The Legacy Giving Rethink, Part 2: The Art of the Long Game

In Part 1 of this series we covered the structural groundwork that most legacy programmes skip: governance, gift acceptance policies, and internal alignment. Get those right and your organisation is legally and operationally ready to receive gifts.

But operational readiness is only half the challenge. Legacy giving is, at its core, a relationship function. Most organisations struggle in two specific areas:

1. how they communicate the ask
2. how they manage the relationship after a supporter says yes.

Legacy giving needs its own voice

The communications gap in legacy giving is stark. Some 44% of adults aged 26 to 56 are already considering leaving a legacy gift, yet only 30% recall ever seeing any legacy giving communications from an organisation. That is not a lack of interest. It is a communication and language problem, and it is one that organisations can fix.

The issue is that most legacy fundraising mimics the tone of annual giving. Standard fundraising is urgent and transactional: give now, see the impact, renew next year. That register works for annual giving because it matches the donor's mindset in that moment.

Legacy giving requires something different. When someone is deciding whether to include an organisation in their Will, they are not responding to a campaign. They are thinking about their own philosophy and what they want to leave behind. It is one of the more significant decisions in life and it happens on their own terms. They are expressing their life’s ethos.

Effective legacy messaging needs to answer three questions:

1. What specific future will this gift help build,
2. Why is your organisation a trustworthy steward of a final gift,
3. What lasting difference can a single bequest make over decades?

Back those answers with a short brochure, and a simple FAQ that removes the practical barriers for a first-time legacy donor.

What happens after someone says 'YES' is where most programmes collapse

When a supporter tells you they have included your organisation in their Will, the most common response is a letter of thanks followed by silence. That is not stewardship. It is administrative gratitude, and it is the fastest way to lose a commitment that took years toearn.

A notified legacy donor is a living supporter first. Their intentions can and do change, and they may update their Will multiple times. That is not a risk to manage but an opportunity to seize. When supporters update their wills, they are four times more likely to add an organisation than remove one, 43% versus 11%.

The relationship you build between the moment they notify you and the moment their gift is eventually realised is the difference between a commitment that grows and one that quietly disappears in a future Will.

Real stewardship means personal contact at the most senior level of your organisation, not just from the development team. It means invitations to events, regular updates on the long-term vision they are now part of, and the genuine sense that their commitment is known and valued. Treat notified donors as stakeholders in the future they are helping to fund, not as entries in a database.

Legacy giving works through consistent, long-term relationship-building. The organisations that resource it accordingly are the ones that will look back in twenty years and wonder why they did not start sooner.

Next in our series

In Part 3, the final instalment of this series, we challenge the demographic assumption sitting at the heart of almost every legacy programme in existence, and make the case for why the most valuable legacy donors of the next thirty years are probably not who you think they are.

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Contributed by Jonathan Ng

As Head of Partnerships at adeus, Jonathan works with schools and other institutions to build and grow legacy giving programmes through a modern, digital-first approach. He leads partner relationships from early conversations through to campaign launch, helping organisations shape the right strategy, messaging, and supporter journey. Outside of work, he is a dad, which gives him a personal appreciation for legacy, family, and planning for the future.

About adeus

adeus is a digital-first legacy giving platform helping organisations build, manage and grow their legacy programmes. To find out more, email us at hello@adeus.life

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