Tune in to Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo’s session from our 2026 Individual Giving Conference “Embedding Legacy Conversations Across the IG Supporter Journey”
Legacy giving shouldn’t be treated as a separate fundraising product or conversation. Instead, it should emerge naturally from the relationships we build with supporters throughout their journey.
This session explores how Individual Giving programmes can create the conditions for meaningful legacy engagement by focusing on supporters’ motivations, values and identities rather than channels or fundraising asks. Drawing on practical examples from Oxfam’s supporter journeys, persona development, stewardship programme and the *Stay in the Fight* campaign, it will demonstrate how legacy can be introduced as a natural continuation of a supporter’s lifelong commitment to a cause.
The session will also challenge the idea that legacy fundraising belongs solely to specialist teams, exploring how stewardship, volunteering, campaigning and supporter care all play a role in creating opportunities for legacy conversations.
Ultimately, successful legacy fundraising is less about identifying the perfect moment to ask and more about embedding legacy thinking across the supporter experience, enabling people to see how the values they champion today can continue to shape the future long after they’re gone.
Key learnings from this session:
- Understand why legacy fundraising should be embedded across the Individual Giving supporter journey rather than treated as a standalone fundraising product.
- Learn how supporter motivations, values and identities can be used to create more meaningful and authentic legacy engagement.
- Discover practical ways to introduce legacy conversations long before asking for a gift, using stewardship and relationship-building rather than transactional asks.
- Explore how legacy opportunities arise across volunteering, campaigning, supporter care and fundraising, and why every team has a role in enabling them.
- Gain practical examples from Oxfam’s supporter journeys, persona development, stewardship programme and *Stay in the Fight* campaign that can be adapted to your own organisation.
- Leave with ideas for creating a more integrated supporter experience where legacy becomes a natural expression of a lifelong relationship with your cause.
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And thank you to our friends at JustGiving who make the Fundraising Everywhere Podcast possible.
Transcript
Jade Cunnah: Welcome to the Fundraising Everywhere podcast, your go-to place for fundraising tips and inspiration. Love what you hear? Get more insights straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our email list for exclusive fundraising resources, early access to training, special discounts, and more. Just head on over to fundraisingeverywhere.com/podcast to subscribe.
Jade Cunnah: Now, on to today’s episode. Enjoy.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: I think, uh, before I start, thank you for joining us today. I’m Sinem, as Cam introduced. No pressure there as a great speaker. I hope I am. Uh, I head up, uh, legacy engagement at Oxfam, which I’ve been doing for the last, uh, four years. And today, for somebody who’s got legacy in their title, I’m going to say something quite radical.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Legacy isn’t a product. Uh, it is, uh, a lifelong relationship, and if it’s done well, not necessarily and as the responsibility of the legacy team, but across the organization, it can lead to one of the most meaningful gifts of a lifetime of someone’s journey with an organization. But without further ado, I think we’ve got a poll, uh, of two questions only, not to put you on the spot, just to get a sense of the room.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: The first one is: where does legacy sit in your organization today? Uh, so I give you some time to think about it, come back with the answers. And then there’s another question as a follow-up on that. On a scale of one to five, how confident do you feel talking about gifts and wills in your supporter communications?
