We are proud of what we have achieved since our beginnings in 1994.
Here are a few of our highlights over that time.
1994
Sir Stuart Etherington, then CEO of RNID, convenes a consortium of 13 charities to fund a 20-year forecast of charitable legacy income. Chris Farmelo is Project Director and Meg Abdy Project Manager and Legacy Foresight is born!
1998 – 2006
We start providing legacy income forecasts for individual charities – today we work with some 30 large charities on an ongoing basis. During this time we begin our project work, funded by an evolving consortium of some 30 of the largest legacy charities.
2007
Living Forever: Baby Boomers and Posterity – our flagship research into baby boomer donors explores their impact on legacy giving over the next 40 years. Our first project to combine numerical modelling with consumer research.
2008
Legacy Monitor benchmarking programme launches! A collaboration between Legacy Foresight and Clear Software (makers of FirstClass legacy administration software).
Expat legators research focuses on expats living in a few key countries, it identifies communications media and relevant local groups plus the motivations and messages likely to appeal to them.
2010
Baby Boomers Revisited updates our 2007 work in light of the global recession which dents boomers confidence and makes them more conscious of spending and costs.
Marketing benchmarks 1.0: A project to collect and analyse data on charities’ legacy fundraising activities – spend, staff, channels and returns.
2011
In-Memory Insight programme starts to map, measure and research the growing in memory giving sector. Over 90 charities have taken part to date!
2012
Regional legacy analysis of legacy income and bequests by government region, based on detailed data from 10 large charities.
2014
Legacy Monitor Netherlands is set up in partnership with local expert Arjen van Ketel and eight pioneer charities (now 26 and counting!).
Legacy Giving 2050: Legacy Giving in an Age of Uncertainty assesses the long-term outlook for legacy giving in the aftermath of the global recession, producing market forecasts but also assessing the potential impact of legacy marketing on future income.
2015
Legacy Monitor website is launched so clients can download and manipulate benchmarking data, feeding results directly into plans and budgets.
The Scottish Project assesses the size, drivers and potential of the Scottish legacy market in the run up to the independence referendum.
2016
Legacy Marketing Benchmarks 2.0. is a new approach to marketing benchmarking which explores capacity, activity, marketing responses and legator profiles. The project now runs every two years, with the next cycle due in 2023.
2017
The Invisible Legator project investigates the many charity legacies that arrive out of the blue; whether from known supporters who had not disclosed their gift, or from people who cannot be traced on charities’ databases.
In-Memory Consultancy offers bespoke in-memory fundraising research, strategies, new product development and supporter journey planning.
South East Hospices consortium: A benchmarking project with eight hospice charities operating in the South East.
2018
Understanding Legacy Stewardship. Funded by 29 charities, we set out to understand legacy stewardship from both charity and donor perspectives, using a combination of detailed case studies and in-depth supporter interviews.
Marketing Evaluation Service launches to assess the financial impact of an additional investment in legacy marketing and the time it would take to see a return.
2019
The launch of Legacy Journey – an innovative service to track communications received by charities’ potential legacy and in-memory donors.
Baby Boomer Legacies, now that boomers are reaching retirement our updated research focuses on two distinct cohorts: core and shadow boomers and uncovers how vast uncertainty has dented the confidence of this previously ‘Teflon’ generation.
Australian Gifts in Wills 2040. A long-term forecast of the Australian legacy sector over the next 20 years, it is presented at a series of meetings across Australia as the linchpin of Include A Charity week, September 2019.
Legacy and In-Memory Fundraising in Multicultural Britain asks what is the future potential for legacy and in-memory giving from minority faith groups? And how can fundraisers engage sensitively and effectively with these donors? Our research examined four religious groups: Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism.
2020
We join forces with Legacy Voice and Legacy Link to form the Legacy Futures Group; working with charities around the world to harness the transformative power of legacy and in-memory giving.
Our project Charitable Wills in the 21st Century takes an in depth look at attitudes towards will making now and in the future – taking into the account how these might have been altered following the pandemic.
We launch a new learning circle called Legacy Fundraising 2.0. to explore the opportunities and challenges raised by digital and social marketing.
Legacy Inspire mystery shops the top legacy charities, scoring charities for quality of their legacy communications and their supporter experience.
2021
We launch the Hospice Legacy Circle, a consortium of hospices who come together to learn and share about all things legacy.
Our emerging charity forecasting service helps younger, smaller charities to assess their legacy potential.
2022
The Stewarding Lay Executors research provides legacy administration teams with vital new insights on the expectations and experiences of family and friends managing their loved ones’ estates.
We introduce dynamic dashboards to all our benchmarking programmes, starting with the UK Legacy Monitor. These allow clients to manipulate, analyse and present real-time data in more intuitive, persuasive ways.