To better understand and help find potential solutions for the staff recruitment and retention crisis currently facing the UK legacy fundraising sector, we worked in association with Remember A Charity to consult senior legacy fundraisers on how the key challenges are impacting their organisations and themselves as legacy professionals.

These findings have been published in Building Better Futures in Legacy Fundraising 2024. The report contains data from 52 respondents and input from industry focus groups to explore the results and practical solutions that could support legacy fundraising and translate to the broader fundraising sector.

Recommendations to meet the challenges

The report shares strategic recommendations and practical advice that charities could take to improve their recruitment processes, to better source relevant and transferable skills, and to retain valuable talent and experience. This was compiled by the Legacy Leaders Forum, a special interest group facilitated by Legacy Futures comprising senior legacy fundraisers from 19 UK charities including Alzheimer's Society, Parkinson’s UK and British Red Cross.

Among the strategic recommendations provided in the report include the need to create a clear pathway that allows legacy fundraisers to become leaders. Reminding the sector of the critical importance of legacies and their impact on the future sustainability of organisations is also highlighted.

Key findings include:

• 77% of respondents reported a shortage of quality candidates responding to job ads
• Three quarters (75%) said that finding candidates with the right skill set for the role is a challenge
• 61% of legacy fundraising professionals are leaving their roles due to salary dissatisfaction
• Over two thirds (67%) have been tempted away by a role in a different charity
• More than half (53%) reported moving to another organisation because their current charity did not offer them career progression

To address the challenges:

• Almost three quarters (73%) have allowed for more flexibility
• 60% have hired from other areas within the organisation
• Almost half (48%) have hired from outside the charity sector, with the teaching profession being cited as one such industry organisations have turned to
• The top three most effective strategies given for overcoming the recruitment crisis were
  • hiring from other sectors,
  • offering more flexible working arrangements, and
  • working with recruitment agencies
• To address retention challenges, respondents reported that increasing flexibility (61%) and salaries (33%) were proving to be the most effective strategies

The recruitment and retention challenges facing the legacy sector, and the third sector as a whole, have been at crisis point for some time now. It is our intention with this report to provide leaders of organisations with real, in-depth insight into the extent and root of these issues. Providing sector-led advice, both on a strategic and practical level, along with the data, means that charities aren’t just faced with the facts; they’re also equipped with suggestions of how to address them.

Lucinda Frostick, director at Remember A Charity, said:

“Legacies can be hard to predict, but history shows us charities that invest in legacies and their legacy teams are most likely to see growth in their market share. Our people; their knowledge, creativity and passion for the cause are surely our biggest assets, alongside our supporters. And as more charities move into the legacy sphere, it becomes even more important that we grow and nurture talent.”

Ceri Edwards, Executive Director of Change at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, said:

“This study spotlights staffing issues in legacy fundraising that reflect the challenges faced by the entire fundraising profession around recruitment and retention of skills and experience. The strategic recommendations and practical advice from the senior legacy professionals who have collaborated here will have immense value for legacy teams and will help inform the wider sector’s work in this area.”