Beyond the Windfall – From Uncertainty to Confidence in Legacy Income
2nd October 2025 by Poppy Naylor
My very first fundraising role, back in the early noughties, was as a Legacy Marketing Exec. I absolutely loved my meetings with legacy supporters and hearing firsthand their motivations for leaving the ultimate gift. But for all the supporters we knew about, there were many more that we didn’t – a reminder that legacy giving can be as unpredictable as it is powerful. In today’s challenging fundraising landscape, navigating this tension has never been more critical.
The importance of legacies
Legacies are the single largest source of voluntary income in the UK, delivering exceptional return on investment and crucially, offering largely unrestricted funds. This was reflected in our Fundraising Benchmarks where Legacies remained dominant, accounting for 34% of gross voluntary income and an even higher 38% of net income across the sample.
Over the last decade, the legacy market has grown steadily, with a record-breaking income of £4.5bn in 2024. Longer-term projections suggest this figure could reach £10bn by 2050, an important reminder of the opportunities legacies can unlock.
Why leaders struggle with legacies
For all their value, legacy gifts can feel frustratingly unpredictable and remain one of the most talked-about issues among charity CEOs and CFOs. Through our work with leaders across the sector, five concerns come up time and again:
Forecasting - How do we predict short or medium-term legacy income?
Long-term visibility - What does our legacy pipeline really look like?
Control - Can we influence legacy performance at all?
Attribution - Do we actually know where our legacies come from?
Investment - How do we decide where and how to invest in legacy marketing?
These challenges are not unique to any one organisation, they’re sector-wide issues. Left unaddressed, they can lead to inconsistent investment, missed opportunities and unnecessary anxiety about a critical income stream.
That’s exactly why we’ve developed our new report: “Beyond the Windfall – From Uncertainty to Confidence in Legacy Income”
This report, developed in partnership with Legacy Futures, reflects on these concerns and provides a consolidated view of how leaders can gain greater clarity and confidence in managing legacy income. Our aim is to equip charities with the insights needed to strengthen this critical source of long-term funding.
Inside, we explore:
How to bring more clarity and confidence to forecasting.
What indicators to track for long-term legacy health.
How to take control of performance without chasing quick wins.
Why attribution matters, and how to gain better insights into your legacy donors.
We also highlight some of the most common mistakes charities make with their legacy income - from undervaluing its importance to treating it as a stop-start campaign - and what leaders can do differently.
Our white paper doesn’t promise to eliminate uncertainty, but it does provide some answers and a framework to help charity leaders move forward with greater clarity.
Drop me a line at poppy@aawpartnership.com to get your copy.