Why Legacy & In-Memory Fundraising Matter
Legacy and in-memory fundraising are different.
Not because they’re more important than other types of fundraising. But because they’re deeply personal in ways that other channels aren’t.
When someone leaves a gift in their will, they’re making a statement about what mattered to them in life. When someone gives in memory of a loved one, they’re channelling grief into something meaningful.
These aren’t transactional donations. They’re emotional, considered, significant acts of generosity.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Legacy income accounts for billions in charitable giving across the UK each year. For some charities, legacies make up over 50% of their voluntary income.
In-memory giving is growing too. More people are choosing to give in memory rather than send flowers to funerals. Online memorial pages make it easier than ever for families to channel their grief into fundraising.
Together, these two channels offer enormous potential for charities of all sizes.
Why These Gifts Are Different
Legacy giving is about the future. It’s a conversation that can take seven years or more from first awareness to notification of a gift. You’re asking people to think about their death, their values, and what they want to leave behind.
In-memory giving is about grief. It’s immediate, emotional, and requires sensitivity that other fundraising channels don’t demand.
Both require different approaches. Different messaging. Different relationship-building. Different metrics for success.
The Natural Connection
Someone who gives in memory of a loved one might later leave a legacy gift themselves. Someone who’s pledged a legacy might give in memory when a friend passes away.
Both are rooted in loss, remembrance, and the desire to create something meaningful from death. That’s why we’re covering them together in this guide.
Who This Guide Is For
This guide is for fundraisers who want to build or improve their legacy and in-memory fundraising.
You might be starting completely from scratch, running in-memory giving but wanting to do it better, or working at a small charity wondering if this is even possible for you.
Whatever your situation, this guide will help you understand what works, avoid common mistakes, and build programmes that bring in significant income while honouring the donors who make it possible.
Understanding Legacy & In-Memory Fundraising
What Is Legacy Fundraising?
Legacy fundraising is when someone includes a charitable donation in their will. When they die, that gift passes to your charity.
There are three main types of legacy gifts. Residuary legacies are a percentage of the estate after other gifts are paid, and they’re usually the most valuable type because they grow with the estate’s value. Pecuniary legacies are a fixed sum of money – simple and clear, but they don’t grow with inflation. Specific legacies are a particular item or property, though these are less common and can be complex to administer.
The journey from awareness to receiving a legacy gift is long. Often 7-10 years. You’re asking people to think about their mortality and choose you among all their other priorities.
What Is In-Memory Fundraising?
In-memory fundraising is when someone donates to your charity in tribute to someone who has passed away.
This includes funeral collections, online memorial pages on platforms like JustGiving or MuchLoved, memorial events like sponsored walks done in someone’s memory, regular giving in memory, and memorial gifts like named benches or plaques.
Unlike legacy giving, in-memory fundraising happens immediately. Someone has passed away. The family is grieving. They want to do something meaningful. Your job is to make that easy, appropriate, and supportive.
How They’re Different
Legacy fundraising typically involves a 7+ year relationship where the donor themselves makes the decision to leave a large, often unrestricted gift. The messaging is aspirational and the process is planned and considered.
In-memory fundraising is an immediate response to death where the family makes the decision to give smaller, more frequent gifts. The messaging must be grief-sensitive and the process is emotional and spontaneous.
Despite these differences, the channels complement each other beautifully. Both attract people who care deeply about your cause. Both require you to talk about death appropriately. Smart charities integrate both, creating a pathway from immediate grief-driven giving to long-term planned giving.
Common Misconceptions
“You need to be a big charity to do legacy fundraising” is false. Small charities receive legacy gifts all the time. You just need to be deliberate about asking.
“Legacy fundraising is too expensive” ignores the reality that while it takes time, it doesn’t require huge budgets to get started.
“In-memory is just funeral collections” misses the bigger picture. It’s also online giving, events, regular donations, and physical memorials.
“Talking about death is too morbid” assumes people can’t handle honest conversations about mortality. People talk about death all the time. They just don’t like it when fundraisers are awkward about it.
Want the fundamentals in more detail? Read: What Are Legacy and In-Memory Fundraising?
Building Your Legacy Programme
Creating Your Legacy Strategy
Before you do anything else, you need a strategy. Not a 50-page document no one will read. A clear plan that answers four key questions.
