Welcome everybody to today’s Knowledge Series, Gifts in Wills, Making Proactive Approaches. We are pleased to have you join us for today’s session. I am Matt Morse, the Director of Private Investment Capability for Creative Australia. 

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we join today and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. I join you from the lands of the Wurundjeri people and pay my respects. 

Before we begin, there are a few technical and housekeeping points to keep in mind. Today’s webinar will be recorded and published on Creative Australia’s website for educational purposes. For this reason, we ask you to keep your microphones on mute for the duration of the webinar. 

We will make time for questions at the end of the presentation. To help us streamline that process, please type your questions in the Zoom Q&A box at the bottom of your screen throughout the session. I encourage you to ask as many questions as you can, and they will be compiled for Dan at the completion of the presentation. We also have two Auslan interpreters, Jody and Erin, signing for us today. 

Gifts in Wills. We all know that the biggest intergenerational wealth transfer is here. Trillions of dollars are set to change hands in the coming decades, making this the most important time for securing long-term funding for our sector. But let’s look at the gap. Studies show that up to two-thirds of Australians would be happy to be prompted about leaving a charitable gift in their will. As many as 25% of Australians want to leave something to a cause that is important to them. Yet only 7% of wills currently include a charitable bequest. 

That difference, the gap between willingness and action, represents hundreds of millions of dollars of potential lost support for the arts and creative industries. This webinar is about closing that gap. It is about making the strategic shift from a passive fingers-crossed model to a proactive approach that ensures our sector and your organisation secures this vital piece of legacy pie. 

I would like to introduce you to today’s presenter, Dan Geaves from Marlin Communications. Dan is Creative Director and Co-owner of Marlin Communications. Marlin is a specialist agency that works only for-purpose organisations, including charities, sporting organisations, schools, universities and, most importantly, arts organisations. They have helped over 100 Australian charities develop effective cases for support, campaigns and sustainable income generation programs. Dan is also an elected Fellow of the Fundraising Institute of Australia. Dan, welcome to today’s Knowledge Series. Great to have you. 

Thank you so much, Matt, for that introduction, and thank you everybody for registering and attending today’s session. There are many of you online, and you will receive the slide deck. The recording, as Matt described, will be available as well. In terms of your notetaking, please capture the things that I am sharing, but use it to reflect on how that applies to your situation and your organisation. There will be plenty of time for questions at the end. We are aiming for at least 20 minutes, if not a little bit more. 

Why am I speaking to you today about this topic? Early in my career I decided to focus on working with charities and for-purpose organisations. I had studied as a psychologist and have a postgraduate qualification in applied psychology. My interest in human behaviour and perhaps pro-social behaviour never quite left me. After five years working in mainstream advertising and marketing, I decided to focus on charities. 

I have been blessed to work with some amazing organisations. Through my company, Marlin Communications, we contribute to raising over $40 million each year. The relevance to you is that over the course of my career I have worked alongside Tate in London, Sydney Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria and Creative Australia. 

I am an elected Fellow of the Fundraising Institute of Australia. I am a passionate fundraiser, and I recognise that you all have a broad job. You need to be data literate. You need to be good at communications. You need to be good at interpersonal relationships. You need to be good at strategy. I like to build people’s capacity to do the best they can. 

You are all passionate about what your organisations do and the art and creative work they create. You want to build your supporter bases. Today is about offering some pointers and tips for doing just that. 

As I mentioned, I am a Fellow of the FIA. I provide eight courses a year through the FIA. I am passionate about building people’s knowledge and capacity so they can do the best job they can. Alongside that, I am also on the advisory panel of an initiative called the Benchmarking Project, and I will use some of the information from their reports today. 

A group of us got together and decided it would be helpful for the for-purpose sector if there was a way of understanding what success looks like. Is it good to have around 2% of your supporters confirming that they have left you a gift in their will, or should it be more like 5%? Do we know whether the average gift in a will is multiple millions of dollars, which would suggest that this type of giving is mainly for very wealthy people, or is it more humble and something ordinary Australians take part in as well? These are the things the Benchmarking Project has helped us understand. 

A group of organisations submits all of their transactional data. It is made anonymous. No credit card details, payment details, names or addresses are included. This enables the analysts at the Benchmarking Project to look at the big picture of how people give, how much they give, how frequently they give, and who goes on to make gifts in wills. We are going to use some of that data today. Thank you to them for allowing me to continue to share and propagate the knowledge they are creating. 

Today I am going to start with a description of the landscape. I want you to have access to the data that I hope inspires you to invest in this. You have already registered and are attending today, so I know you are interested in this. But I want you to become really invested in championing this strategy for raising money for your organisation. 

I also want you to be able to use that data for stakeholder engagement and influence. This is an approach that requires your time, and that is an investment from your organisation. I want you to have access to some of the data that can justify that. Then we will get to three examples of practical things you can start to build into your approach. I am referring to those as scalable communications. They will help you do more than one person can do alone by using direct marketing communications to reach more people. Finally, as I said, there will be time for questions at the end. 

Let’s have a look at the landscape. Why should you be listening to this? Or why should your stakeholders and the people you need to influence be listening to you in relation to this area? There are many approaches to fundraising. There is a lot of information on this slide, and I do not expect you to take it all in. It is intended to help you see one of the ways I have mastered thinking about an overarching fundraising strategy. 

The representation here is of four quadrants. On the left-hand side, we have examples of fundraising where it is possible to get a return on investment within a year, which is helpful in terms of your organisation’s budget cycle. On the right-hand side, we have examples of things that take longer to provide that return on investment. You start to build relationships with individuals and supporters, but they do not necessarily become positive in terms of returned income until further down the track, two to three years or even further. 

Gifts in wills sits on the right-hand side. That is because you start the conversation with people about making this generous gift, but we do not necessarily know when they are going to pass away. We do not know when that money will be actualised and received by your organisation. 