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Right. I’ve started seeing the results. A separate campaign or product run seems to be about half/half, and there are a couple of not sures, which is, I guess, as good a place to start as any. I think there is another question coming up. I don’t know. We’re doing it now
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Right, I’ll leave that going for a bit. Uh, maybe we can come back to the, the, the next question at the end. Um Right. So I’ll begin with the premise That the best legacy conversations rarely begin with a legacy ask. They begin years, if not decades earlier, when a supporter joins you, your organization. It might be at the end of a thank you call, a welcome call, a campaign action, a conversation, maybe on the shop floor if you’ve got shop presence like Oxfam, long before anyone mentions a will.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And if things go well, and often you hope that they will, or if you do the job well, they will, by the time that conversation comes up or the subject of legacies comes up, it almost happens organically. It’s almost as if it’s been engineered. So today, if it hasn’t been done so in that way, we’re going to look at how we can actually engineer it so when that time comes, most of the work is already done and the supporter is already ready to have that conversation with you.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: So again, going back to what I said earlier, radical, uh, treating legacies as a product. I think when we do that, we inherit the problems that come with it. Uh, and the reason we want to segue, and we all fall into this error or oversight of treating legacies as a bolt on. Uh, and today I’d like to address what it might cost you and how we can actually switch from that thinking to look at legacies more of a continuation of a journey or continuation of a connection.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: So when we treat legacies as a product, we treat them as a separate campaign. I think th- 44, 45% of the people earlier had said it was a separate campaign, often bolted onto a journey or kind of very clumsily bolted on different journeys. Uh, we also are constantly hunting for that single right moment to have that conversation, which should not be the case if it’s done right.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And it’s often owned by a specialist team. I’m not saying it shouldn’t, how important legacies are, but often they are siloed away. They’re n- they’re only heard and thought about when a big legacy gift, uh, lands and celebrated, but often kind of difficult conversations around how to mainstream legacy messaging in other conversations or communications.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: However, when we treat legacies as a continuation, it grows from what a supporter is already caring about. It sits inside whatever journey that they’re on with your organization, and it, it is enabled by everyone within the organization, wherever the supporter is. So I think Cam earlier talked about, uh, face-to-face fundraising.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Again, that’s some exciting ideas happening at Oxfam with that. There is supporter care, there is major donors. There are a range of teams that meet, and there is the shop floor, the volunteers that meet, uh, the supporters where they are. So if done right, if legacy is seen as a continuation, you meet your supporter where they are, and they’re nurtured from that very first action that when that moment comes, the moment of the ask of legacies, it is organic.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: It’s just natural. Um, so the shift, I think, is to start thinking about designing around the person and not the channel and not the ways they, they’ve come from. And I think as fundraisers, we often focus too much on the time of the cal- the time of the year, the annual calendar, the products that we have, the channels that we’re using, that we often forget who is at the center of that journey, and it is actually the supporter.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And supporters don’t really care for whether they’re speaking to someone from community fundraising or from supporter care. All they care about is they’re, they’re talking to the organization. And what matters for them more so is their motivation, what, what they care about, why they ca- they chose to support you in the first place, and more importantly perhaps, why they’re still there, why they have not canceled that regular gift six months down the line.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And that goes back to their values, what they stand for, what they stand behind, and what they are staying in the fight for, to quote a famous campaign. And I think it boils down to their identity as well, which is something that as legacy practitioners we talk about a lot. And if you have legacy colleagues in your organization, you probably would have heard them say symbolic immortality probably hundreds of times.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And that is basically what somebody would like to pass on long after they’re gone, which is a huge part of their identity and the values that they’ve carried forward for decades So before we move on to how we do that, uh, I’d like to set the four conditions I want to talk about today. Knowing what your supporters value, which we kind of touched upon, their motivations, why they’re there.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Making it a continuation from that first action that they’ve taken, making it a natural part of their journey. Giving every team permission to talk about legacies, but maybe more importantly, empowering them to talk about those basically legacy conversations. And making it a stewardship experience for the supporter as well, where they actually steward it so well that they’re part of that journey and that conversation comes quite naturally, and it’s not awkward when it comes and it’s not clumsy.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: But, but before we, before we talk about it, I think I’m missing a slide here. Uh, I want to… Apologies, it might actually be in the gift packs that you get, the delegate packs that you get. Uh, what we use at Oxfam is something called the ALP. So that’s the action love pyramid. It’s got five different sides because a, a supporter can join us from any means necessary, whether it’s, uh, door-to-door signing up for a gift, whether it’s on the shop floor, whether it’s campaigning, signing a petition, uh, whether it’s, uh, volunteering at a festival or volunteering their, their time at a shop.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And the ALPs, uh, lead up to what we call the owning side, the top of the pyramid, where it’s owning. And it’s natural that legacy comes at that final stage of that pyramid because they have taken several actions throughout the course of their connection to the organization, and legacy comes as a natural part of that journey, as I said before.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: For example, there is a supporter that we have called Mary. Her story is plastered all over our legacy pages. We actually got to meet her about three years ago at Oxfam. She’s turning 90 this year. In fact, this month. Uh, she’s been supporting Oxfam since the age of 19, 18 or 19. So she’s almost as long as the organization, and her support has come from 1940s well into 19- like 2000, where she’s actually made that decision to leave a gift in her will.