What are you trying to achieve? Set realistic targets for number of pledges and pipeline value. Who are you targeting? Think about existing supporters, community members, and people with specific connections to your cause. How will you reach them? Consider your budget and what channels you can realistically use. What resources do you have? Be honest about staff time, budget, and database capabilities.
Your strategy doesn’t need to be complicated. It needs to be realistic and actionable.
Identifying Potential Legacy Donors
Who’s most likely to leave you a legacy? Start with existing long-term donors, especially regular givers who’ve demonstrated commitment over years. Look at people with direct experience of your cause – service users, volunteers, families who’ve been helped. Consider older supporters (but don’t only target elderly people), childless supporters who statistically are more likely to leave charitable legacies, and anyone who’s ever mentioned leaving a gift in their will.
Start with your existing database. Look for patterns. Don’t make assumptions. A 35-year-old might pledge a legacy. An 80-year-old might not. Ask everyone appropriately.
Legacy Marketing Essentials
Your case for support needs to answer three questions: Why would someone choose to leave you a gift in their will? What will that gift achieve? How does it align with their values and wishes?
The most effective channels are direct mail to long-term supporters (still the most effective for legacy marketing), email for engaged digital audiences, a clear website with information and will wording, events for pledgers and prospects, and face-to-face conversations with long-term supporters.
Messaging that resonates is future-focused (“Your gift will help children for generations”), values-based (“A gift that reflects what mattered to you”), practical (“It’s easier than you think”), and reassuring (“You can change your mind anytime”). Avoid guilt, pressure, morbidity, and complicated jargon.
Stewardship and Recognition
Once someone tells you they’ve pledged a legacy, your relationship becomes even more important. Good stewardship means regular updates on your work without constant asks, invitations to special events, appropriate recognition if they want it, and making them feel genuinely valued.
Some pledgers want public recognition. Others want complete privacy. Always ask. Always respect their wishes.
Building Your In-Memory Programme
Making It Easy to Give
Your in-memory programme needs essential infrastructure to work properly. Partner with platforms like JustGiving or MuchLoved for online memorial pages, or build your own. Create a dedicated in-memory page on your website with simple, clear instructions. Build relationships with local funeral directors and provide them with materials, envelopes, and information they can share with families. Make sure someone is available on a phone line when bereaved families call with questions. Offer flexible options so people can give however they want – online, by cheque, bank transfer, or in person.
The easier you make it, the more people will give.
Grief-Sensitive Communication
This is critical. Get it wrong and you’ll cause harm.
The key guidelines are simple: acknowledge the loss genuinely, don’t be overly cheerful or flippant, avoid clichés like “they’re in a better place,” give families space and time to process their grief, and be helpful rather than pushy.
What to say includes “We’re sorry for your loss,” “We’re honored to receive gifts in [name]’s memory,” and “Thank you for thinking of us at this difficult time.” What not to say includes “At least they’re not suffering anymore,” “Everything happens for a reason,” and anything about fundraising targets or how much they should raise.
Supporting Families
Bereaved families need practical support, not fundraising advice.
Be helpful by providing simple, clear instructions, offering to help set up online memorial pages, sending materials they can share with others, and being responsive when they have questions. Don’t chase them for information, ask for updates on totals, suggest they should do more, or make them feel like they’re managing your campaign.
Remember: they’re grieving. You’re there to make their life easier, not harder.
Recognition Options
Recognition can include acknowledgment on your website, physical memorials like benches or plaques, memory books or walls, annual remembrance events, and personal thank you letters.
Always ask what the family wants. Some want public recognition. Others want privacy. Both are valid.
Marketing & Communications
How to Talk About Death Sensitively
The secret to good legacy and in-memory communication isn’t avoiding death. It’s talking about it like a normal, human thing that happens to everyone.
For legacy fundraising, use language like “Leave a gift in your will,” “A gift that lives on after you,” and “Support the causes you care about beyond your lifetime.” For in-memory fundraising, use “Give in memory of someone special,” “Honor their memory,” and “Create a lasting tribute.”
Language that doesn’t work includes saying “when you pass away” instead of “when you die,” using overly formal phrases like “dearly departed,” and anything overly euphemistic or awkward. Be direct. Be kind. Be human.
