Emily Ding: Starting up a successful legacy programme at Canal & River Trust

Previously British Waterways, the Canal & River Trust only became a charity in 2012 and first implemented a legacy strategy during its 10^th anniversary year. Emily Ding, gifts in wills manager, shares how they started, what they’ve focused on, and the impact so far, including her key learnings.

In the UK, legacies now raise an annual £4.5bn for charities, providing an invaluable and resilient income stream for organisations of all sizes and across all causes. As a young charity that took over the responsibilities of the state-owned British Waterways however, pre-2022 the Canal & River Trust hadn’t done much in the way of legacy marketing.

Despite this, we had already received a few gifts in wills that were making a difference by funding projects. We could also see that other charities within our cause area were very successfully fundraising for legacies. So, in 2021 – as we approached our 10^th anniversary year – the Trust appointed me as a dedicated gifts in wills manager to help design and implement a legacy fundraising strategy. This appointment saw me focusing on three key areas: increasing the profile of gifts in wills, creating a culture to promote them, and celebrating their impact.

Starting from the beginning – engaging warm donors

With no database of enquirers about gifts in wills at this point, we initially concentrated on promoting legacy giving to our warm ‘Friends’ audience – supporters who give regularly each month. This enabled us to use existing insights to understand what messaging would resonate, and through which channels.

We were able to drip feed our gifts in wills messaging throughout existing communications – including monthly emails and our supporter magazine – sharing pledger stories and case studies. Starting with two pilot events in 2022, we also launched a legacy enquiry events programme, inviting members of our Friends programme to one of our sites to see the impact a gift in their will could make. From small beginnings, we have since expanded this programme, now holding around eight visits a year which have welcomed over 500 supporters so far.

Canal & River Trust event at Hatton Locks

Developing a stewardship journey

We also developed a stewardship journey to go hand in hand with our enquiry programme. This ensures that supporters who are thinking about leaving a gift (or have pledged to do so) are properly acknowledged and kept up to date with our work through bespoke communications and the opportunity to attend three events each year.

Through our events, we’ve taken supporters to the bottom of a drained canal lock, across the longest aqueduct in Britain, and to an underwater room to view the rare Twaite Shad climb our fish ladder and migrate up the River Severn! Supporters often remark that they had no idea of just how much, or the variety of, work we’re responsible for.

When we began this programme, we had 23 known pledgers and an initial goal of doubling this number. However, we quickly exceeded it and have now built up a community of over 200 pledges. Gift notifications have also started to increase, and we’ve seen extra benefits, with some legacy pledgers choosing to also give during their lifetime through major gifts.

Celebrating impact

With gifts in wills making such a difference to the Trust, we take great care to share stories of their impact – both in way of celebration and thanks, and to raise awareness of the importance of legacy giving.

Last year, we produced a gift in wills impact report for the first time, in recognition of our highest ever year of legacy income at £476,750: an incredible rise from around £33,000 back in 2020. The report shares how we’ve used this legacy income, along with stories about our legators through a series of case studies: some with a supporter focus, and others on projects that have been funded. This includes how June’s legacy had repaired vital swing bridges in Yorkshire, and how Barrie’s gift is supporting canal-side woodland to grow in Wiltshire.

Nurturing a culture of support

Creating a culture that supports and promotes legacy giving has been central to our success. When we first started promoting gifts in wills there was very little awareness internally, so we really upped our communications on the topic to help colleagues understand that promoting legacy giving is a priority for the Trust, raise awareness of the positive impact gifts in wills make, and highlight how they can get involved.

To help colleagues feel confident when talking about legacies, we’ve worked with our customer service and supporter care teams to produce briefings for fielding any initial enquiries, and have also launched legacy conversation training. These workshops normalise talking about gifts in wills, explain the language we use when talking about them and encourage people to try out conversations in an informal setting. We’ve had great feedback from colleagues and volunteers so far, and will be continuing to roll these out to a wider audience.

Colleagues and volunteers are now directly helping with our gifts in wills programme. From speaking at an event, signing off an appeal or meeting the family of a legator who has funded a project they are managing, our legacy fundraising has been a truly collaborative effort. We’ve also seen greater engagement from senior managers, and additional investment in the team and programme that has enabled us to employ a further member of staff and increase our marketing and events activity. Engaging colleagues with legacy giving has also inspired some to generously support the Trust with their own gift.

Acknowledging our work, we were also really pleased to win Best Start-up Legacy Programme at the Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Awards in 2024, and to feature in Smee & Ford and Legacy Futures’ recent Legacy Giving Report 2025!

Looking forward – building on success

Thanks to the success of our strategy to date, we’re forecast to achieve our highest ever legacy income for the second time in 2025-26. Our next move is to start marketing to colder audiences, as a lot of our gifts to date have actually come from people we don’t know. One of the things we’re exploring is more digital acquisition, including through Facebook. It’s been an incredible journey so far and we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Canal & River Trust behind the scenes event

Key learnings

1. Using already engaged audiences as a starting point

Starting our legacy fundraising journey with a focus on Trust ‘Friends’ enabled us to use existing insights to tell us what kinds of messaging would resonate and through which channels, and to drip feed our gifts in wills messaging – including pledger and impact stories – throughout existing communications.

But with building relationships absolutely key to legacy fundraising, the biggest benefit to starting with a warm audience is that they already exist. With supporters we knew had an interest and longstanding relationship with our work, it was a logical next step to talk about how they could continue their support with a gift in their will, and ensure everything they love about canals is passed on to the next generation.

2. Getting colleagues on board

The greatest asset to our legacy fundraising programme is our wonderful colleagues and volunteers, but when we first started promoting gifts in wills there was very little awareness about legacy fundraising internally. Case studies have been a key engagement tool, as has recognising when a colleague has played a part in someone deciding to leave a gift.

We’ll sometimes be notified of legacies with no immediate obvious supporter history, however when we speak to the executors, they have often known one of our colleagues, and worked with them on projects in the local area. By highlighting the role colleagues have played in our legators’ decision to support the Trust, it enables other colleagues to think about their day-to-day interactions, and the possibility of enabling future legacy gifts.

3. Tapping into the charity’s unique selling points

All charities are different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ legacy programme. Use your legacy fundraising to highlight what makes you stand out, and capitalise on what your supporters love about your work. As a young charity, we had relatively low brand recognition and comprehension about our work and role. When starting our legacy programme, we therefore focused on directly showing the impact supporters can make through an events programme, showcasing current projects taking place and connecting them with our expert colleagues.

Tangibly demonstrating the impact of support has not only led to success in our legacy programme, but has been beneficial for supporter retention and we have seen an increase in regular donations, volunteering enquiries and even major donations.

4. Just go for it!

We started our legacy programme extremely quickly, and didn’t necessarily have every journey, marketing channel or strategy mapped out. But this enabled us to test, find out quickly what worked and to start building relationships with supporters straight away.

So, our biggest tip would be to just go for it and not let hesitancy around legacy fundraising or overplanning hold you back. And most importantly, celebrate the successes in your programme, and thank your colleagues who have helped play a part in them!

Emily Ding

About Emily Ding

Emily Ding has worked in the fundraising sector for a decade with a background in higher education fundraising and heritage conservation fundraising. Emily joined the Canal & River Trust in 2021 to manage legacy fundraising, implementing a strategy focused on raising awareness of gifts in wills, increasing the number of supporters leaving a gift, ensuring their impact is properly celebrated and ultimately growing legacy income for the Trust.

Main image by Bob Jenkin on Pexels; other images shared by Canal & River Trust