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, so obviously she’s just one of the supporters. We’ve got so many. And in fact, when I go to our events and I meet face to face with our legacy pledgers, I feel humbled by the fact that my four-year-long connection to Oxfam working in the legacy team is probably just a smidgen compared to the decades of amazing things that they’ve done, like community fundraising, taking part in campaigns, going out on demonstrations, giving regular gifts that probably amount to thousands of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: So what is my mere four years compared to that kind of connection? So they get to the top of that pyramid by taking different actions. So often we remind our colleagues that when they get to that stage of making a gift in their will, which is like the most meaningful gift that they could make, it is on the back of the amazing work that they’ve done.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: It’s not just us. So going back to the foundations I spoke about, knowing, uh, your donors and knowing what they value. Often we segment based on their con- their longevity of support, the value of their giving. But I think equally as important when it comes to brand consideration and legacy consideration, is knowing what the motivations behind that giving is, especially with your legacy supporters or legacy hand raisers.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: So over the last few years, going back to 2021 with a survey to our supporters and in 2023 revisiting that survey and doing some qualitative and quantitative, uh, research, we built some per- personas around our values for our pledgers. Not necessarily gift size, but the motivations that they have. For example, Elizabeth is one of the five different personas we have, and she is childfree.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: She, she’s more concerned about changing the world, making the world a fairer place. She’d like to invest in women, women’s corporations, young girls education, so that’s what motivates her to continue supporting Oxfam. She’s not really interested about a free will value exchange offer. She’s not interested about, uh, the tax breaks or inheritance tax implications.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: She just solely wants to connect and support an organization that shares her values in the way that she does. So what we’ve done, speaking to the likes of Elizabeth, speaking to the likes of Peter, Edward, our supporters, our personas with different motivations, we’ve let them shape the conversation. That includes the communications as well.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: The second one is make the, make legacy a continuation of a journey, not something that is bolted on. What we’ve been lucky about Oxfam is having open-minded colleagues that allow us space in their communication. So we’re lucky enough if I can actually have a hard copy. I’m Generation X, I work with hard copies.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: But you see there a story from our Voices magazine that goes out to our supporters every six months. This is again another example of that. Uh, so being able to introduce the idea that legacies is just another way of supporting the organization amongst many other amazing ways makes that conversation come naturally when the time comes.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: You can always return to it as trust deepens and the supporter actually continues to build their relationship with the organization and matching the messaging where they are in the journey. Uh, and again, as I said, we do that through the bi- biannual magazine Voices. We do that through e-news, and we do the, do, uh, the, do that through a variety of different comms throughout the year that I hope to talk about in next coming, uh, slides
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: The third foundation is giving every team the permission and empowering them to be able to talk about legacy fundraising. What- how we did that at, uh, Oxfam, we were lucky enough to be approached by teams that show the- that saw the value of legacy giving as the key pillar of our fundraising strategy. I think it helped that we banked on, we relied on a bit of nugget, which I, I think mentioned in another panel session a couple of days ago.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, remember charity data from a couple of years back, it probably does need updating, but in our first meeting with the division, we talked about how an average legacy gift in the UK is equal roughly about of somebody giving £5 a month for 400 years. Uh, as you appreciate, nobody lives up to 400 years.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Nobody’s able to give up to 400 years, five months, or regardless any of that amount. So I think that in itself illustrates the value of a legacy gift and how powerful and transformative it ca- it, it can be. And once you kind of educate your colleagues and take them on a journey to show the importance of legacies or legacy gifts, then they are more willing to be a part of that conversation and ha- be empowered by your team to have the tools, uh, in place to have that conversation and make it natural.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, so what- how we started that at Oxfam back in 2023 was training … In fact ’22, and we did revisit that training again, and we’re still revisiting that training to date. Uh, was to train our supporter care teams, colleagues, to have those conversations more confidently with supporters when they came up in that end conversation, and with our major donors teams as well.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: We also built legacies into telemarketing. Uh, again, I think Cam referred to that earlier. We started in 2022 with a prospecting phone call. Uh, we’ve recently started welcoming calls for inquirers and we’re- we have plans in place to introduce legacies to more mar- telemarketing calls as well as a face-to-face ask, which I’m really excited about.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: But all this kind of evolved from having those conversations with colleagues in the first place, uh, giving them the opportunity to understand the transformational nature, nature of gifts and wills, uh, and a gift and a will, how powerful that can be, but also providing them the space to ask their questions, to really understand what their challenges are and to address them.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Also, we opened up in the recent last two years, our events to our volunteer engagement teams. They’ve been varying degrees of success, I’m gonna be honest, depending on how that messaging comes across and where it comes from. Uh, however, that’s something we’re working on because we know that our volunteers are also part of the community So that is another way of enabling teams and giving them permission.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: One brilliant example I want to share, again from our Voices magazine, I don’t know how much of it you can see, the story of PJ, uh, and Deborah and Ashley because they’re all interconnected. So PJ is a supporter that’s, uh, supported Oxfam for a long time. When he passed away, he was childless, he was child free, and he, his family was of a good financial standing that he felt like he didn’t need to pass his estate on to his family.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: What he did instead is he contacted … Well, he left in his will, through deed of variation, his estate to his university friends, and Deborah and Ashley were two of those friends. And he said, “Distribute this, this part of my estate amongst the charities that you feel strongly about, about causes that you feel strongly about, uh, when you make that decision.”
