Clear Vision: How Charities Can Get Legacy Income on Track

A Fresh Start for Legacy Giving


With the year well underway, now is the moment for charities to pause, reflect, and plan ahead. It’s a chance to look back at what worked last year, identify where improvements can be made, and set the foundations for lasting success.


This is especially true for legacy income. Unlike regular donations, legacy gifts are rarely quick decisions - they’re deeply personal, transformational commitments that often require years of careful stewardship.


That’s why now is the time to put strategies in place that bring structure, confidence, and clarity. With the right approach, charities can grow a healthy pipeline for the year ahead, ensuring no opportunity is missed and every supporter feels valued.


Clean Data, Thriving Relationships


Legacy giving is built on trust, and trust depends on accuracy. Surveys suggest that legacies can make up anywhere from 10% to 60% of a charity’s voluntary income. That’s a huge proportion, and it shows just how transformational these gifts can be.


That’s why clean data matters so much here. Outdated records don’t just mean missed mailings - they mean missed opportunities to nurture relationships with the very supporters who might one day choose to leave a legacy. Without accurate data, charities risk losing touch with this critical donor segment at the exact moment when connection matters most.


Clean data ensures charities know exactly who their supporters are, how they’ve engaged, and where they are in their journey. It’s not just about tidy spreadsheets - it’s about making sure every supporter feels recognised and connected. When data is clean, charities thrive because relationships thrive.


Integration and Visibility: One Source of Truth


Legacy income touches fundraising, finance, supporter care, and marketing. Without a central system, data gets scattered across spreadsheets, emails, and CRMs - making it hard to see the full picture.


A legacy management system brings everything together. With seamless integration into key CRM platforms, charities can ensure supporter records, financial data, and stewardship notes are all aligned. No duplication, no gaps - just one source of truth that everyone can rely on.


And when it comes to notifications, integration with services like Smee & Ford is critical. These alerts about new legacy gifts or potential income flow directly into the system, giving charities immediate visibility into what’s in the pipeline. That means faster follow‑up, clearer forecasting, and the confidence to plan.


This clarity transforms legacy giving from reactive to strategic, helping charities steward relationships, manage income, and build trust with supporters at every stage.


Front of Mind: Marketing That Cultivates Legacies


Charities are experiencing a major shift in how supporters want to connect. Today’s audiences expect communication to be digital‑first and mobile‑first - interactions that feel personal, transparent, and effortless. Social media is powerful for sharing impact stories, but when it comes to deeper, more meaningful conversations - like inspiring someone to leave a gift in their Will - charities need something more trusted.


Traditionally, mobile messaging has been limited to quick text‑to‑donate campaigns or event reminders. But imagine if that same channel could nurture long‑term relationships, build trust, and spark legacy pledges. That’s where RCS  (Rich Communication Services) comes in.


RCS is the first major upgrade to mobile messaging in two decades. Unlike SMS, it offers a richer, more interactive experience - secure, modern, and designed to feel genuinely helpful. For charities, this means the ability to stay front of mind with supporters, using the very channels they already rely on every day.


By combining clean data with RCS‑powered outreach, charities can ensure their cause is remembered when supporters make one of life’s most meaningful decisions.


Efficiency and Confidence


Legacy gifts involve sensitive information, legal processes, and long timelines. A management system streamlines workflows, automates reminders, and ensures compliance. This saves staff time, reduces risk, and allows teams to focus on what matters most: building relationships with care.


Conclusion: Turning Intent Into Impact


Legacy giving isn’t just about managing income - it’s about honouring the intent of supporters and turning it into lasting impact. Momentum is building in 2026, making it the perfect time to get ahead: to clean your data, connect your systems, and embrace modern channels that keep you front of mind.


With the right legacy management approach, charities don’t just track gifts - they build trust, deepen relationships, and secure the future of their mission.


If you’re ready to move from good intentions to measurable impact, get in touch with our team. We’ll help you put the structure, clarity, and human touch in place to make legacy income simple, strategic, and successful.

RCS for Business Data Cleansing

Where Does the Time Go?