Messaging That Works
Good legacy messaging is future-focused (“Help children in 2050”), values-based (“A gift that reflects what matters to you”), practical and simple (“Three sentences in your will”), reassuring (“You can change your mind”), and inclusive (“Any gift, any size makes a difference”).
Good in-memory messaging is honoring and respectful, simple and clear, supportive of grieving families, focused on creating something positive, and flexible about different ways to give.
Bad messaging for both channels is guilt-driven, complicated and confusing, pushy or aggressive, insensitive to emotions, or full of jargon.
Multi-Channel Strategies
For legacy fundraising, use direct mail to long-term supporters, email campaigns with legacy content, a website with clear information and will wording, events for legacy pledgers and prospects, and PR about legacy impact stories.
For in-memory fundraising, create a website memorial giving page that’s easy to find, build partnerships with funeral directors, establish your presence on JustGiving and memorial platforms, maintain a sensitive social media presence, provide materials families can use and share, and host annual remembrance events.
Don’t rely on one channel. People engage differently depending on where they are in their journey.
Stewardship & Relationship Building
Building Long-Term Relationships
Legacy fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint. You’re building relationships over years, sometimes decades.
Good stewardship includes regular communication that’s not just asks for money, recognition in ways that feel appropriate to each individual, involvement in your charity’s journey with insider access, and patience to let the relationship develop naturally.
The key principle to remember: you’re not stewarding a gift. You’re stewarding a person who’s made a significant commitment to your cause.
Supporting Bereaved Families
In-memory donors need different stewardship because their connection to you comes from grief.
Immediate support means quick, kind acknowledgment of their gift, sensitivity to their grief, and clear information about how their donation will be used. The ongoing relationship includes careful anniversary acknowledgments, updates on the impact of memorial gifts, invitations to remembrance events, and the option to continue giving without any pressure.
Never treat them like regular fundraising prospects, ask them to give more before they’re ready, make insensitive asks around anniversaries of the death, or forget why they’re connected to you in the first place.
Thank You Strategies
Legacy pledgers need immediate, personal thanks when they tell you about their pledge, regular appreciation that’s consistent but not constant, acknowledgment that they can change their mind anytime, and updates on your work without additional asks.
In-memory donors need quick, sensitive acknowledgment of their gift, genuine recognition of their loss, clear information about the impact their gift will have, and respect for their grief journey.
Measuring Success
Legacy KPIs
Track the number of pledges you receive, your pipeline value (estimated total of pledged legacies), notifications received from estates, actual legacy income received, conversion rates from prospects to pledgers, average gift size, and the time from pledge to gift.
In-Memory Metrics
Monitor the number of memorial donations, total memorial income, average memorial gift size, memorial fundraising pages set up, conversion of in-memory donors to regular giving, and repeat memorial donors who give in memory multiple times.
Forecasting Legacy Income
Legacy income is notoriously difficult to forecast, but you can make educated guesses.
A simple approach is to track your average legacy gift size over the past five years, track the number of notifications per year over the same period, multiply average gift by expected notifications, and add a margin for error because legacy gifts vary wildly.
Be honest with yourself and your leadership: legacy income is unpredictable. One large estate can transform your year. Budget conservatively.
Demonstrating ROI
Getting buy-in from leadership requires showing value. Show them your pipeline value versus investment required, cost per pledge acquired, long-term income projections, comparison to sector benchmarks, and stories demonstrating the impact of legacy gifts.
Be realistic about timelines. Show the long-term value. Demonstrate progress even when cash income hasn’t arrived yet.
Understanding Donor Psychology
Why People Leave Gifts in Wills
People are motivated by different factors when they decide to leave a legacy gift. Some want immortality and legacy – the desire to live on and create something that outlasts them. Others feel gratitude and want to thank a charity that helped them or someone they loved. Many want their values to continue beyond their lifetime.
Family circumstances play a role too – people without children, those with estranged relationships, or those whose children are financially secure often consider charitable legacies. Social proof matters – knowing others have done it makes it feel normal. Some people want to make a difference they couldn’t afford in life. Tax benefits can be a factor, and for many, it simply feels easy – just a few sentences in a will.
Understanding these motivations helps you craft messaging that resonates.