In case you are wondering, the other distinction I make is one that creates an above-the-horizon and below-the-horizon view. This relates to the size of the gifts people make. We have major donors in the top left-hand quadrant. It is possible to form and nurture relationships with major donors and encourage them to give on an annual basis. On the right-hand side, another form of major gift comes from the gifts in wills area. 

On the left-hand side, below the horizon, we have getting new supporters and hanging on to them: micro-supporters giving around $50, $100 or $150, people taking part in community fundraising, and people taking part in giving days, which is huge at the moment. On the right-hand side, we have more of a regular giving relationship, where people are committing to a $30 or $40 per month subscription-style of giving. 

In the centre, we have important tools at your disposal: your brand, your narrative, your case for support and, around that, your digital ecosystem. This includes the ability to capture data, interact with people and monitor how they are engaging with you. Today we are just focusing on the top right-hand corner. This enables you to contextualise for your stakeholders that this is one fundraising strategy and approach. 

Why do I advocate for you doing it? If it is not necessarily going to provide you with a return within this year’s budget cycle, why is it worth pursuing? The reality is that people want to do this. In the intro Matt gave, he referred to some of the numbers that research has uncovered about Australians. Australians get this. They think it is a good idea. When you start to have conversations with your audience, you are not going to be faced with a situation where they say, “What are you talking about? I have never heard of this thing.” The majority of people have heard of it and think it is a good idea. 

As Matt shared, 25% of Australians would like to leave something to a cause that is important to them, but only 7% of wills currently include a charitable bequest. As someone who has been a Director of Fundraising Communications, when I hear that people want to give money to causes they care about, I think: how do I make sure we are on the receiving end of that? How do I make sure they know they can support our organisation, our mission and our work? 

The other reason I am interested in this right now is that there is a particular demographic phenomenon happening. We already know that giving is skewed to your stage of life. It is easy to understand that by experiencing life and looking around you. 

When we are younger, we do not tend to have much money. We have time and energy, but we are also trying to create the foundations for the rest of our lives. We are accumulating experiences, spending money and enjoying the curiosity of that life stage. As we move into middle age, we start to settle. We want to create the security of our own homes. We might start to have mortgages. We might start families and spend money on children. 

This means the most generous generations are those who have been through those stages and are out the other side. They are approaching retirement or are in retirement. In the world today, we refer to them as the silent generation or the boomer generation. The Benchmarking Project data shows us that these are the generations showing up the most in terms of who is giving. 

You can see on this chart that the two big columns are the silent generation on the far left and boomer next to them. Gen X is in the middle, a little bit less. Gen Y is a little lower, and then finally Gen Z. 

Something to note here: if you have conversations with your board or colleagues about needing to get younger donors, make sure you are clear about who you mean. Gen Z and Gen Y do not have the money. It is not that they do not love your organisation or other causes, or that they do not have passions and interests. They are just less likely to be capable of giving. When you talk about going for younger audiences, please anchor that as Gen X. 

But I do not even want to talk to you about Gen X today. I want you to focus on the boomers and the silent generation. They are reaching a stage of life where their own mortality is very real to them. That becomes a factor in what we are all aware of: the great intergenerational wealth transfer. 

We know that boomers and the silent generation have been fortunate. They have worked hard, but they have also been part of an era within Australian economic growth. There will be many people who regard themselves as ordinary Australians, who have worked hard and bought property, and that property has gone up and up in value. This all contributes to the idea that when this generation passes, they will pass on a great deal of wealth. They are financially strong generations. 

We predict there will be a surge in income in the form of bequests, with people leaving money to charity. But we need to be the organisations that raise attention to the fact that we can be the recipients of those people’s generosity after they have taken care of their families and loved ones. There is a proportion of their estate that is available to organisations if you start to form the relationships and have the conversations. 

Our research shows that the average gift is around $116,000. Imagine what receiving two, five or even 10 of those gifts could do to your organisation. It is a major gift strategy. A few gifts of this size and larger are transformational. This number can help your stakeholders understand why you would invest time and resources in influencing people to choose you as a gift in will recipient. 

Research from the Benchmarking Project shows that for Australian charities taking part, including organisations such as the Salvation Army, Cancer Council, Heart Foundation and RSPCA, 22.6% of money from individuals came from gifts in wills income. This was 22.6% of $1.66 billion. That gives us an indication that if your organisation is not getting around 20% of its revenue from gifts in wills, you are underperforming in this fundraising area. 

Some old research, but still very relevant to you, revealed that when Creative Partnerships Australia did this research in 2023, income from bequests and gifts in wills was only 4% of the income that arts and culture organisations in Australia were receiving. That is much lower than the 20% to 22% that other charities are receiving. 

We could think about that and say, of course people think those causes are more worthy. But I want to spend a little time challenging that. I want you to come with me to explore why people actually make this profound act of generosity. When you contemplate and think about why they do it, I hope I can convince you that this is a very relevant form of fundraising for the arts sector. 

The final piece of data I want you to be aware of is that 40% of gifts in wills income is coming from donors in the higher socioeconomic deciles. If you are aware that your existing community and some past supporters are already represented in those upper deciles, that is a further indication that you already have contact with someone who is a likely prospect to leave you a gift in their will. 

But now let’s talk about the psychological aspect of it. No one makes a decision just because of a number. They need a story, including you and your stakeholders. 

Why do people leave a gift in their will? Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. We know that we are mortal beings, but the reality is that we do not think about it. It is a really uncomfortable subject. Some people refer to it as a serious psychological problem. We seem to go through our lives, particularly early phases of life, considering ourselves relatively invincible. 

Many of the health charities I work alongside are faced with communities of people who, when they are diagnosed with something life-threatening or close to life-threatening, are devastated because it had never occurred to them before that they were that vulnerable. We ignore it. We do not think about it. 

As people get older, of course, they think about it all the time. They are confronted with aches and pains. Their friends and family members, and people close to them, are passing away. To them, it is not something they do not think about or talk about. I raise this because sometimes the generation who are in fundraising, myself included, are not the same generation as the audience we are talking to. It helps to start thinking: this audience is much more familiar with the idea of their mortality than we are. 

