pay attention! - Radcliffe Consulting – Defining the Future of Legacy Fundraising

I am just back from a week’s holiday. My own car has parking sensors on the back – these are brilliant to prohibit damage. However, my rented car in Mallorca did not. So I reversed into a gate on day one and a wheelbarrow in a market on day two. Luckily I did not reverse into any humans but I nearly did on day three. It is worrying how we get into a regular habit without thinking about consequences. In a focus group, just before I went on holiday, there was the son of a legator present who really let rip about the letter he had received from a big charity following his Mum’s legacy. “It was one of those bog standard responses which showed total lack of thought or care” was his complaint. A couple of months ago I was reviewing the legacy procedures for a big charity, and part of this reviews was to look at the letters sent to Next of Kin of legators. They had six “bog standard” letters tailored for different types of Executor – all of them showed a total lack of interest/care. And yet each next of kin is a potential legator. Let’s reverse this trend and get rid of all standardised letters