Ahead of the launch of this year’s ILM Love Your Legacy Manager campaign – entitled All Systems Go – we caught up with Legacy Link’s Marcia Prince who shares her words of wisdom and top tips for raising the profile of legacies.
Marcia has worked in the legacy management profession since 2001, notably for the National Trust and Salvation Army. In her current consultancy role, she works with charities both large and small.
Marcia recalls how, when she first started in legacies, her ‘office’ was a storage room in the attic, while her legacy marketing colleague was in a storage room in the basement. Over time, the pair combined their expertise and put together a campaign for raising the profile of legacies and encouraging investment. By the time Marcia left some 15 years later, the Board of Trustees had just committed to invest in legacy marketing and legacy administration up to £1 million a year and the Board had declared legacies as an organisational priority.
“I have used guerilla tactics over the years – and special thanks must go to the late Tony Elischer for inspiring me – to smuggle in legacy messages that didn’t cost anything. For instance, lobbying the magazine team to make sure when they were writing about conservation work, they add in one line that legacies were an important part of the funding. Or, if you are reporting figures upwards, then give a little context, explain what you are doing and celebrate great legacy results.
“I spent a lot of time being told talking about legacies wasn’t a good idea because it’s about death, and I was saying ‘no, legacies are a good news story’. I was explaining that the decision to leave a legacy is very different from a donation. A Will represents the things and the people who are most important to you in your life, so it is a huge honour to be left a legacy and, because it is based on that individual’s experience across a whole organisation, everybody is responsible.”
While Marcia says she was ‘quite lucky’ in having direct access to the senior executive team at that particular charity, she acknowledges this isn’t always easy.
“The coffee queue at the Salvation Army was like gold dust for me. I would be standing there with the head of our homelessness unit and, because legacies brought in so much money for their work with the homeless, I got to know him well and was then able to follow up.
“I am very opportunistic, if one thing doesn’t work, I sit back and think is there another approach or is there somebody else I can target to get to where I need to be.”
Marcia recognises that, in smaller charities, it can be hard to have the “brain space” and time to take such an approach and she is also aware that not everyone shares her “bulldozer mode” (her words).
One successful route that Marcia recommends is to make friends with colleagues at similar levels within other key departments as, by finding out what they are doing, you then have the opportunity to explain about legacies.
“The whole time I was a legacy manager I was always in teams that were seriously understaffed for the amount of income we were bringing in. I was always looking at processes and systems as sometimes unblocking the simplest things can make everybody more effective.
“We know that a lot of systems, such as Dynamics, Care and Thank You, are often used in smaller charities, particularly if they don’t have a huge number of legacy cases. While these may have their limitations, it’s thinking laterally about how those tools that are available can be adequately adapted. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have got.”
At other times, she adds, a different solution may be required, such as bringing in temporary administrative support in order to allow the legacy manager to prioritise the income-generating case work.
“Even having an experienced legacy officer coming in on a consultancy basis for one hour a day to prioritise processes and blitz the legacy administration can make a huge difference and really transform the way a charity can work.“
Marcia concludes: “My attitude has always been to be really nice with your approach and if you are told no, then say thank you very much and back away – at least you have planted a seed and then you are likely to find opportunities later to have another go.”
Together with other leading legacy management experts, Marcia is participating in a special webinar today (22nd October) as part of the launch event for All Systems Go.
Marcia’s top tips:
· Think laterally and be opportunistic
· If you can’t do one thing, can you do something else to deliver the same result
· Consider how you can use existing resources to best effect
· Keep processes under review
· Protect time to focus on the work that brings in the income
· Identify and cultivate potential legacy allies within your organisation and tell them the legacy story so they can start to advocate upwards
· If you can’t get in to see the CEO then talk to their assistant
· Work with other teams (ie marketing/individual giving/HR/membership) to encourage inclusion of legacy messages
· Learn how to ‘smuggle’ legacy messages into internal reports, magazine and newsletter articles – start small with soft-touch articles that tell good news stories
· Develop your own internal ‘roadshow’ to tell the legacy story to your colleagues
· Talk to your legacy peers in similar-sized organisations and swop ideas
· Don’t be afraid to push back and challenge existing policy – if a request for legacy investment is denied, put together a business case or presentation and keep pushing at the door
