The Name Behind the Support - Meet Priti

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.

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.