Psychologists reveal that when people are faced with a psychological problem, we either ignore it, which is called avoidance, or we try to figure out a way to make it fit within our own heads. When it comes to the subject of our own death, the phenomenon people often turn to is called symbolic immortality. 

How can I convince myself that I matter enough that I am going to live on after my death? How will people remember me? Many of us recognise that it is our children, our families or our friendship groups who will remember us, and that we will live on in the memories of those people. But we are also drawn to looking at the other permanent things we might leave behind. A gift in a will fits into that category very well. 

Living on after death is not really about the religious afterlife. It is about people searching for those parts of their own identity, values and story that will continue after their death. That continuation is called symbolic immortality. It highlights the question: what are people going to say about me when I am gone? 

They will ask themselves these kinds of questions. What was the point of my life? How will I matter once I am gone? What will my kids think of me? What do I really care about? These are deep psychological and philosophical questions about who I am and why my life mattered. That is where your invitation to consider a gift in a will meets a genuine need that people have, and that your audience has. 

Now let’s consider art specifically. Art is an important part of Australian life. Of course, 97% of Australians engage with some sort of art form on a regular basis. That includes reading, listening, going to events, creating art and going to institutions, many of which are represented by the attendees today. Twenty-four per cent of the population creates art. 

Art and creative activities are part of people’s lives. It is relatively easy for us to consider why people would want that to continue. Why would that not be part of what they wish to be remembered for after they have passed? 

We also know people recognise that art brings people together. It contributes to wellbeing. It contributes to social cohesion. Why would they not want that to continue after they have passed? 

We would suggest that since people recognise art is good for people and good for society, the way you position an invitation to leave a gift in their will to your organisation needs to tap into that. It needs to look at the ways that someone’s identity as an artist, an art appreciator, a creator, or someone who enjoys cohesion, community and the thought-provoking nature of art, can be recognised. These are the gifts they will leave behind and be remembered for. 

I would suggest, and this is based on our exposure to some of the organisations we have worked alongside, that people care. The people connected to your organisations already as supporters or as members of your community care about your art form and your art expression just as much as people care about the environment, social inequity or a particular health issue. 

I encourage you to consider that this is about understanding what it is about their identity that you can foster. That is what can live on. That is how their gift in will enables that part of them to live on after they have passed. 

If you have made the profound gesture to leave an organisation a gift in your will and your family are then sitting around hearing that news and they say, “That does not surprise me,” that is the phenomenon we are talking about. It is the recognition that of course they have always been a music lover. They have always appreciated the art. They have always enjoyed going to that gallery or institution. They have always enjoyed the idea that new generations of Australians should also benefit from that art form. 

That is what we are encouraging you to think about. Let me show you some examples of the way that other organisations do it so you can start to think about how this might work for your organisation. These are non-arts organisations. 

Here is Médecins Sans Frontières. Many people have heard of Médecins Sans Frontières. They are a top five charity. They support people, particularly after disasters, and provide medical aid. It is very tangible what they do. You might think the message to people is simply: if you give us money, we will be able to provide more medical aid after you have passed away. That is a transaction. It is not what it is about. 

It is about saying to people: the principle you have appreciated about the way we work is that we do not let bureaucracy get in the way of providing medical aid. We get in there and provide it. It does not matter if there is a dangerous war zone. It does not matter if governments cannot agree. We get in there and make it happen because that is our priority. 

That is part of someone’s identity. This no-nonsense approach to people needing something and us providing it is the part of the identity this program taps into: a legacy that will know no borders. By remembering Médecins Sans Frontières with a bequest in your will, you are making a commitment to continue providing medical assistance to people in need, whoever and wherever they may be. It is about revealing that I have no prejudice. I want people who are suffering to receive support from professional medical teams. 

I want you to see some of the design work that goes into these types of materials because it reflects the calm, considered approach I encourage you to take. This is not a giving day. This is not about urgency, making this decision today or pressure. It is considered, calm and steady. This spread pulls out the values we want people to recognise independence, neutrality, courage and doing what it takes. We are thinking about how they wish to be remembered, not just as a provider of money, but as someone who had principles and wanted those principles to live on. 

Let’s look at another example. You can see the pattern emerging. This is Vinnies Victoria. Most people have heard of Vinnies. We see them in the shops and recognise their connection to the huge force of volunteers they have. 

Here it is very simple: a legacy for good. We are highlighting what this says about the audience. This idea of works of love and kindness, and simply doing good, carries on. For this organisation, and this could apply to yours, we are going all the way back to the founding story. What was the principle that created this movement or this organisation in the first place? We are tapping back into that. 

For those of you who do not know, this organisation was created by someone who said, “Why are we all sitting around talking about what people need? Why do we not just get on and do it?” Many charitable organisations were founded on such an obvious but sometimes underrated thought, that we just need to get on with doing things. That is what this taps into as well. 

The final example is from WWF. I have deliberately picked ones I believe you would understand. These organisations are not talking only about how they will use the money. They are talking to the audience about their identity. When did you fall in love with nature? Is today the day you protect it forever? Inside the world you have to give is a world filled with beauty. 

This starts to activate a nature lover’s sense of wanting the world to be, and recognising the world can be, a beautiful place. That is what they want it to be like for a very long time. Nature, life, love. This is the world you have to give. Your will can be your lasting legacy to the world you love. What a beautiful and profound sentiment. That is what this style of communication does. 

Now we are going to move into the second section. I want to share some techniques for how you can do the same for your organisation. If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us. David Attenborough is not a member of the WWF Australia team, but he is hugely recognisable. It is a great technique to borrow from people who have said things that can be used by different organisations to help people lift their heads to something big. 

What is the way we want people to experience life in the future? What would the world be like without your art form and your art institution? How would the world be lesser? What would that say to your audience? Would it not be a shame if that could not exist? 