The Emotional Journey of Memorial Donors
Memorial donors go through distinct emotional stages. Immediate grief brings shock, pain, and numbness – they want to do something meaningful but may not think clearly. Active grieving means processing the loss, and memorial giving can be part of that healing process. Finding meaning comes when they turn grief into positive action, and fundraising or donating feels purposeful. Remembrance creates an ongoing connection to the person they’ve lost through annual giving or memorial events. Finally, integration happens when the loss becomes part of their story, and they may continue supporting your cause long-term.
Your role changes at each stage. Initially, you’re making it easy and being sensitive. Later, you’re helping them continue their connection to both the person they’ve lost and your cause.
Motivations and Barriers
Legacy giving is motivated by personal connection to the cause, trust in the organization, desire to make a significant impact, social permission when others are doing it, and the simplicity of the process.
What prevents it includes concerns like “I need to provide for my family first,” “I don’t have enough to leave,” “I haven’t made a will yet,” and “I’m too young to think about this.”
Address these barriers honestly in your communications. Make the process easy. Remove obstacles wherever you can.
Common Challenges & Solutions
Getting Board Buy-In
The challenge is often “Legacy fundraising takes too long. We need money now.”
The solution is to show the long-term ROI – one legacy can fund years of programmes. Present your pipeline value as a tangible asset on your balance sheet. Share sector data on legacy income potential. Start small and prove the concept works. Emphasise that starting now means income in the future, and the sooner you start, the sooner gifts arrive.
Limited Resources
The challenge: “We’re a small team with no budget for legacy marketing.”
The solution is to start with low-cost activities like website updates and email content. Use existing communications by adding legacy content to newsletters you’re already sending. Build gradually rather than launching big campaigns. Focus on high-value relationships over mass marketing.
Competing with Major Charities
The challenge: “How can we compete with Cancer Research UK or RNLI?”
The solution is to play to your strengths – personal connection and local impact. You can offer authentic relationships large charities can’t match. Don’t compete on national presence – compete on the quality of relationships you build. Remember that people can (and do) leave legacies to multiple charities.
Ethical Dilemmas
The challenge might be “A vulnerable person wants to leave us their entire estate. What do we do?”
The solution is to have clear policies on accepting and declining gifts. Protect vulnerable people even if it means turning down money. Seek legal advice when you’re uncertain. Document your decisions and reasoning. Put donor welfare above income targets, always.
Tools, Templates & Next Steps
Essential Tools
For legacy fundraising, you need a CRM system with legacy tracking capability, will wording templates, legacy pledge forms, a stewardship calendar, pipeline tracking systems, and contacts with solicitors and will-writing services.
For in-memory fundraising, establish a JustGiving Crowdfunding or MuchLoved partnership, create a website memorial giving page, build a funeral director contact list, develop thank you letter templates, set up a memorial recognition system, and create grief-sensitive communication guidelines.
Where to Learn More
Key organisations include the Institute of Fundraising for legacy and in-memory specific resources, Remember A Charity for free legacy marketing resources, Legacy Foresight for data and insights, and NCVO for governance and legal guidance.
For training, attend Fundraising Everywhere’s Legacy & In-Memory Conference, look into CIoF legacy-specific training courses, join Legacy Link events, and consider relevant conferences from organisations like Smee & Ford.
Next Steps
If you’re starting from scratch, begin by auditing what you currently have in place – your website, processes, and data. Set realistic goals for year one. Start with quick wins like creating a website page and standard will wording. Then build from there systematically.
If you’re growing existing programmes, assess what’s working and what isn’t. Identify gaps in your current approach. Invest in areas with the highest potential return. Improve stewardship of existing relationships. Test new approaches and learn continuously.
Want ongoing support? Join Fundraising Everywhere as a member for access to expert sessions, conferences, and a community of fundraisers working on the same challenges. Learn more about membership
Final Thoughts
Legacy and in-memory fundraising aren’t quick wins. They’re long-term investments in sustainable income that can transform your charity.
They require sensitivity, patience, and genuine care for the people who trust you with incredibly personal gifts.
But done well, they create income that supports your work for decades. They build deep relationships with supporters. They demonstrate trust and commitment in ways few other fundraising channels can match.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Every major legacy programme started with someone asking, “Could we do this?”
The answer is yes. You can.