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: For Deborah and Ashley, or for us, it was very opportune that their daughter had just signed a petition for ceasefire in Gaza. This was 2024. She had received a phone call from a supporter care team, uh, thanking her for signing the petition and telling her about Oxfam’s work in Gaza. She was so inspired by that conversation that she could go back to her family, especially when they were drafting the list of the charities that they would like to support, and said, “I would like Oxfam to be one of the charities and I would like that gift to go t- go towards Gaza.”
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: So they called us back and they were really passionate about relocating families in Gaza suffering the genocide and the conflict. Uh, unfortunately at the time we were nowhere near that conversation. There were bigger fires to put out before we even got anywhere near relocating the families. Obviously as the legacy team, we had no idea what was happening.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Well, some idea, but we are not the experts. So through supporter care, through our stewardship team and legacies, we reached out to our emergency team, we reached out to our humanitarian lead. We got a good grasp of the situation and how we can actually speak to that supporter to, A, uh, make them understand what the situation was, and B, to reassure them that if they still chose to give us this gift, it would be used where it’s m- it was most needed within the region that they chose to support.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, so in that sense, it actually was the work of a number of people and I think if the training with supporter care, if their confidence wasn’t fully there, this gift wouldn’t have come to, have come to fruition. This brings joy every time I speak about this gift, it brings joy to me. Although it’s not the two things that legacy practitioners always want, A, unrestricted income and, B, a percentage of an estate rather than a fixed sum.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: However, the fact that it was the beautiful, it was the beautiful outcome of a work of … of the collaborative work of a number of teams just brings me joy that what we are trying to put together, the foundations that we’re trying to lay is working. And then stewarding on the relationship, obviously stopping, stop hunting for the perfect momen- moment as we talked about, and make your inquirers a part of that journey, part of that, uh, conversation.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Make them feel like insiders li- rather than leads that you’re trying to convert. So whenever we have an inquiry or a pledge, we thank them, we involve them. Uh, we measure the relationship, not the, not the size of the gift or the realized gift Um, and I think another way we do that, a good example of this is, uh, our events that we open up to our pledgers and inquirers alike.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Not only does it give our inquirers a sense of the work that we do, they spend a valuable, if I may say so myself, morning with us because I always find those mornings really valuable. Hearing directly from our program colleagues about the work that- about the amazing work that they do. Also from solicitors getting great insight into financial later life planning and ask any burning questions about their wills or about power of attorney, something that doesn’t often occur to me but it’s really useful to hear about within the presence of a solicitor.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: But also they get to be in a room like I feel every time I’m in a room full of pledgers. They get to be in a room with other people that share the same values, that have already made that commitment. So thereby through events we try to make our inquirers feel like insiders. They have the insider information about the impact of the work, but they also belong to a group of people that share the same values, that have already made that connection and that commitment.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: So the same thread running the whole way through from that first action, regardless of what that action is, it could be volunteering, it could be donating in a shop, it could be shopping in a shop, through to potentially a first single gift, a regular gift. Maybe they sign a petition. Maybe they campaign for years.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: It’s that stewardship that takes them to a point where the Stay in the Fight narrative is already there. We just need to remind them that your gift and your will is your final act of radical kindness and saying that I want to stay in the fight that I’ve been on for years, decades, millennia even. Uh, so I talked about it.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: I’m not going to dwell on this slide. I’ve already talked about where our legacy messaging appears or as Ligia Pena, legacy international legacy practitioner says, “Where we sparkle legacy dust in supporter communications.” We’ve got our supporter magazine, our e-news. We’ve got supporter care, major donor telemarketing training.