'Legacy Fundraising is not an island, entire of itself'

Half the battle for legacy fundraisers to realise growth - and sometimes it can feel like a war - is reducing the resistance and barriers from key internal stakeholders.

Getting investment approval or even cross team co-operation, can feel like pushing treacle uphill.

I learnt many moons ago that a third of my role as a legacy fundraiser at all levels, was to ensure legacy fundraising remained at the forefront of certain minds in the charity.

‘I’m a negotiator, busy building and maintaining win-win deals across the charity with the aim of driving my legacy fundraising programme forward’, I would say (in the most un-Trump way of course!).

But without evidence to back up a deal, it’s going to feel like a lost cause.

That’s why it’s important to take a hard look at your internal capacity to capture and analyse data. 

Your best friend in a charity should be the Head of Data and Insight or akin. Make sure of this.

Make it an objective to find common ground to explore what can be done to modify or improve your existing database in order to capture meaningful data and deliver reports that get more deals over the line, and strengthen existing ones.

So from Monday onwards, send an email to catch up with your Head of Data and Insights. Meet with them for a virtual cup of coffee, make it the first of many to move both your departments forward. And when you reach that middle ground, make a deal.

You’ll be making many more afterwards.