When we think about legacy fundraising, our minds often turn to how we might find new legacy supporters. But one of the biggest opportunities for those looking to grow their legacy income is keeping those people who have already expressed an interest in giving in this way: only around half of people who say they have included a charity in their will and only about five per cent of those who have expressed an interest, ultimately go on to give. The comparatively high value of a gift in a will means that increasing that proportion could have a really significant impact on our income - and more importantly the work we deliver - at a relatively low cost.

Last week, our Legacy Futures team and more than 40 brilliant legacy fundraisers met up to think about what science could tell us about legacy supporter journeys, and how that might impact on our practice. These were just some of our favourite takeaways from the day.

1)      The coffee you drink can signal the identity you want to project

We started by thinking about the goals we want to achieve when we participate in a journey and the value that a journey provides, through the lens of what we thought would be the relatively simple process of buying a cup of coffee. However, our conversations showed how complex even a relatively simple transaction can be, with our morning coffee providing everything from the functional value of a caffeine hit to showcasing our identity as a coffee connoisseur. Now, project that complexity onto the decision to leave a gift in a will: our final opportunity to say something about ourselves to the world, and a decision that's bound up in deep existential questions. If we want to design effective journeys in that context, we need a deep understanding of our supporters, the goals they want to fulfil and the value that giving offers them.

2)   Heuristics guide our thinking: the little things matter

When we support charities, we often don’t have access to all the information about their services, and how they’re delivered. Instead, we use heuristics, such as the quality or volume of communication they send, as a substitute (Breeze 2010). Attendees shared how, what appeared on the face of it to be a small issue, such as spelling a name incorrectly or being able to link the records of a married couple in a database, had had a big impact on legacy giving decisions. Paying attention to the detail matters – and it really matters within a gifts in wills journey.

3)      Delight happens at the intersection of joy and surprise

In our second session, Dr Lucy Lowthian explored how we can make experiences memorable. Memorability matters in legacy supporter journeys which can potentially play out over years, if not decades. To understand memorability, Lucy drew on the recent work of Bisht and Ram (2024), who discuss customer delight which, they say, makes experiences particularly memorable. Bisht and Ram tell us that delight occurs at the intersection of joy and surprise, and they helpfully dissect how you can create joy and surprise through service excellence and product innovation. It was great to be reminded that fantastic ideas for delighting supporters don’t always magically appear from the ether: there are principles that you can apply to help you design delight into your journeys.

4)      Test, but do it well

Doug Clow told us that tests are like cavalry charges in a battle: they should be employed strategically and with careful thought. Whilst there are often opportunities to build testing into our supporter journeys, good tests can be harder than we think to deliver. Amongst other things, ideally, we need enough people to take part to make sure that the results are valid, we need a process to randomise participants between groups, and we need control groups. Poor test design might even do more harm that good, encouraging us to change something that might be working effectively without sufficient evidence. The key takeaway? Test, but do it well.

5)      Always remember why we’re here

Amidst our thinking about science, numbers and testing, Doug Clow also very wisely reminded us to keep our values as our guiding star – to always remember, and regularly return to, why we’re doing this work. This is the ‘why’ for focusing on supporter journeys that I wrote down:

We want more of those people who are already interested in gifts in wills to go on and leave something to the causes they care about – so that they can help more people when they die, in a way that brings them joy in life.

As we say at the top of this piece, the opportunity offered by creating better journeys could have a significant financial impact on the good work of our organisations. But just as importantly, if we create them well, good supporter journeys can have a significant positive impact on the lives of our supporters: a win for everyone involved.

A huge thank you to the Legacy Futures team who organised the event and to the attendees from the legacy community who so generously shared their experiences with us and with each other. If you want to know more about the science of supporter journeys, just get in touch.