How long does a student’s journey last: until then end of their degree…or perhaps when they stop engaging with alumni communications?

Part of my role looks past both of these milestones, to the very end of our students’ journeys – the very, very end. Legacy giving (leaving a gift in your will to charity) is a growing but important area of income for the University. Most of us are able to give much more after we pass away than we can in our lifetimes. As a result, we have had several multimillion-pound legacy gifts pledged to Sussex and many more six-figure donations to date.

It is a huge privilege to be thought of in this way. Yet if there was ever a project in need of bold, creative solutions, it was to design an upbeat strategy for engaging our alumni about the sensitive subject of passing away.

How do you raise this issue without offending potential supporters? Below are three steps we are taking to grow this programme, some of which may be helpful to bear in mind when thinking about other areas of our marcoms:

1) Create a club

The idea of an elitist club is an un-Sussex as you could in imagine. That’s why, after a lot of research, we established the Helena Normanton Society – named after the University’s first legacy donor, Helena Normanton QC (1880-1957).

Helena was one of the most radical, disruptive barristers of the 20^th century. An unwavering champion of women’s rights and suffrage, she was the first woman to practice at the bar in England; the first married woman to be issued a passport in her maiden name; the first woman to lead on a murder trial; the list goes on. She achieved all this despite being orphaned at a young age thanks, in part, to a scholarship that she won to Varndean College. In appreciation of this support and the power of education, Helena left the capital of her estate to help establish the University of Sussex when she passed away in 1957 – thereby also achieving another first: becoming the first person to donate to Sussex.

Everyone who pledges a legacy to Sussex automatically joins the Helena Normanton Society. This merges legacy giving with a radical, disruptive history that is at the heart of the University. Not only does it make speaking about legacies more exciting, we now have an evangelical group of ambassadors to help with promoting it!

2) Spread the word

We use digital and traditional media channels to reinforce the Helena Normanton Society ethos, demonstrating the impact of legacy giving to our alumni and wider community. Email, telephone, digital newsletters, face-to-face meetings, and our alumni magazine, Falmer, all play a role in increasing the visibility of legacy giving.

A multichannel approach ensures we are gently normalising the idea of legacy giving with our alumni, embedding and integrating it in all of our communications.

3) Celebrate what our supporters are achieving, not how they’re achieving it

This is all about focusing on impact, not processes or numbers. The recent Helena Normanton Society Afternoon Tea, which took place earlier this month, was an opportunity to thank legacy pledgers and inspire others to give in this way. Here’s how we made it a success:

Instil pride in our supporters:

We heard about some of the ground-breaking research at Sussex, from practical applications of quantum physics, to a simply amazing talk from two LASI scholars about their PhD research into honeybee health and wider outreach work. Light-hearted, funny, but resolute about the impact of their work and the unique position of Sussex in supporting it.

Make the event authentically Sussex:

We arranged for a philanthropically funded scholar to sit at each table. This meant that our alumni were not only hearing from two scholars giving a speech, they were able to speak with many more talented, inspiring young people throughout the tea and discuss first-hand what a difference their support will make.

Put the community first:

Our largest ever legacy donor volunteered his spectacular club, The Athenaeum, as a venue. This gave Helena Normanton Society members exclusive access to a club on Pall Mall, solidifying the sense of community and reciprocity. Our host’s speech also gave a voice to our alumni community and touched on his own life-changing experiences at Sussex.

Thank you to everyone who has helped the legacy programme to flourish over the last few years. Keeping our alumni engaged throughout their lives until the very end of their journey is a big undertaking, but we now have a really firm foundation to build from.

As a parting gift, here’s a masterclass in legacy communications from Guinness. It’s bold, creative, funny, and chokes me up every time:

If you have any ideas about creating content like this for our legacy communications then please do get in touch. I’d love to hear from our creative External Relations community about how else we might grow this increasingly important programme!