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: We- we’ve started telemarketing calls in 2022 and we’re building them into the gaps that we found where they can actually work wonders. Volunteer engagement. We are I think at a place where talking about volunteer training as well as inviting them to our events to get a sense of how gifts and wills support the work that Oxfam does.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And there’s al- also the always on digital content, content marketing, as well as the Stay in the Fight campaign which I’m going to talk about in the coming slides. Again, this is just a visual representation of what you’ve already seen. Pride is what I was referring to about the digital always on content and Stay in the Fight narrative So what we also like to do, al- though it’s obviously any legacy team dream to be always on with an integrated campaign, which nobody really has the budget for, let’s face it, especially in the legacies.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: However, what we’ve figured out in the last three years of the TV campaign that we’ve run, uh, through our learnings is we can long tail the Stay in the Fight messaging and make it an organic part of our supporters’ lives wherever they are, meet them wherever they are. So what we’ve done is, uh, lay on that Stay in the Fight messaging, the narrative of the campaign that comes on air, comes on TV once a year around April, May, and elongate it throughout the year by feeding it into different equality moments, both on Oxfam’s calendar, but as we said earlier, supporters don’t work on our calendar, and also on to our supporters’ milestones.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, so we’ve done pieces around Diwali re- coming up soon at the end of October, reflecting on light, legacy and love. It’s just a genuinely organic moment of light passed on from one generation to the next. So it’s just a natural opportunity for us to, uh, again, sparkle that light, Stay in the messaging message.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, Black History Month, uh, obviously a key equality moment for Oxfam, a key moment for the fight, reminding our audiences of the fight that they’ve always been a part of to make the world a fairer place for all. Uh, so ref- looking at how culturally sensitive wills matter, how they can help you stay in the fight for generations to come, not for the generations that have gone past.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, and any time, uh, a will is an act of care, love and defiance, reminding our supporters we’ve … Again, uh, referring back to the last slide where I talked about pride, connecting it with pride. Again, pride is generations of fighting for equal rights, not just for a few, but for everyone, and reminding them that Stay in the Fight it- it’s- it does exactly that.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: It’s creating an equal and fairer world for all and allowing you to stay in the fight long beyond your lifetime So if I could leave you with a couple of things, I would say what to try in your own program. If you can, audit one journey. Look at where the gaps are. Look at where the legacy messaging can organically fit in without a hard sell, without a push, and see if you can rework that journey.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Rebuild personas around values, so not just about the frequency of recency and the value of gifts, but what made them come to support you in the first place. What are the values that resonate with your supporters? Because they’ll be the brand values that really translate well to legacy giving. Brief, if you can, one non-specialist team that may have approached you or you might have identified as finding these conversations really tricky to have and that would benefit from having these conversations, and maybe identify a journey elsewhere, not within the legacy team.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, we have tried this with campaigning a couple of years ago as a part of our Stay in the Fight campaign. We thought, “Okay, that is the activist spirit there.” None of our supporters see themselves as activists. That’s why we like calling them practivists. They’re practical activists, so they do activism within a way that support their lifestyle and their values.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: So we tried g- reaching out to our campaigning audience with a legacy messaging and see how they landed. So if you can collaborate with other teams, identify a team that you feel would … the le- legacy messaging would resonate with. And if you want to take away anything today and take back to the offices to your colleagues to talk about, remember that legacy is a continuation of a relationship.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: It’s not a product that’s bolted on, that is sold. It is a moment that’s earned throughout years, decades, millennia, in fact, uh, across the whole journey. It’s not just found on our calendars. And as I’d like to say, and I always like giving credit to, it’s not just the legacy team that does the work. In fact, we’re the last people that come to deal with our supporters by the time they’ve hand-raised to say, “I’m leaving a gift in my will” or “I’d like to find out about leaving a gift in my will.”
