We examine patterns by charity size, age and sector and debate the drivers of past and future income.
Subscribe to receive our latest news.
In a fast-changing environment, the reports help to understand trends and manage expectations.
Our flagship benchmarking programme, in operation since 1994. Today, our consortium has grown to 83 charities, representing over half of all UK legacy income. Last year our members received £1.4bn in legacy income and 54,000 bequests.
Comparing and contrasting the ways charities are investing in legacy marketing activities, at what scale, and how effective they are at generating a response.
Our first international benchmarking programme, run in partnership with European legacy expert Arjen van Ketel. We work with a group of leading Dutch charities to analyse and research legacy giving in the Netherlands.
In the 12 months to March 2020, total cash legacy income for our 82 Consortium members was £1.55bn. Legacy income for members in the 3 months to March 2020 was £381m, which is 7% lower than the same quarter in 2019.
This drop reflects the lower numbers of bequests notified to consortium members as a result of the delays at probate we’ve been reporting on throughout 2019.
Bequest numbers this year are still around 10% lower than we would have expected given underlying trends and recent numbers of deaths. We estimate that the cumulative shortfall of consortium bequests now stands at 4000 to 4500, since the problems with the probate service began.
Thankfully, following updates from Smee and Ford, we understand that the issues with the probate service have now resolved, and we expect a noticeable catch-up in notifications.
To keep up to speed with Legacy Monitor updates, click here.
We recently analysed cash legacy income from 12 Legacy Monitor charities in the first six weeks of lockdown. Across the sample, like for like cash income was down by 18% on 2019. Although this fall is significant, it’s not as severe as expected, which is heartening news for legacy managers and finance directors.
We expect the situation to improve over the coming months, as charities continue to adapt their systems for collecting cash and recording bequest numbers in the new environment.
Our latest market updates and five-year forecasts for UK legacy incomes can be found here.
Subscribe to receive our latest news.