A FirstClass approach to bequest management

It's been nearly 3 decades since we first launched our bequest (Gifts in Wills) management software FirstClass, which was designed by charities for charities to improve the bequest administration processes, optimise their income, and help them to build the profile of their charity brand for future legacies.


Over that period of time, we’ve become very familiar with bequest gifting and everything delivering effective bequest management strategies entails, as well as maximising bequest giving as a form of income.


But what is bequest giving, why is it important, and how can charities benefit from having a bequest management system in place?

 

A brief overview


Bequest income is booming, with recent research showing a 43% increase in Gifts in Wills in the last decade. In fact, it has been on an upward trajectory for as long as FirstClass has been in this arena. There is a considerable opportunity to be found, with legacy income predicted to measure up at an estimated £3.9bn a year from 2022-27.

 

Why is bequest giving important?


Co Op Legal Services reports that only 6% of people leave a gift to a charity in their will, however 35% of those aged over 40 would be happy to do so, which suggests that that there appears to be a huge – and potentially untapped – market when it comes to bequest gifting.


Having worked alongside charities for many years, we know that there are many who work exceptionally hard to ensure that their bequest pipeline is not only firmly in place, but also well-managed. Once a charity has built a bequest profile and is receiving Gifts in Wills, here are five key points to consider when implementing a bequest management solution.

 

 

1. Collecting & Storing information

 

There is an incredible amount of data that is collected during an administering process including financial, biographical, communications and timeline data. All of this data needs to be organised and accessible in structured logical format. The consequences of this are that process can be cumbersome, time consuming and ineffective which could lead to a loss bequest income.

 

2. Accessibility & Security

 

There is a lot of sensitive information included when administering a bequest, therefore the system should be governed with different levels of access to ensure the right people can access and update the information they need when and where they need it.  

 

3. Processing & Updating records

 

Bequest gifting can be complicated. There are generally multiple people within a charity inputting and progressing a case, all of which needs to be logged in order to provide a true and chronological picture. And then there’s communication from external parties, such as solicitors, which also needs to be recorded. With a bequest management platform, all contact history can be instantly accessed and updated. Not only that, but you can also add permissions so that only those who need to access what might be sensitive information can do so.

 

4. Balance the books

 

With bequest management software, you can record a giftor’s individual assets, cash, property and investments alongside draft and final estate accounts. By storing everything in one place, you’re able to maintain full visibility of anything and everything that your organisation is due. With FirstClass, we’ve created an Estate Valuation tool which allows you to do just that. We’ve also incorporated an inheritance tax calculator, which provides users with enough detail to leverage the amount of tax that can be reclaimed from HMRC.

 

5. Reporting

 

Whether you need to analyse market trends for gifting, establish what level of organisational spending and investment your bequest programme will support for the forthcoming year, or simply need a true and accurate bequest income report for that all important board meeting, good bequest management software will allow you to do just that in a matter of minutes.

 

Thinking about maximising your organisation’s bequest gifting programme? Interested in speaking with the market leader in bequest management software? Contact the FirstClass team of specialists.

You've Invested in the Tech. Now Let's Help You Grow.

