Unlike some fundraising practitioners, CSDM knows through experience that legacy giving can be developed and increased by appropriate forms of promotion. But we also know that much of the activity that passes for legacy promotion today is not fully effective.

This is due to a misunderstanding of the basic nature of legacy promotion. Too many people treat it as a branch of direct mail because a lot of the contact involved is by post. This is a complete error of judgement.

Properly practiced legacy promotion is much more like a branch of major gifts fundraising. It is long term (it requires careful identification of prospects). It requires patient cultivation of prospects and it requires prospect management tactics that are identical to those applied to donors in any major gifts campaign.

The CSDM legacy promotion programme applies all of these major gifts planning and implementation strategies, allied to contact by post, phone and personally, to build a truly dynamic and effective legacy promotion programme

How we set up and implement a legacy promotion programme

Setting up and implementing a CSDM legacy promotion programme happens over five distinct stages

• Creating the communication 'toolkit'.
• Identifying your best legacy prospects
• Getting your communication and cultivation programme under way
• Securing definite confirmations of legacy gifts
• Ongoing nurture of legacy donors