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Essentials of Legacy Fundraising (Practitioner Level)

12 March 2026 10:00am - 4:30pm
Online
Training Courses
- Legacy Fundraising
SC0957
Current

A legacy gift will often be the largest single donation a supporter will ever make, with legacies worth around £2bn to the charity sector, yet many organisations don’t pursue a legacy strategy. Understanding why people make such gifts, and how to handle what is often a simultaneously sensitive and daunting topic, will help you tap into this source of funds and boost your charity’s income.

Course Fees

Individual Member Fee

£207.00

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Non-Individual Member Fee

£272.00

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Key Information

Who should attend?

This course is designed for fundraisers who are new or relatively new to legacy fundraising. Legacy fundraising is likely to be only one part of your responsibilities.

Benefits for you and your organisation

It can be difficult to get trustees to invest in legacies which, considering the benefits is very frustrating. This course focuses on how to develop a simple but really effective legacy marketing campaign with minimal risk of investment (indeed the campaign can be cash free) but also alerts you to the bigger issues and opportunities such as volunteers promoting legacies. So risk is minimal BUT the return on investment can be huge.

Topics covered in this course

Researching the legacy marketplace
Understand the advantages and disadvantages of each method of communication including newsletters, direct mail, brochures, website and events

Developing the most effective legacy communications programme

Evaluating and monitoring success

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Understand the current and future marketplace

Outcomes of research into legacies
How to integrate legacies into all appropriate communication channels
Develop key communications each donor and stakeholder segment
Develop each method of communication
Understand the risks and benefits of each medium
Establish the most realistic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Develop a prudent and cost effective budget – if any

About your trainer

Richard Radcliffe FCIOF(Cert)

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Richard Radcliffe FCIOF(Cert)

Biography:

Initially Richard was an in-house fundraiser. But for the last 35 years Richard has specialised in researching supporters, training anyone to make the legacy “ask” (about 40,000 of them!) and developing legacy strategies (about 500!) He was Executive Chairman of Smee & Ford for 12 years where he started the UKs first dedicated legacy consultancy. He sold Smee & Ford over a decade ago and has since run his own consultancy.

He has met around 34,000 supporters and service users for over 500 charities to gain their perceptions of the charities they support.

His strategies cover every cause of every size on the planet.

He has worked in over 30 countries on developing legacy campaigns.

He has been Chair of the International Fundraising Congress and Institute of Fundraising Convention for four years.

In 2018 he was given, by the Institute of Fundraising (which recently gained Chartered status), the Lifetime Contribution to Fundraising Award.

His recent book, published by Smee & Ford, “Why legacies are brilliant for charities and how to get them” – is globally popular and a very practical book.

The live virtual training experience

The Chartered Institute of Fundraising's live virtual training is delivered by trainers who are leading experts in their chosen discipline. Each virtual course has been especially designed to deliver a rich virtual learning experience. Your course will feature:

Zoom platform learning environment
Interactive engagement with the trainer and peers
Group discussions and exercises
Real-life case studies and examples
Ample Q&A opportunities throughout the sessions

Technology requirements

The course is being delivered via the online platform zoom. To enable you to interact with your tutor and your class you will need to have access to a microphone (or access to a landline phone) and ideally have a working video link via a camera. To test compatibility with your system, you can join a test meeting via this link.