Legacy administration or legacy management?

First, the term ‘legacy administration’ does not do justice to the work involved in the role. A more accurate descriptor might be legacy management, which better reflects the diversity of tasks a case handler must perform whilst also balancing the charity’s legal duties with optimising its entitlement, maintaining its reputation and dealing with the sensitivities of communicating with personal executors. For the sake of clarity, however, I’ll continue referring to ‘legacy administration’ in this article.

The legacy administration team has a responsibility to promote itself more widely to the rest of the organisation. This can be delivered as a package of activities throughout the year, suggestions for which are given below.

New staff induction

Starting a new job or at a new organisation with many teams and departments can be a daunting prospect for anyone. However, it is crucial for every fundraiser to understand that the overall stewardship arc of every supporter, no matter how they currently donate, should be that they are asked about leaving a gift in their will at an appropriate time. This may seem like a legacy marketing message, but it is important for new starters, regardless of their role in the organisation, to understand how important the legacy income stream is, which should include a basic understanding of what legacy administration entails.

Sharing stories

A simple way to raise the profile of legacy administration is to share stories internally of how a case handler’s foresight and attention to detail added value to a legacy. This can be as simple as mentioning the value added from appropriating a property where the opportunity to save on Capital Gains Tax could have been missed, or where an executor was reminded about how to correctly apportion Inheritance Tax.

Stories that land well with fundraisers are the more personal emotive stories of why a supporter left a gift in their will, perhaps in gratitude of the services provided by the charity when it was most needed by that individual, or in recognition of a loved one that indirectly benefitted from the charity.

Internal communication

These messages can be reinforced through regular updates, such as weekly round robins, internal newsletters, the charity’s intranet, or perhaps hooking the internal promotion of legacy administration on to a pre-existing week designed to promote legacies, such as Remember A Charity Week.  Activities could include running an online presentation, sharing stories, or providing examples of unusual gifts the charity has received.  Ultimately, staff are more likely to remember something emotive or unusual over the nitty gritty of what the team does.

Collaborative projects

It seems that not all legacy administration teams are working as closely as they could with their counterparts in the legacy marketing or major gifts teams, despite the legacy administration team often building relationships with personal executors or family members who have a good understanding of the motives behind why the charity was added to the will. Furthermore, the stories the legacy administration team gather could be put to great use for marketing purposes. Assessing what more you could to do take a joined-up approach will help you tap into the endless potential that can be had through working together.

Senior management engagement

Through their 121s, regular meetings and internal communication, heads of other departments should have the opportunity to learn about the work of legacy administration from the manager and the rest of the team. The head of legacy administration should be the team’s champion and share their successes with senior management. There shouldn’t be one person in senior management that doesn’t know what the legacy administration team does and the importance of legacy income to the future of the charity.