Our connection to nature is a gift. The places you love, their wonder and majesty, must be protected. And they can be with your help. A gift in your will is much more than a donation. It is a statement of your belief. Your belief in a future where humans live in harmony with nature and where we can create everlasting havens for wildlife and a healthy planet for people. 

I hope you get the idea. Please think big. My takeaway and recommendation from that part around the psychology behind why people leave a gift in their will is that it is a profound act. It is a profound form of giving. But I believe that is equalled by the power of art. Art unites us. It brings people together to create a shared feeling and helps us take steps towards wellbeing, empathy and harmony. 

These are the things I encourage you to elevate your pitch to be about. Both arts and gifts in wills are potent ways for humans to transcend their own mortality and make a lasting mark on their world. 

Now let’s get into some practical things for you to consider. We had some useful brainstorms and conversations with the team at Creative Australia to craft this next section and help you walk away from this webinar with some tangible things. I hope you agree that they are within your grasp and that you can start to make them happen. They do increase in difficulty as I go through, so be prepared for that. 

I shared that my origin story included studying psychology. Much of what I learned and then put into practice as an applied psychologist has now been called behavioural science. One of the standout behavioural scientists is BJ Fogg from Stanford University. He described that he had cracked something as a universal formula for every behaviour. Everything we do happens when motivation, ability and a prompt come together at the same moment. 

I was involved in research with the British Government that explored why some people exercise and some people do not. One thing we discovered was that the communications being used to inspire people to come to gyms and fitness programs overused images of people’s bodies. Those people did not look like the audience. They were Arnold Schwarzenegger-style men with bulging muscles and models wearing bikinis. Most of us do not associate with that look and appearance, so we were not motivated by those communications. 

I became interested in this, and then it dawned on me as I entered the world of fundraising that fundraising is about prompting people. It is about giving people that signal to act. It is not always the case that we are introducing something to someone and then they say, “I had not thought about that. I did not realise the world would be lesser without this form of music. I did not realise how much I loved this type of theatre.” Of course, they already know those things. 

Much of what we need to do is understand what they already think and feel, and then use that to inspire and motivate them. We also need to address the things that might otherwise pull them away from being motivated to do something, like the comfort of their sofa in the case of fitness programs. All fundraising requires someone to signal to act. That is what fundraisers are. They are the person who takes responsibility for saying, “I am not just going to sit back and hope that everybody floods to our website today and makes a generous donation. I am going to get out there and ask people. I am going to invite them to give to our organisation.” 

I have represented BJ Fogg’s formula here. Every behaviour is the combination of motivation, ability and a prompt. Everything you do in fundraising can come back to this. Are you being savvy about making things simple to do? Does your website work? If you are sending people an invitation to give, do you include a response form and a response envelope? Do you make it easy for them? 

Making a gift in their will is not easy. It requires multiple steps. They decide to do it. They talk to their family about it. They dig out their will. They get the wording changed. They may have to talk to a legal representative. There are many steps involved. We need to motivate people to get through those steps, and we need to be comfortable that we are signalling to them to do so. We are the prompt. Your organisation can be involved in making those factors more optimal so that the behaviour happens. 

Here is a look at some of the things that drain people’s motivation to leave a gift in a will. One way we look at the gap between intention and action is that 25% of people want to do this, but only 7% of wills include it. There must be things getting in the way. They already have the motivation, so there must be friction that slows them down and makes them say, “I am not going to do it.” 

Some people may assume gifts in wills are for a different type of person. Research proves this. People might say, “That is not for me. That is for very wealthy people. I do not really have money.” People may have lived their lives thinking of themselves as quite humble, even though they may have an estate that is $3 million or more because of their house price rising. How do we ensure that they see the relevance of this form of giving to them? 

Alongside that, people have anxiety. They are thinking, and you will be inspiring them to think, how will people remember you after you have passed? Then there is the anxiety of whether their family will feel that they have taken their inheritance and given it to another organisation. People are concerned about these things. 

The technique I recommend is also from behavioural science: using social proof. Social proof can settle both of these concerns. You can reassure your audience by sharing stories of people who have already done it, or from family members of those who have passed and who have experienced what it is like to discover that their family member left a gift in their will. 

It is about finding stories and examples of people whose story you can share, and which are relatable. I will share examples of this from other types of organisations so you can see why these organisations are achieving 20% of their income from gifts in wills, whereas arts organisations may not be. They are doing this by featuring ordinary-feeling Australians who describe why they have decided to do it. These are sometimes referred to as living bequestors. 

They are people who are still enjoying their lives, but are prepared to go on the record and share why they are doing it. I recommend that you find those people and ask if they will be the face of some of your materials, so you can start to share these stories. 

For example, Margaret watched breast cancer affect three generations of her family. When her best friend was diagnosed, she turned to Cancer Council. She has been a service user. She has appreciated the work Cancer Council has done and the impact it has had on her life. Through gratitude, she wants to leave money to this organisation so they can continue what she experienced and benefited from in her lifetime. 

I wanted to start with this because I think it is relevant to your organisations too. If people have benefited from, and felt appreciation for, what your organisation has provided them and continues to provide in their lives, perhaps it is worth profiling and showcasing that people want to express gratitude by leaving a gift in their will. They may not have a lot of disposable income or money right now, but they know that after they pass there may be a percentage of their estate they can leave. 

Another example is people who have had a career connected to a cause or organisation, or where it has been a consistent passion, hobby or something they have spent time on. There is an example from somebody who has passed, told by their daughter Meredith. Dad’s first experience of the natural environment was with his father in the Adelaide Hills. Later, his work took him to the Flinders Ranges and up north into central Australia. The beauty of the landscape impressed itself upon Dad, and he photographed magnificent trees and colourful carpets of wildflowers after rain. 

We are revealing the passion that somebody had so the audience reading it can say, “That speaks to me.” I am someone who likes to go into nature and take photographs. I like to travel around Australia and marvel at the landscape. By recognising those behaviours, they are no longer looking at this person and wondering whether they are as wealthy as him or whether they are supposed to have a boat. They are thinking about whether they share the passions and interests that lead to this type of behaviour. 