By Fiona Paton • August 11, 2026
Legacy administration carries a hidden cost. Here's what it's really taking up, and what legacy professionals could be doing instead . Ask anyone who manages legacy administration what their day looks like and the answer rarely starts with relationships. It starts with paperwork. Documents to upload, correspondence to chase, reports to pull together, dates to track. The work is necessary and important. But for many legacy professionals, it quietly crowds out the things that matter most. That trade-off deserves more attention than it gets. Legacy giving is one of the most relationship-driven forms of philanthropy there is. The supporters who include a charity in their will do so out of deep, long-standing connection. Honouring that connection takes time, care and presence. Yet the administrative burden of managing legacy income can leave little room for any of it. The Administration Behind Every Gift Every legacy gift generates a significant amount of work before any income is received. Documents arrive from solicitors and need to be logged, stored and acted upon. Correspondence passes between multiple parties, including executors, solicitors, financial advisors and families, often over months or years. Financial reports need to be produced for trustees and auditors. Key dates need to be tracked so nothing falls through the gaps. For larger charities with dedicated teams, that workload is distributed. For smaller organisations, it often falls to one person. That person is also likely to be managing supporter relationships, attending sector events, and contributing to broader fundraising strategy. The hours spent on administration are hours not spent on any of those things. What Gets Crowded Out The hidden cost of administration is not just inefficiency. It is opportunity. Every hour spent uploading documents or chasing correspondence is an hour not spent building the relationships that become tomorrow's legacies. Legacy stewardship, by its nature, is a long game. The supporters most likely to leave a gift are those who feel genuinely known and valued by an organisation over many years. That kind of connection takes consistent, personal attention. It also takes confidence. When a legacy professional knows that every case is properly recorded, every date is flagged, and every financial report is accurate and accessible, they can engage with solicitors, executors and families with authority. When they are not sure whether the information is up to date or complete, that confidence erodes. And the people on the other side of those conversations notice. A Different Way of Working The organisations that manage legacy administration well tend to have one thing in common: a system that handles the administrative burden so the people do not have to. Not by removing the human element, but by giving it the space it needs. That means rapid access to records without searching through files or spreadsheets. Income dashboards that give an immediate picture of the pipeline and expected income. Financial reports that are ready when they are needed. Important dates flagged automatically. And correspondence and case notes held in one place, so nothing is ever lost or disconnected from its context. When those things are in place, the time equation changes. Administration becomes faster, more reliable and less draining. And the time that is recovered goes back where it belongs: into the relationships, the stewardship, and the work that only a person can do. Built for the Reality of Smaller Organisations For smaller charities, universities, arts organisations and heritage bodies, that kind of professional infrastructure has not always felt accessible. Enterprise systems carry enterprise complexity and cost. The gap between a spreadsheet and a full legacy management platform has felt, for many organisations, too wide to bridge. FirstClass 5 Essentials was built precisely for this. Cloud-hosted, ready from day one, and priced for organisations that don't need enterprise complexity. The Right Use of Time Legacy administration will always require care and attention. That is not something any system can or should remove. But the hours spent on the purely administrative parts of the job, the uploading, the chasing, the reporting, are hours that could be spent differently. If you would like to see what FirstClass 5 Essentials looks like in practice, we would be glad to show you.
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Open Conversations. Shared Solutions.

By Fiona Paton • August 1, 2026
At FirstClass, we’ve always believed our product should grow with the charities and non-profits who use it. Your input has shaped the way we build, and now we want to take that collaboration one step further. Monthly Check-in Calls We’re introducing monthly check‑in calls - an open forum where you can drop in, chat with the team and other customers, and explore anything to do with the product. No agenda, no pressure. Just space for conversation, questions, and shared ideas. These sessions give you the chance to: Share your priorities and help shape how we address different aspects of the system Stay informed on technical updates, including external systems like SQL or Outlook What’s new across our Team, billing, and the wider company See functionality demonstrated live - if you’re unsure how something works, we’ll show you Updates on features and fixes in the latest releases Ask questions on any part of the system Whether you join for five minutes or stay for the full hour, this is your space to connect with us. It’s a chance to explore challenges together, share experiences, and help shape a product that truly works for charities. We’ll host these sessions monthly on Microsoft Teams, giving you regular opportunities to drop in and join the conversation. As the sessions develop, we'd like to occasionally bring a specific topic to the group rather than holding separate meetings. It makes better use of everyone's time and gets the right voices in the room. For our next session, on Wednesday, 16th September at 11:00, we'd like to begin the discussion around Expenditure - feeding directly into how it will be handled in FirstClass 5. You can sign up using the Save the Date button below.
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The Name Behind the Support - Meet Priti

