Individual Giving is a person giving a charity a gift of money. The gift to charity could be one or more of the following: A cash donation* A regular Direct Debit donation A gift in their Will – also called Legacy Giving Purchase of raffle or lottery tickets A donation through payroll Sometimes, the money … Continued

The launch of ChangeStar Express At ChangeStar, we speak to lots of charities that are just starting to build individual giving programmes or whose current programmes are too small to make it viable to use an external agency or consultant. We know that our input could make a massive difference to these charities, so we’ve been … Continued

Legacy fundraising is perhaps the most important area of individual giving in terms of the value it can provide to a charity. Yet, many charities – including some of the largest – fail to give it enough investment or priority in their communication plans. This could be for many reasons – from a lack of … Continued

A couple of weeks ago, we ran a ‘legacies week’ at ChangeStar – the first in a series of specially-themed weeks throughout the year in which we aim to share our knowledge and success on issues that are of real practical interest to fundraisers – from recruitment to donor appeals to converting more cash donors to … Continued

Special blog for ChangeStar Legacies Week: 11-15 July 2016 Legacies are a potentially massive source of funding, but many charities are not doing anywhere near enough to promote them to their supporters properly.  Consequently, your charity could be missing out on millions of pounds of potential income. Our experience at ChangeStar from talking to and … Continued

We’re excited to be running a new event this year – ChangeStar Legacy Week – from 11th – 15th July 2016. During this week, we’ll be sharing our years of experience and knowledge about legacy fundraising with the charity sector. Richard Docwra and the ChangeStar agency team will be: Publishing special legacy-focussed blogs here at www.changestar.co.uk/news Sharing tips for charities … Continued

A living legacy A year ago, we published the blog post below about the potential for ‘living legacies’.  We think there are some useful ideas in there, so here it is again…. The Government has made a number of important changes to how people can access their pensions.  Under the new rules, anyone aged over … Continued

When I visit charities to discuss their fundraising programmes, I am often surprised at the lack of attention that’s paid (even at some larger organisations) to their legacy activity. Often it’s either non-existent or limited to a couple of modest mentions in the half-yearly newsletter. This may be due to organisations being too focussed on … Continued

Could charities benefit from recent changes to pensions? In April 2015 the Government made a number of important changes to how people can access their pensions.  Under the new rules, anyone aged over 55 now has total freedom over how and when they access their pension – including taking 25% as tax-free cash. There has … Continued