FirstClass gets shortlisted as a finalist for the Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Awards 2024!

The FirstClass team is delighted to announce we have been shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Partner to the Legacy Sector’ at the Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Awards 2024, recognising and celebrating our outstanding achievement and skill in the legacy sector.


Being shortlisted for a Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Award provides FirstClass with an independent validation of our hard work and commitment to legacy giving and helps to benchmark achievements with peers across the UK. This much deserved recognition has helped boost confidence and demonstrates how we’re helping reward the skill and dedication of the people involved in this vital sector.


The award entries were reviewed and assessed by a judging panel that includes some of the biggest names from across the charitable legacies’ community. To be shortlisted as a finalist for these awards, despite tough competition from a pool of brilliant applications, is a mark of real achievement for FirstClass. The team have been selected based on matching the criteria for Ambition, Excellence, Outcome and attributing scores against a transparent system aimed at recognising and rewarding inspirational legacy teams and individuals.


FirstClass has become an industry ‘gold standard’. In many cases, its use across the UK’s diverse range of charities is regarded – perhaps unofficially – as a qualification, with those with experience of using it seen as having an additional and highly coveted skillset.

Proud finalist banner

However, FirstClass is not just used by charities and academic institutions. It’s also used by high-profile benchmarking organisations and industry authorities such as Legacy Foresight and Legacy Link. As a result, FirstClass has a reach and positive impact that goes far beyond a typical industry product or traditional supplier/customer relationship.


Yet, despite all this – and apart from those who use the system day in, day out - there is perhaps a large segment of our sector that doesn’t fully understand that the platform is, as Cancer Research UK states, ‘the beating heart of the legacy team’.


As a result, the team would like to use this award as a platform to make this highly-regarded industry tool front of mind with key stakeholders and shine a light on the good work that FirstClass has been doing since its inception in the mid-nineties.


Polly Avgherinos, Managing Director, Smee & Ford: “We extend our congratulations to FirstClass for their nomination in the at the upcoming Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Awards. We eagerly anticipate their presence at the April ceremony, where we will come together to acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable talent, dedication, and enthusiasm of individuals contributing to the field of legacies. Their impactful work on behalf of legators, charities, and beneficiaries deserves recognition and appreciation."


The winners will be selected following a rigorous judging stage ahead of the Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Awards ceremony. The full list of nominees for the 2024 Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Awards can be found at legacygivingawards.co.uk/finalists-2024.


The selected winners will be announced during a private ceremony at Hilton Bankside, London, on 18th April 2024.

Pilot Project Launched to Support Free Wills Month

By Fiona Paton • July 31, 2025
To shine a light on October’s Free Wills Month , an initiative designed to offer those aged 55 and over the chance to have straightforward wills written or updated free of charge, FirstClass and sister company Cymba have joined forces and are partnering with the Institute of Legacy Management (ILM) to launch a project that illustrates the impact mobile messaging has on legacy giving. Whilst mobile messaging is typically associated with text-to-donate campaigns, the partnership between two companies that sit within ClearCourse’s stable of brands will showcase how this technology can be used to inspire people to leave legacies in their wills. The webinar, entitled “ How to Boost traffic to your Free Wills and Legacy pages ”, will be jointly hosted by the FirstClass and Cymba teams, and explore how emerging Rich Communications Services (RCS) technology, the evolution of SMS, can be used to drive engagement when it comes to legacy giving. The event will also provide charities with insights into how they can build trust when it comes to increasing donations and gifts by revealing tried and tested messaging formats that drive action. Charities will also learn how to highlight their free wills and legacy pages by harnessing RCS’s ability to implement branded quick-action buttons, and understand the difference in outcomes between SMS and RCS messaging via a dedicated split testing session. In the lead up to the webinar, which takes place on 11 September at 10:30 am, Cymba and FirstClass will be running test campaigns with several of the UK’s prominent charities, the results of which will be revealed during the session. On the event, Rich Mullens, Director at Cymba and FirstClass, comments: “ Regular givers are often among the most open to leaving a legacy. In this webinar, we’ll show charities how mobile messaging can help them engage these supporters more effectively and drive meaningful traffic, not only for donations but also to inspire gifts in wills. We’re delighted to unite these two brands, both of which are founded on helping charities boost donations via mobile messaging and increase their legacy giving, and we’re confident that attendees will leave feeling inspired to use new approaches. ” The new Data (Use and Access) Bill, which gives charities greater freedom to use the soft opt-in by enabling them to contact past supporters with relevant legacy messages without needing fresh consent, removes barriers to utilising RCS. This means that the benefits of RCS, such as the ability to use logos, images, video, and tap-to-act buttons, can be quickly and efficiently embraced by charities looking to incorporate this emerging technology. For more information on Cymba, FirstClass, and Free Wills Month, visit https://www.cymba.co.uk , https://www.firstclass-software.com , and https://freewillsmonth.org.uk ,  respectively.

ILM Annual Conference 2025: Highlights from the FirstClass lounge

June 2, 2025
FirstClass hosted an exclusive breakout space at the ILM Annual Conference 2025, and it was a great experience! Discover the event highlights and our team’s thoughts on the experience.

Three things we're looking forward to at the ILM Annual Conference

May 7, 2025
Are you attending this year's ILM Annual Conference? Discover three reasons why the FirstClass team is excited about this year's legacy management event.