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Uh, so often when we celebrate a legacy, uh, we like to remem- remind our colleagues that it’s a culmination of the amazing work, work that they’ve done over the years. And finally, I’d like to leave you with a thought. Uh, the values that people champion today can go on shaping the future long after they’ve gone, and that is not just true for Oxfam.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: I know Stay in the Fight, it was a u- unique campaign. I know that our supporters are very, very value-driven. But wherever they are, which organization that you are from, there is always a fight, whether it’s to end poverty, whether it’s to make the world an equal place, whether it’s for animal rights, whether it’s to fight a disease or fight for a cure.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: And our job is simply to remind our supporters in their own time, in their own space, when it’s right for them, that a gift in a will is simply a continuation of that fight. Thank you, and I’m open to any questions. And if you’d like to find me on LinkedIn and continue the conversation, uh, please do so
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: Thank you so much, uh, Sinem.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: You did not let me down. As I thought, you’re so passionate when you talk. I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone talk about legacies so passionately as you do. And like, no, genuinely, it warms my heart, um, because I can see that you put that passion then into what is done at Oxfam. Um, and obviously you’re seeing the results of that.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: Um, I really loved the emphasis that you placed on, like, that cross team, um, and really seeing it as a part of, like, everyone’s job rather than waiting for legacy to be this, you know, back in the day, like, this thing that you just asked at a certain time, only to people of a certain age at one time a year, et cetera.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: So I loved your kind of integration with supporter care and face-to-face. And there was one question actually that we ca- that we got through where people were asking, like, if you could share maybe one or two top tips about what you can train, um, supporter care teams or retail staff on about legacies, like what you’d include in that training.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Um, just be comfortable speaking about it. I think, yeah, it goes without saying that a lot of people are quite, find it quite challenging to talk about death and money. Yeah. And just be comfortable speaking about it. Obviously we’re not, again, with the retail, the conversations with, this, this, this is the first year we’ve actually gone into 150 retail shops of Oxfam- Right
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: with this In It To Fight campaign and the messaging, and the fear was, “Oh, we can’t let volunteers talk about, ask people for, to leave a gift in their will.” No, no, no. It’s just being open to that idea, being, signposting people to the right place. Mm-hmm. But if a supporter is ready to make that commitment to ask about a gift in their will- Yeah
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: it’s just having that confidence that they are ready, and it’s not something that they’re scared of. In fact, the first time I volunteered at an Oxfam shop, well, as a part of my induction, I met, I met volunteers that are for our target audience. They’re all 55, 60 plus, because that’s when they- Yeah … get free time to volunteer.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Yeah. And when you speak to them face to face, they’re so blasé about it. It’s just they’re, I think as people get older, they’re more aware of their mortality. They’re more aware of the certain decisions they need to make. I think we put too much fear around it. Mm. So it’s just breaking, almost demystifying that this is just natural, and it happens earlier and earlier on.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Yes, we are targeting 55 plus with legacies, but also people younger are now being, becoming more aware that, yes, maybe I need to leave, have a will in place- Yeah … if I’m buying a house, if I’m getting married. It’s just demystifying it and giving them- Yeah … the tools, whether, if it’s FAQ sheets that they can rely on.
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: Yes. And just, just reassuring them that your job is signposting. You’re not there to write a will.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: Amazing. Um, I used to be a trainer for face-to-face fundraisers and telephone fundraisers for a very long time. Um, and a really key thing was, like, it’s the most uncomfortable thing I’m sure for many, but role-playing is gold.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: You cannot, you cannot, uh, fault a role-play. Um, I know loads of people find it cringe and uncomfortable, but as you were saying, like, by role-playing it in a practice scenario also means that, like, when it is a live scenario, they’re definitely gonna feel more confident in, in being able to respond, like you said, with those FAQs, et cetera.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: So, um, thank you so, so much for that. Um, I’ve got so much more I wanna talk about, like you’re measuring the relationships not the size of the gift, and really thinking about stewarding that relationship when you were talking about those events. But alas, I have run out of time to talk more about your practivists.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: Um, but thank you so, so much, and people know where they can get in touch with you if you’ve got further questions for Sanem. Um, it- I, I can’t wait to invite you folks back actually to hear a little bit more about where you’ve got to, especially with that face-to-face legacy part as well. I’m, I’m really, really intrigued.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: Um- Oh, watch
Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo: this space. It’s exciting. It is. Sounds it. It’s actually even exciting to have those conversations and, and- Yeah … and within the organization.
Cam St-Omer Donaldson: Yeah. Love it. Amazing. Okay. Well, I’m sad that you have to go now, but thank you so much, Sanem. No worries at all. That was really brilliant. Thank you. Take care.
Jade Cunnah: Thank you for listening to the Fundraising Everywhere podcast. If you’re enjoying this podcast, why not share it with a fundraising friend? And if you’d like to give us a little like or subscribe, it really helps fundraisers like you find us.
Jade Cunnah: Thank you so much. See you next time. Bye