With this particular example, it is worth pointing out that the family knew of Dad’s support for Bush Heritage and shared his love for the environment. They were proud of Dad’s bequest and felt that Bush Heritage properties were part of his legacy, and that he was in good company. This deals with that question of anxiety. 

The wonderful thing about working in fundraising is that you can look at other people’s communications and start to understand how they work and how you might apply them to your situation. Another example is someone leaving money to a children’s charity whose life, career and volunteering in retirement centred around children. It draws that connection that if you are that type of person, perhaps this is another behaviour you can adopt: leaving a gift in your will. 

Some examples from organisations dealing with the environment reflect what this will do for future generations of Australians, maybe your own family’s future generations, and more broadly, what the world will be like in the future. I think that applies to arts organisations as well. Think about future generations as the beneficiaries of a gift in will. If you can see that this is something of benefit to you and your generation now, you might also want to create that benefit for future generations by leaving a gift in your will. 

This is all being done through storytelling about people who have already made that decision. That social proof phenomenon drives people’s sense that this is relevant to them. This is not just an organisation promoting something that is good for the organisation. It is people they can relate to saying, “I recommend this. I have made this decision, and this is why.” 

For those of you looking at this and thinking that you have come to this webinar because you are just starting your journey, that is okay. Create the scenario. Talk to your leadership group. Talk to your board members. Talk to your long-standing volunteers. On an individual basis, start to nurture them to become your first bequestors, the first group of people you know are leaving you a gift in their will. Then use them as the people whose stories feature in this social proof. 

Make it happen. I have done this various times in my career in many forms of giving. When launching regular giving programs and wanting to use social proof techniques, I have been the first regular giver and featured in the materials. When wanting to promote participation in a marathon or a long bike ride, I participated myself, was photographed and became the testimonial. It is still truthful. It is still real. Do not get held up by thinking these mysterious strangers do not exist. Go and make it happen. 

Start converting the people who are already passionate and connected to your organisation, and then get these stories out far and wide. You are no longer trying to create an advertisement for your gifts in wills program. You are sharing a story of a real person talking about why they have decided to do this. 

I would suggest that this is more appropriate content for a range of situations. It can be used as a poster in places with long dwell time, such as corridors where people are waiting for tickets or waiting to enter. It can be used in programs for your arts organisation. It can appear on your website, and it can go out through your social channels, where people are already interested in people’s stories. 

Get it out there. I am spending the most time on this one because it is my entry level for everybody, and it is applicable to you all. Please start thinking about how you are going to make this happen if you do not already do something like this. 

Second tip. Let’s come back to the problems and how we can solve them. On the left-hand side here, people may hesitate about whether it is really right for them. Now that you have inspired them to think about how they want to be remembered, this might be the point where they say, “Actually, I am more of a dog lover than someone who wants to be remembered as supporting this arts organisation or institution.” We need to look at a factor called resonance. 

Some people may wonder about the loss of control over how their money is going to be used. They are not going to be around to watch how you spend it. How are we going to deal with that? How are we going to help them feel connected to something they do have control over? 

Our suggestion, and what we have put into practice with other organisations, is to get them to reflect on history. Encourage them to reflect on a lifetime of connection to your art form, institution or organisation, and link that to stories of your organisation’s remarkable history. 

I will show you some examples so you understand what we mean. We are encouraging you to get people thinking about where they were when key moments in your organisation’s history were happening, or how this has shown up repeatedly throughout their life. Get them to pause and reflect on that. This is a steady and slow suggestion for communication. 

Here is an example from the Wilderness Society. This is a mail pack going out to a small number of supporters on a regular basis. What we are showing here are recognisable events from the history of Australia’s conservation movement, which is linked to the Wilderness Society’s reason for existing. 

The moments appear as separate cards or sheets of paper because the whole tempo of this communication is slow and reflective. It deliberately slows people down so they can contemplate these moments. There are moments of protest when Tasmanians were outraged, and protesters who wanted to make sure the Franklin River was not dammed. 

It points out to people: where were you? The back of these materials asks them to self-reflect. Do you remember when this was happening? Do you remember how effective it was? Do you remember what it represented? There was a real moment of Australians saying, “This is not Australia. This is not what we want. We want a place where people can protect the environment, not where businesses with vested interests can bulldoze and get what they want.” 

There is long copy on the back, but it is conversational in style and gets inside people’s heads. It encourages them to make the connection between these things that have happened and what will continue after they have passed. This is the bit that matters. It uses that awareness of: I am connected to these things. That is what will continue. It may not look identical in the future, but it will have the same ethos, philosophical intent or mission. 

Your organisation should curate the historical moments that create this thread: you can see how we have consistently been about this thing, and we will continue to be about it into the future. This helps address the idea of control. 

Here is a different approach with a different organisation. This might be appropriate if you are not confident that you have a very long history, or if you are a newer organisation. Think about whether there is a way to tap into the supporter’s own history. 

For Child Fund Australia, we encouraged people to go through what their childhood was like or what their career had been like. We asked a series of questions. Some were more relevant to different people, and we laid it out almost like a journal. We suggested that people take time to reflect on their life, to reflect on what they think about childhood and why it mattered to them. 

Maybe they were not enamoured with their own childhood, and that inspires them to think about children they want to support into the future. Or maybe they are extremely grateful for their own childhood, and that is what they want to create and provide for more people in the future. Get them to reflect on their personal story and connection to the subject your mission is connected to. 

This is a good opportunity to point out that when you are communicating with people in these ways, make sure you include response forms. Make sure you include the ability for them to come back to you with an indication of what it meant to them. Does this mean they are now considering leaving a gift in their will? Would they like more information? Would they appreciate a conversation? 

