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AdvantageNFP Fundraiser and Legacies

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEAVE US A LEGACY?

To some, this is a sensitive question to ask any of your supporters. However, if they are particularly fond of your charity, or committed to your cause, there is no harm in at least asking them whether they’d like to leave money or other gifts to the charity in their will.

Legacy donations may of course be large or small, but they can be very large. Stories abound of small charities being transformed by a single large legacy.

So even if you don’t set out to look for legacies, it’s better to have a way of dealing with them when they do happen! 

How does AdvantageNFP Fundraiser help?

One of the many features of AdvantageNFP Fundraiser is its ability to manage legacies, from the point when the will is written to the point when the bequest becomes available.

(Of course, central to the process is the death of the donor. It goes without saying that, if you have the supporter recorded on your database as a known legacy donor, you will have to make absolutely certain that no direct communications go to the person after his or her death.

AdvantageNFP Fundraiser builds in many safeguards to ensure this, but you still have to record the fact of the death immediately you are informed.)

senior writing will

The types of information that are recorded for a legacy can include:

  • The type of legacy (there are three main types, pecuniary, residual and discretionary)
  • The “official roles” involved (executor, solicitor, etc)
  • The types of non-monetary assets
  • The date of the will
  • The % of the estate bequeathed to the charity
  • Other beneficiaries (“bedfellow” charities)
  • A history of revisions to the legacy.

Once the legacy donor has died, income – which may be in monetary form or in the form of assets as described above - can be recorded as monetary or resource donations in the normal way, but also linked to the legacy.  

In common with any other donation, legacy income can be allocated (earmarked) to a particular project or area of work which your charity undertakes, where the donor has expressed a preference.

So AdvantageNFP Fundraiser enables you to keep track of legacy donations within all the normal processes of your organisation, but also to manage the legacy itself from will making through to completion. Graphical cash flow forecasting can help to show the complete picture.

In addition, of course, if you can identify current supporters who might leave your charity a legacy, for example based on their commitment history or lifetime value, you can use the extensive marketing capabilities of AdvantageNFP Fundraiser to target those people.

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