This year’s programme is exploring the important area of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic in-memory giving.

This project is an opportunity to better understand the nuances, commonalities and differences between in-memory supporters from different faiths and cultural groups and how they engage with in-memory giving. As a result, this will enable charities to accommodate and tailor their in-memory communications and offerings to be more inclusive and encourage more people to feel that they, and people of their faith, culture or ethnic background, can donate in memory of their loved ones.

This research will provide our learning circle members with:

• An understanding of how various religions and cultures approach death, mourning, grieving and remembering loved ones
• A clearer view of how people of a range of ethnicities engage with in-memory and wider charitable giving and identify any similarities and differences between the audiences
• An understanding of how large the potential for multi-ethnic in-memory giving could be and evidence for charities to feed into their plans and strategies
• Recommendations and actionable insights on how to develop current in-memory offerings to be more inclusive and reach new audiences

We are also running our annual Benchmarking as part of the programme.

The learnings from the research will be shared with consortium members in February 2025.

In Memory Insight is an ongoing research programme where we collect hard evidence to inform in-memory fundraising strategies and convince senior management of the value of in-memory giving.

We work closely with a learning circle of leading charities – over ninety in the past twelve years – who agree to pool their budgets, experiences and data together to help build evidence and insight.

How In-Memory Insight can help you

• Enhance your in-memory fundraising strategy and communications
• Stay up to date with the with the latest trends in in-memory giving and fundraising
• Assess your performance against the market and your closest peers
• Present evidence to prove the value of  in-memory to your charity
• Network with fellow fundraisers, discussing experiences and sharing best practice

How it works

In-Memory Insight is a rolling research programme, with each year building on the one before. Since 2011 we have explored a series of themes including: fundraising in-memory through events (2014/15), charities’ use of in-memory products (2015/16), the use of social and digital media in memory (2016/17), and the role of Funeral Directors in in-memory donations (2017/18), understanding in-memory stewardship (2019/20), adapting to the in-memory landscape after the pandemic (2020/21), in-memory goes digital (2021/22), Remembering Together – the role of groups in in-memory fundraising (2022/3) and exploring what's next for in-memory products (2023/24).