In this example with Child Fund, the response form says, “I am considering making a gift in my will and would like to discuss this further. Please call me.” It leaves space for a telephone number, preferred days and preferred times. It also gives options such as, “Please contact me in six months and keep me informed,” or “I have already included a gift in my will.” This gives you an understanding of where people are in the decision-making process. 

We know it is not easy. We know it requires several steps. What Child Fund is doing very smartly here is saying, “We are here to help you.” That leads neatly into the third idea. 

To reflect on the learning from that second part: performances, exhibitions and festivals have all been peak moments in people’s lives. They are things people have looked forward to, anticipated and enjoyed. Why not gather those and invite your community to reflect on where they were when those events were happening? 

There are also teachers, lessons and mistakes that people may have made if they are creators themselves, such as learning a particular form of music or being inspired by a teacher who helped them. These all form part of someone’s art-loving identity. Help your community reconnect with those memories and see the lifelong passion that can continue. 

Our final tip is looking at the phenomenon of being the prompt. People do not relish life admin. I certainly do not. I often lament how I can be a busy professional, getting lots of things done and being diligent in one area, while life admin becomes chaotic, delayed and procrastinated in another. 

People defer things. We need to be present so that the idea they had, that this is a good idea and they do want to do it, does not fall to the bottom of the to-do list. We need to be around, prompting and nudging people. 

People worry about getting it wrong. That fear is often part of the reason people procrastinate on life admin. They worry they will get the wording wrong. They worry they will make the wrong choice of insurance, so they avoid dealing with insurance. We need to help people get over some of those fears. How can we help them know they are doing it the right way? 

Our advice is to break it into steps for people. Help your audience see through your communications that it is okay to have different steps in making the actual change to their will. Be the person, or the organisation, they regard as helpful. Use wording and suggest wording to them. 

Your overall approach should cover these three phases. First, you should try to generate people’s interest and get them to raise their hand, so they indicate they are open to talking more about this. That might mean literally talking to you, or it might mean continuing to receive communications from you about it. 

Second, we suggest that you try to reach a stage where you are genuinely driving people to inquire. They want more information about how to do this. Then you can move into the second stage, where you are taking them on a supportive journey towards making the change to their will. 

Finally, give them special treatment. Those who tell you they have updated their wills should be kept in contact with. Make sure you provide them with a special experience. There is evidence to suggest that when people do not receive that, they will not ask you for it. They may even be offended if you implied that they wanted it. But there is evidence that when they do not receive it, those organisations can sometimes be taken out of someone’s will because people start to think the organisation is not the same as they thought it was, or is not as organised. The lesson is that you need to stay present. 

I am not going to talk through all of this, but I wanted to share examples of how organisations are creating new programs and deliberately creating this communications journey to support one person to talk to multiple people. 

This approach uses various ways to get people to raise their hand, so the individual fundraiser can pass them through a journey where personal contact by phone or in person happens later in the process. If you are already communicating with audiences, start to include a small form box that says something like, “Some people like you are interested in leaving us a gift in their will. Is this something you would consider?” 

Start including that on multiple communications because those who tick that box have shown they are worth spending time on, while the rest of your community has not yet indicated that. 

You might have a landing page on your website that introduces gifts in wills, includes a social proof story, and perhaps includes some of those historical moments. You can have a form that people can fill in to say, “Please send me information. I am curious about this. I want to know more.” 

All of this drives people towards what we call an inquiry pack that you can put together. The examples I shared earlier from Médecins Sans Frontières, Vinnies and WWF are inquiry packs. People have said, “I am interested in this. Please send me some information.” 

Another suggestion is that if you do surveys, such as surveys about people’s satisfaction with your performances, start to include a question. Use the social proof technique and say, “Some of our other members of our community have decided to leave us a gift in their will. Is this something you would consider?” 

You might ask: is it something you intend to do, yes or no? Is it something you have already done, yes or no? Understanding where people are in that journey from the survey moment is very helpful. 

Or you can do very specific mailouts or emails to your audience, like the Wilderness Society example I shared. These are memory-based mailouts that deliberately start a conversation about gifts in wills. 

You can set these up so there are specific check-ins with people. The first email might ask whether they received the inquiry pack and remind them that you are available if they have questions. The second email might say it has been a while since the inquiry pack was sent and ask whether it would be okay to reach out, or whether they could provide their phone number or preferred way to be contacted. 

Then, of course, you get to the person-to-person moment. If your organisation has the ability, this can be set up in a partly automated way, triggered by time periods passing. What you are conveying is: I am here if you need me. Then you move into: I really am here, and I want to make sure this is something you have considered and thought about. 

One thing we have discovered is that there can be a difference between the stage where people are curious and interested, and the stage where they are ready but do not know what to do. At the first stage, you can give them inspiring and profound communication that talks about why this is a way for their passions, interests and identity to live on after they have passed. At the later stage, they may simply need planning information. 

This planning information should sit on your website, and you can also mail it out to people. We have an example from Hunter Medical Research Institute, where we changed the format so it feels like an instruction manual. People can see that this is credible information they can follow. We also make sure to mention that lawyers have been involved in putting the information together. 

In the middle of the example, there is a callout box that says to talk to your family. If you are planning to leave a gift in your will, make sure you talk to your family about your intentions. We are trying to create a sincere and authentic position. We are not just grabbing your money. We genuinely want you to be thrilled about this decision and to see that it has helped you with one of those psychological problems. 

My takeaway from that is that fundraising is all about relationships. Your keen interest should be in understanding where your community is at, and where they are with this idea of a decision that is good for everyone: good for them, good for their relatives if they have them, and certainly good for the future work your organisation can do. 

When you know this, you can stay in touch with people and ensure they are informed about your work, particularly those who you want to receive special treatment. You can also allude to the fact that people will be joining a special group during the journey you are taking them on. 

I encourage you to come full circle back to those who have made this commitment and have told you, “I have changed my will and you are in it.” Treat them with the respect and admiration that deserves. It is a profound gesture, and it is deeply personal. Treat them as individuals, and treat them with the respect I know you would all have. 

