The future of legacies for the arts

‘Recession’ is a word that has been in every paper, on every television channel and on every radio station for months. These are hardly cheerful times. ‘Legacy fundraising’ is a phrase that has been used by almost every charity in every media for years. And yet, looking at arts communications, I struggle to find a mention of legacies. This is just plain mad. Legacies provide £1.6bn a year for not-for-profit organisations. This is far more that total corporate support, and the same as grants from the top 1,000 grant-giving trusts. And yet how many of you invest in legacies to the same extent as trusts or companies? Why is it that in a typical ‘legacy year’ only 600 legacies out of 85,000 are for the arts? The answer is simple: you don’t ask for them.

In recent focus groups for one arts organisation, 45% of its members had already included charities in their wills, but not the arts organisation. Why? Because they had not thought of doing it and they had not been asked. This outcome is not rare, sadly.
A few years ago we held focus groups with five arts organisations (two performing arts organisations, a local festival, a local museum/gallery, and a community arts organisation). We met a mix of members/friends, volunteers and trustees. Most members/friends had made wills (about 70%), but hated the thought of an arts body offering any advice on will-making, because it spoilt the “pleasure of the arts experience”. However, they were all happy to get information on legacies. More than 30% had already included charities in their wills, but only one had included any arts organisations. Typical responses included “It doesn’t even cross my mind that you are a charity and I only thought of charities when I made my will”.[[cash-poor people say a legacy is perfect because it costs nothing now]]
The overall feelings were that arts organisations are entertaining rather than charitable. This begs the question, in terms of all fundraising activities, why arts organisations do not promote themselves as charities relying on voluntary donations. We did not meet any trustee or staff member who could prove that legacies in the future would enable their organisation to develop. Most charities have such dreams – such as finding a cure for cancer. A long- term vision for an arts organisation is more difficult to create than for a cancer charity.
One point which often comes up is that it is not the charitable work of an arts body which motivates a legacy. No one is going to leave a legacy because you are trying to inspire children to become inspired by art. Nor are they interested in your community work, or work with disabled people. The main motivation for a legacy is to ensure you provide the ‘entertainment experience’ for future generations. But they need to know you are a charity, because charities, and only charities, are included in wills (apart from family and friends of course). That research was done three years ago and not a lot has changed, apart from the dreaded recession. This is wonderful for legacies. Sixty-five per cent of retired people have no spare cash and they are cancelling arts memberships by the bucket-load. When we meet these cash-poor people, and we give them a choice of how to support arts organisations, huge numbers say a legacy is perfect because it costs nothing now. In other words your lapsed members are ideal legacy prospects. They are lapsed due to circumstances, but they still love you to bits.
Our ageing population is going to have worse financial problems in the future. Care costs are due to increase from £11bn to £128bn in 30 years. One in four over-65s currently has a capital release scheme (whereby they sell the freehold interest of their home and then lease it back), and the capital they released totalled £1.6bn in 2006. This is money charities cannot get, and it equals the total legacy income for the sector in that year. Scary. This means that legacy values will plummet; but we know that legacy numbers will rocket. Your organisations will only get those legacies if you ask for them, and remind donors that you are charitable.