Legacy Fundraising: Why Charities Need an Integrated Portfolio Approach
🧭 Real-World Legacy Fundraising Challenges
As a charity fundraiser with over 20 years experience, I’ve seen the same story repeat: legacy marketing budgets are often the first to be cut, especially when immediate income targets loom large. I witnessed this first-hand at CRUK: while year on year income increased - along with the market, market share declined until 2024.
If you’re a fundraising manager or legacy lead, you’ll know this tension: your team values gifts in wills, but limited staff, restricted budgets, and leadership pressure make it difficult to prioritise legacy fundraising.
📊 Poll Results: What’s Really Holding Back Legacy Fundraising?
I recently ran a LinkedIn poll to find out what’s stopping charities from investing in legacy fundraising. Here’s what fundraisers said:
Biggest Barrier % of Respondents
Competing income priorities 50%
Lack of internal capacity 33%
Senior leadership buy-in 17% Creating a business case/plan 0%
Insight:
Creating a legacy fundraising plan isn’t the issue - it’s capacity, leadership buy-in, and competing priorities (all internal pressures) that keep strategy on the shelf.
🚫 Legacy vs. In-Year Fundraising? Don’t Fall for the Either/Or Trap
Legacies don’t need to function separately from fundraising. Think of giving as a portfolio, not silos:
Integrated asks: Or blended giving where a gift in a will is a natural extension of a supporter’s lifetime impact.
Motivation-driven supporter journeys: Tapping into those common motivations to support like in memory or wanting to give back/pay it forward.
Cross-programme messaging: Events, appeals, trust activity - all speaking to long term impact and sustaining the charity’s work for decades to come.
This is basic fundraising practice - just applied with fewer resources, not against them.
🛠️ How to Get Started (With What You Already Have)
Map your supporter journey: where could legacy messaging simply be added?
Create a lean internal ‘product’ pack: key stats, lines to say, “why now” rationale - for supporter facing staff and SMTs.
Allocate tiny but meaningful time blocks: even 1 hour/week to legacy goals.
Assign low-lift responsibilities: delegate planning, wording, and metrics across the team. Normalise legacies as part of the portfolio.
Track it alongside other income and over time: so leadership sees synergy, not competition, with the in-year targets.
🔥 Take Action: Integrated Legacy Fundraising for Charities
You don’t have to choose between urgent income needs and future-proofing your charity with legacy giving. By adopting a portfolio approach to fundraising, your team can drive sustainable growth - even with limited resources.
I’m building the Legacy Launchpad Toolkit to help small and mid-sized charities make legacy fundraising part of their everyday fundraising strategy, with minimal extra work.
Want to shape this toolkit, pilot new resources, or get tailored advice?
Get in touch to discuss how a portfolio fundraising approach could unlock more legacy gifts for your charity.