This is an example from an organisation that is closer to most of yours: the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. I wanted to show you what I mean by special treatment. The group of people who have chosen to leave a gift in their will are referred to as perennial gardeners. 

Every gift in will, no matter its size, contributes to the stability and strength of the gardens. It is a powerful way to define the legacy you want to leave. We want to recognise everyone who has made the generous decision to leave their legacy in the gardens, which is why our perennial gardeners are a community of people who we see as invested in the future of the gardens. 

This is a cultural icon of Melbourne spelling out for people the label and identity that will be assigned to them as one of the ways the organisation will respect their decision and keep them included and informed about its work. 

If you are a smaller organisation, and some of the examples I have shared feel larger than your context, use your size as an advantage. Some of the organisations shown are working with hundreds, if not thousands, of relationships. They know they need to increase the authentic person-to-person approach. 

These communications are intended to help you spend deep time meeting with people, understanding their lives and spending time with the right people. If you are a smaller organisation, you have a smaller volume of people to think about. You can increase those personal touches, showing that you are a genuine person who is in contact with them. 

Handwritten notes, cards, things that do not feel like marketing communications, and photos taken on your phone and sent to them can all help build a sense that this is someone they can keep informed about where their head is at in relation to this big and profound decision. It also helps them feel they could reach out for help if they needed it. 

There we go. Three suggestions for things that are working for different organisations that I think apply to yours. We now have 20 minutes for any questions. Ask anything I have shared that you would like clarified, or anything that helps you envisage how you are going to put this into practice for your organisation. 

I do have a question, but firstly, people joining today, please put some questions in the chat and I will get to them shortly. 

Something that sprung to mind recently is that every week and every day people are investigating gifts in wills. It is something that is going on in the background. Most recently, I had to think about what my will looks like. It was great to hear about smaller organisations using size to their advantage because I reflected with Dan earlier this week about my interest in wanting to leave some support in my will to smaller arts organisations. From the side, I see their impact and what they do, but I struggled when doing desktop research to find out whether they want to accept a will or receive a bequest. 

It made me think about this session and why we are not including that information in our communications. I think we have a lot of room to grow in this space. 

I want to go back to a point you said that made me think. Dan, maybe you can give us a tip here. When you have been working with an organisation that is at the start of its gifts in wills communications journey, what is a guiding question you have given them to think about to help refine their case or their communications? What is a strong question they should think about answering? 

That is a fabulous question because one of the amazing things about this type of fundraising is that it requires you to go to the core of why anyone should care. There is a researcher in Australia called Dr Cassandra Chapman, and her work has revealed that people think about two identity factors: either their own identity or the identity of the beneficiary. 

I encourage all of you to think about which of those is most relevant to the work of your organisation. Do they consider another beneficiary to be an important factor in why they are passionate about the work your organisation does, or have they consistently seen themselves as the beneficiary? Have they been the attendee of your events or the consumer of the art your organisation creates? 

If there is another beneficiary, and if there is an aspect of your work where the funding from a gift in will benefits someone considered disadvantaged, test that with people. Start asking whether this is one of the reasons they might consider giving to you. Perhaps you enable an otherwise disadvantaged group of Australians to access this art form when they otherwise would not. You give them that opportunity. 

This could be children, people in lower socioeconomic groups, people with illnesses, people living with disability or older people. If this is not a factor, then move to deeply considering why individuals love this type of art. What is it that makes this the thing that connects with them? How is your art form connected to their life story? 

If it is a music form, does that mean they have been connected to it for a very long time, perhaps from childhood, learning to play an instrument, and then carrying that through into a love of chamber music or orchestras? Are they a creator themselves? How is that connected? 

Or is it about the way your particular art form, and perhaps your own organisation, has a narrative that is thought-provoking and has been consistent in presenting something that creates connection in people’s lives? Get some clarity on that, because that speaks to your value proposition as an organisation. Then think about the people whose own identity connects with yours quite closely. 

My sense is that if you are not running programs or activities that are strongly driven by another beneficiary group, then it is deeply about the supporter’s own identity. Then it is about making sure you have the clarity to say what your curation has been historically and what will continue into the future. What is it that you have a reputation for? 

I sometimes liken this to popular music. We have just had Oasis coming to Australia and everybody going crazy. Another example was when Prince came to Australia. He had a new album and he was promoting that new album, but he knew the audience wanted to hear a lot of his classic hits. If he connected his new work to his classic hits, people would embrace the concert and might even buy the new album. 

That is the approach I encourage you to consider. Your classic hits connect to the idea that you will keep producing those into the future. That is what you can connect people to. 

I am thinking about an arts organisation that has an existing bequest program. They have had messaging. Can we talk a little about the evolution of the message? Obviously, you would not want to keep the same messaging forever. With some of the examples you provided earlier, do you have examples of that process? As you build the social proof, and you have more stories and more things to say, how often would you recommend people evolve their messaging? How should they go about that so things stay fresh and relevant? 

That is a good question. When you build these programs, they should be built to last. The communications, positioning and framing should be something that can endure for five or more years. Because of the time you invest in making them, you want to be able to say, “We have that sorted. We are clear about our pitch and our narrative. We just need to keep talking about the same thing.” 

We often get tired of our communications well before our audience has even begun to realise what we are talking about. Something like the identity of the perennial gardeners for Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria has existed for nearly a decade. I would still be saying to them now: do not change it. Keep it going. 

The way to keep it fresh is with new stories that still connect back to the overarching theme. That might be another example of a family, another event, another exhibition or another performance that can link to the overarching intent you will always have, or the connection it created. 

Try to keep something that will last and endure, but keep it fresh with the chapters within that story. In many forms of fundraising, we see people refreshing a little too quickly. Your audience has not necessarily heard it. Or someone new comes into the organisation and says they do not like it, so they want to change it. Think carefully about how you navigate that. 

The prompting of people is where a lot of the movement happens. I hope that answers the question. 

