need all the answers before getting started, we’re happy to help you think these through.
Whether your ambition is simply to add a legacy giving page to your website or to develop a longer-term legacy programme, we can support. Get in touch with Julia@dtascot.org for more information.