By Fiona Paton • September 23, 2026
You've invested in the right technology. FirstClass gives your team the infrastructure to manage legacy administration with precision, visibility, and confidence. The question worth asking now isn't whether the system works. It's whether you're growing with it. A System Built for the Long Game Unlike a CRM built around fast transactions and contact records, FirstClass is a case management system designed for the long, complex timelines of legacy administration. A single legator can have multiple legacies, contacts, reviews, and years of correspondence, all tracked in one place across a timeline that can span decades. That architecture is what makes legacy administration possible at real scale. Most customers know this. What's less obvious is how much depth the system has to offer over time. Our Open Spaces sessions bring customers together to share how they use FirstClass, and the conversations are genuinely illuminating. Teams with years of experience are regularly discovering new approaches, ways of handling income, managing reviews, or structuring their pipeline that they hadn't considered before. Others in the room take those ideas and apply them the following week. That kind of peer knowledge, built up across a community of legacy professionals, is hard to find anywhere else. Regular Giving and Legacy Fundraising: Are They Talking to Each Other? Most charities are engaged in both regular giving and legacy fundraising, and often the two don't talk to each other as much as they could. They should. Regular givers of today, nurtured through long-term stewardship, become the legacy pledgers of tomorrow. The relationship that starts with a monthly direct debit is often the same relationship that ends with a gift in a will. The supporter who has given loyally for twenty years is precisely the person most likely to consider a legacy, if the conversation is started at the right moment, through the right channel. So when a thank-you message goes out to a regular giver, is it also pointing them toward your gift in wills page? When a supporter reaches a significant anniversary of giving, is that milestone being used to deepen the relationship in a way that opens the legacy conversation naturally? These aren't complicated asks. They're moments already in the calendar, communications already being sent. The question is whether the marketing is joined up enough to make the most of them. The Data That Makes It Possible Joined-up marketing depends on joined-up data. And that's where many legacy programmes quietly lose ground. Outdated contact records, missing mobile numbers, deceased supporters still on mailing lists - these don't just create administrative problems. They limit the effectiveness of every communication your team sends and every campaign your fundraising colleagues run. A personalised message sent to the wrong address, or addressed with the wrong name, does the opposite of what it was intended to do. Clean, accurate data is what connects FirstClass's case management capability to your legacy programme's growth potential. It's what makes it possible to identify your most engaged regular givers, reach them through the channels they actually use, and start the legacy conversation at exactly the right moment. Without it, even the best marketing strategy and the best system in the sector will underdeliver. Data cleansing isn't a one-off project. It's an ongoing discipline, and one that pays for itself in more accurate reporting, more effective communications, and more cases entering the pipeline. Growing With Confidence FirstClass is built to handle volume and grow with you. The opportunity is in making sure the marketing, the data, and the stewardship are working together to fill it. The legacy professionals who make the most of FirstClass tend to be the ones who treat it not just as an administration tool but as the foundation of a joined-up programme. One where regular giving and legacy fundraising inform each other, where data is kept current, and where the system's full capability is being put to work. If any of this has sparked some useful thinking, our team would be glad to talk it through.

A Relationship Worth Protecting

By Fiona Paton • September 9, 2026
The background Two decades with the National Trust, and still finding new ways to go further. The National Trust exists to protect and preserve places of historic and natural significance for future generations. It’s a mission built on the long view: on the belief that what’s worth having is worth caring for over time. It’s a philosophy that sits rather well with a twenty-year relationship with FirstClass. Legacy income of around £60 million a year funds the Trust’s core conservation work, protecting historic properties, caring for nature, and keeping some of Britain’s most loved places open for the people who love them. Managing that income, with around 1,200 cases open at any one time, demands a system that can carry the weight. FirstClass has been doing exactly that since the Trust was among the early adopters of FirstClass 2, growing alongside the product through successive versions. Jenny Alexander, who heads up legacy administration, leads a dedicated team, and among them is Kim Miles, a legacy officer who has been with the Trust for twenty-five years, using FirstClass for ten of those. Between them, the team brings years of FirstClass experience, whether at the Trust or across previous organisations, and a perspective on the system that is both broad and forensically detailed. Every Part of It Ask Jenny and Kim how they use FirstClass and the answer is straightforward: completely. Keywords for rapid searching, automation on reviews linked to case history and income, and custom reports built to their own specifications. Over two decades, the Trust has worked its way into every corner of the system, consistently looking for ways to make a complex operation run more smoothly.

