As you’re no doubt experiencing, COVID-19 is impacting fundraising at every level – and legacy giving is no exception. But the impact isn’t quite what most of us expected!
After all, we know that legacy giving is all about death avoidance, and that the pandemic was putting mortality front-and-center in donor’s brains. So, we expected donors to ‘zig’ and avoid legacy giving altogether.
But instead, donors zagged in a big way! We’ve seen an upward trend in will-making and will-signing since the pandemic as donors take a totally new, reactive approach to gifts in wills. And in this new world order of legacy giving – a world where the old-school tea-and-banana-bread model is off-limits altogether – contactless digital assets reign supreme.
Is your website ready to support an influx of prospective legacy donors? Good Worker Charlotte Field spoke at #FRO2020 on the subject. Check out the webinar below, or scroll down for the highlights!
The right audiences for legacy web content.
Of course, your website is a key part of your legacy prospect’s research stage – and that’s more true now than it’s ever been. But keep in mind that most of your prospects already have a will, or they’re in the process of writing one. Your job isn’t to convince them that legacy gifts are a good idea, it’s to convince them that you’re the right organization for the job!
And, it might surprise you to learn that your legacy webpages aren’t only perused by prospects. They’re also where lawyers, financial planners, and accountants tend to go looking for the information they need to include a gift in a will for a client! Give them a dedicated page with all the content they may want – and make it super simple for them to get in touch if they need to. Don’t leave money on the table by burying key information!
The 3 key pieces of information for a legacy web page
Speaking of professional advisors, they need three simple pieces of information from you in order to include your organization in a client’s will.
- Charitable registration number
- Your organization’s legal name
- Your organization’s current address
Don’t let these stand in the way of a gift! Instead of burying them in mice-type in your footer, place them prominently above the fold where they simply can’t be missed.
Remove barriers to reaching out
In our research, heatmapping revealed that one of the most clicked elements of any legacy webpage was contact info: phone numbers, email addresses, names, and even headshots all lit up like Christmas trees, covered in clicks!
When someone decides they’re ready to talk to you about a gift in a will, make it easy for them. Make sure contact info is clearly visible, up to date, and being monitored!
Talk about impact
Like any donation, a legacy gift is all about impact. Legacy prospects want to know that if they give you a piece of their estate – a piece of everything they worked for, their entire lives! – you’ll put it to work to make a big difference in the world.
Weave impact messaging into every legacy web page you have! Talk about what the need is going to look like in 10, 20 or, 50 years. Share your organization’s history of impact to create credibility for the future. Talk about the impact gifts in wills have already made on your mission. And, discuss how you’ll use them to meet the need in the future.
Our 2019 legacy website research sheds light on the key updates you need to make right now to pandemic-proof your web content. Watch the webinar, check out our whitepaper, and let us know what you think!
