Marketing charitable bequests to lawyers

Abstract

• There is scant literature about the role of the lawyer in influencing the likelihood of a charitable bequest being made in a will. Charities regularly advertise in legal journals and supply bequest materials to lawyers, but the effectiveness of these strategies for influencing lawyers appears not to have been measured in the literature or in practice. Our exploratory research indicates that specialist estate lawyers report that they pay little or no attention to traditional marketing of charitable bequests to them and that lawyers' specific information needs from charities about bequests are not being satisfied appropriately. Our study reveals that lawyers do seek information from charities in order to write a will's bequest clause, once a bequest has been considered by the client. Lawyers indicated frustration with obtaining this information from charities, and we recommend some actions for charities to rectify this situation. Recommendations for enhanced bequest solicitation are made together with suggestions for pathways for future bequest research involving lawyers.

The state‐of‐the‐art and future research directions in bequest fundraising by nonprofit organizations: A systematic literature review

“…Concerning bequest promotion, a study by McGregor‐Lowndes and Hannah (2012) shed some lights on the channels used by charities to promote bequest giving. As previously stated in the donor side of the literature, intermediaries such as lawyers and notaries are important actors in the bequest fundraising process, because potential donors seek specialized consultation when the time comes for making a bequest.…”