Your Legacy Programme's Biggest Moment

By Fiona Paton • August 26, 2026
The charities that benefit most from Remember a Charity Week aren't always the ones with the biggest budgets. They're the ready ones. Remember a Charity Week, running 7 to 13 September 2026, is the sector's most significant annual moment for legacy giving. Hundreds of charities, solicitors and campaign partners come together to celebrate and raise awareness of gifts in wills, reaching supporters at precisely the moment they're most receptive to the idea. But awareness alone doesn't convert. The charities that make the most of the week are the ones that have done the less visible work beforehand; the kind that doesn't appear in a campaign toolkit but makes the difference between interest and action. The Preparation Most Teams Overlook Campaign assets, social content, and staff briefings are necessary. They're also the first thing every charity thinks of. What gets less attention is the foundation underneath: the data. Remember a Charity Week is as much about reactivating existing relationships as it is about reaching new audiences. Many of your most likely legacy pledgers are already in your database. They've supported you for years, attended events, and responded to appeals. The question is whether your records are accurate enough to reach them meaningfully. Outdated mobile numbers, incorrect email addresses, deceased supporters still on mailing lists - each of these doesn't just represent a missed communication. In the context of legacy giving, where trust is everything, a misdirected message or a wrong name signals to a supporter that they are not truly known. That signal is hard to undo. Before the week arrives, it's worth asking: when did you last review the accuracy of your contact data? Are your mobile numbers current? Do you know which supporters have already indicated an interest in legacy giving, and when they were last contacted? Moments like Remember a Charity Week are a useful prompt. If data accuracy isn't something your team reviews regularly, a sector moment this significant is as good a reason as any to make it a priority, ahead of this week, and as a habit going forward. Meeting Supporters Where They Are Once your data is in good shape, the question becomes how to reach supporters during the week itself and through which channels. Email remains important, but it operates in an increasingly crowded inbox. For legacy teams looking to cut through during a busy awareness week, mobile messaging offers something different: immediacy, intimacy, and a read rate that email rarely matches. RCS , the successor to SMS, delivers branded, interactive messages directly to a supporter's phone, with read rates of 60-80% and engagement up to three times higher than standard SMS. A message sent during Remember a Charity Week directing a supporter to your gift in wills page, or to a Free Wills Month booking in October, lands in a channel they already trust and use every day. QR codes are equally underused in legacy communications. A code on an email footer, a social post, or any printed material can take a supporter directly to your legacy page in a single scan: no URL to remember, no delay between the impulse and the action. The supporter who wants to give is already there. The only thing standing between that feeling and a completed action is making it easy. Through our sister brand Cymba , which brings over 20 years of messaging expertise for charities, we're already helping legacy fundraising teams build mobile campaigns that reach supporters at exactly the right moment. If your charity is already working with Cymba on regular giving or text-to-donate, the infrastructure to extend that into legacy communications is closer than you might think. For more on the channels and audiences most relevant to legacy giving right now, our article on Gen X and legacy fundraising is worth a read. The Bridge to Free Wills Month Remember a Charity Week and Free Wills Month in October are two separate moments. But they can equally be seen as stages of the same campaign. The groundwork laid consistently throughout the year, at moments like these and the ones that follow, is what determines how well you capitalise on them when it matters most. The awareness built during the week, through social content, supporter emails and mobile messaging, primes supporters for the practical next step that Free Wills Month offers. A supporter who receives a thoughtful, well-timed message in September and is directed to your gift in Wills page is far more likely to act when Free Wills Month opens than one who encountered your legacy programme for the first time in October. Ready When the Moment Arrives The organisations best placed to make the most of events like Remember a Charity Week are the ones with the right infrastructure already in place: a clear view of their supporter data, the confidence to reach people through the channels that actually work, and the case management foundation to handle what follows. Together, FirstClass and our data cleansing team give legacy professionals the pipeline visibility, case management, and clean data that makes every communication count. And through our sister company Cymba, the mobile messaging capability to reach supporters where they already are is closer than most teams realise. If Remember a Charity Week or Free Wills Month have prompted some useful thinking, that's exactly the point. The most effective legacy programmes aren't built in a week; they're built on consistent foundations for when these events arrive, everything is already in place. If any of the ideas here are worth exploring for the coming months or the year ahead, we'd be glad to talk.