We have a question here. Do you have any research showing the target demographic, silent generation and boomers, is less likely to respond to digital campaigns and more likely to respond to a paper mail pack? 

Yes, it is research in terms of continuously being in the market and seeing what the results are. The first form of information that sits with this is appeals. When you go out to people who make a donation of $30, $50, $100, $200 or even up to $5,000, the generations we showed are silent and boomer, with a little bit of Gen X. 

If you remove direct mail from the channel mix, the income drops significantly. We see people engaging with the mail and then going online to make transactions in terms of appeals. That makes sense to us. But if we then assume people only want to experience things digitally and take away direct mail, the income starts to fall away. People still like the channel of direct mail. 

When it comes to gifts in wills, you have seen some of the nature of the conversation. We are trying to get people to slow down and be contemplative. This is a planned giving act, and mail and print enable you to create and curate that experience well. 

We still use digital communications for urgent responses, such as respond now or do this quickly. In testing email, shorter emails featuring emojis often work better than long copy emails. But that is not appropriate for a gifts in wills conversation. That is why we would say to make sure you include and use direct mail. 

Direct mail can also help you stand out. It is lower volume. The format of your mailing for a bequest program can stand out from a standard bill, invoice or charity appeal. You can go slightly larger because you are not necessarily trying to come in under Australia Post charity mailing benefits. You are already paying for a stamp, so go to the biggest size you can. People engage with it because they do not receive that kind of material very often. 

That said, update your website. The point Matt described earlier, whether an organisation even wants someone to leave them a gift in will, needs to be addressed on your website. When people start to consider this, they do online research. If your website does not mention this as a way people can support you, you will lose out. People may think the organisation must not want that, rather than thinking the organisation simply has not put the information on its website. 

Use online channels and email for messages such as, “I am here if you need me.” But also use mail for the more considered and contemplative communications. 

At what point in a donor’s relationship with an arts organisation is it most appropriate to first introduce the concept of a gift in will? 

This is a tricky one because if you are not already receiving donations from an audience, then they are a cooler prospect than those who have made the leap from being a consumer to becoming a supporter. They have moved from thinking, “Does my ticket price pay for this?” or “Does the government funding you receive cover this?” to recognising that they want to contribute, uplift and elevate in some way. 

If you have already worked on converting people into supporters, they are a strong audience. If people have given to you multiple times, they are an even better prospect. Sometimes people give once and never give again, so look for people who have given more than once. The longer their tenure of giving, the better. If they have given repeatedly over two or three years, or each time you have an annual appeal, that is better again. 

The reality is that some of you will not have made that leap. So when is the appropriate time to do it? If you have any ability to judge repeat visitations, consumption of your art form, repeat ticket purchases or membership, those are the audiences to go for. 

Some social proof work can happen anywhere. A poster in your foyer with someone’s story, while people are waiting for their date or waiting for a friend who is always late, is not targeted. It simply means anyone can read it. But think about what kind of commitment they have shown to your organisation, whether through repeat attendance, repeat ticket purchases, membership, or the holy grail of people already giving to you more than once. 

When you know someone has been around your organisation as a volunteer for a long time, that is also valuable. Long time means two to three years plus. Their identity is: I give up my free time to do something with your organisation. They are also a good prospect. 

We have a few questions from people asking for templates and correct wording to provide to people, which they may want to include in their collateral. If you are interested, a great place to start is not with Creative Australia, but with Arts Law. Seek advice there. They have resources through their membership that can support you in this area. 

Small organisations may not have the capacity for this ongoing relationship building. Are there some starting steps that cannot be missed? 

Get things up on your website and get those social proof stories. Even if you have to say, “I have made this decision. I am the fundraiser and I have decided to do this,” there is a reason why you have chosen to work at your organisation. You are still a fair representation. 

Those are the two things. Make sure there is a form on your website. I do not mean a complicated long form. I mean something that encourages people to ask for information. When someone says, “Please send me information about this,” they are already revealing that they are interested. Focus on those people first, rather than spending time nurturing relationships with people who have not indicated that they are curious or considering it. 

That is interesting, because many of these communications or channels lead people through to the inquiry. When somebody makes an inquiry, whether by telephone or email, you will be contacting them back. Any organisation, small or large, needs to be prepared to have those conversations and address those inquiries. You need to make sure you are prepared and feel comfortable having those conversations with your supporters. 

I think so. I have always used communications as a crutch. When you spend the time working out what the website is going to say, including why this is a profound thing and why you welcome it, you have then created the basis for how to have the conversation. 

Someone has put something in the Q&A that relates to this. The reason organisations are behind is because we are uncomfortable talking about this. Your board members are also mortals, and they may think, “I do not want you talking to people about when they die. I do not want you chasing coffins.” 

You need to work on the narrative to show them that you are not doing that. You are talking about something amazing, which is that their identity, values and principles can live on. When you share prototypes of what that looks like, you build your own confidence to say, “I am comfortable talking about this now.” You are also helping your board and other decision-makers go on that journey and say, “I am comfortable with that.” 

I am conscious that we are at time, so I would like to thank you and your team at Marlin for putting together today and working with us at Creative Australia. 

It has been fantastic. From a Creative Australia point of view, I feel we have a few more conversations to have in this space so that we can improve, be better and grow that 4% to the average of 20%. 

Before we go, I would say that we are looking forward to next year with the Knowledge Series. We are giving it a little refresh. If you do not already subscribe to the Creative Australia Partnerships and Philanthropy EDM, I encourage you to do so, so you can hear about the Knowledge Series first and book in. 

We are also always interested to hear what you want to hear through the Knowledge Series, whether it is a particular speaker, topic or question. Please feel free to email me personally at any time. My email address is matt.morse@creative.gov.au, and I will make sure it is in the EDM that comes out in a few days. Please write to me. I would love to hear it. 

Thank you everybody for taking some time out of your busy schedules. We appreciate it. We will see you next time for another Knowledge Series. Take care. Cheers. Bye.