By Fiona Paton • July 28, 2026
Priti Parmar has been a familiar, reassuring presence for FirstClass customers since 2018. Here is her story. Ask any FirstClass customer who they turn to when they need help, and Priti Parmar's name is sure to come up. Warm, patient, and quietly knowledgeable, she is one of those people customers turn to time and again. And for many, she is the voice that stays with them long after the problem is solved. What fewer people know is that Priti came to FirstClass having already encountered Clear, as it was then known, through a previous role. Clear's software at that time had a different product entirely, unrelated to legacies, but the connection was there. When the opportunity to join the team arose, she already had a sense of the company she would be walking into. A Different Kind of Support Priti's background before FirstClass was in support, but of a very different kind. She spent years helping internal teams handle insurance claims, working directly with claimants and taking on training and validation responsibilities alongside. It was detail-oriented, people-focused work that demanded both patience and precision. Those instincts - listening carefully, finding the right answer, making sure nothing gets missed - turned out to translate perfectly. The sector itself was entirely new, but the skill of supporting people through processes, and doing it with care, very much was not. When the opportunity at FirstClass came along, Priti took it. "It was the chance to move into something new and learn a whole new industry. I thought: why not." A Steep and Rewarding Curve Legacy administration, as Priti discovered, is not a world that gives up its complexity easily. The people she was supporting already knew their sector inside out: wills, tax, finance, estate law. The questions they asked were specific, technical, and often urgent. She joined at a significant moment too. A major software upgrade was underway, which meant supporting customers through a transition while simultaneously getting to grips with the different versions herself. Then COVID arrived, which brought its own particular demands and, in some ways, an unexpected opportunity to focus. "Initially it was a daunting task. But after a while it starts to become second nature. Even today I am still learning, and at times I also need support from the team myself." That last part matters. Priti does not pretend to know everything. She is comfortable saying she needs to find out, and just as comfortable making sure she does. For the customers she supports, that honesty is part of what makes the relationship work. The Part She Loves Most Ask Priti what she enjoys about the job and the answer is immediate: the customers. Not the software, not the processes, not the features. The people. She knows most of them by name, and in a sector as close-knit as legacy administration, that means something. Professionals move around. Someone she supported at one charity can reappear at another a year later, and when they do, the relationship picks up exactly where it left off. "I love chatting with customers and working out how I can help them. And if I cannot help them myself, I make sure I get the right information from those who can." It is a straightforward answer, and a revealing one. Support done well is not about resolving tickets. It is about the person on the other end of the call feeling heard, helped, and confident that someone is genuinely on their side. That is what Priti brings. A Team Worth Belonging To The warmth Priti extends to customers is very much a reflection of the team she works within. "I absolutely love them to bits. We are also close-knit, and I could not ask for a better team. No one ever hesitates to help, no matter what your role is. We are there for each other." Working remotely has not changed that. The team still makes a point of meeting in person once a month, keeping the social thread intact alongside the professional one. It is the kind of culture that does not happen by accident, and it shows. Beyond the Working Day Away from FirstClass, Priti finds her balance in movement and connection. Long walks in nature, time with family, and a genuine love of travel. She has explored the US, spent holidays with relatives in India, and counts visiting the Golden Temple on the India-Pakistan border among her highlights. These days, Europe is drawing her attention, Italy in particular. It is a life lived with the same open curiosity she brings to her work: always willing to explore somewhere new, always ready to learn. What Comes Next For now, Priti is exactly where she wants to be. Support is her world, and she sees plenty of road ahead in it. A software company never stands still, which means there will always be something new to learn, a new customer to meet, and another challenge to work through. For the customers who already know her, that is reassuring news. For those who have not yet had the chance to work with her, it is something to look forward to.