My route into fundraising was a typical story of falling in by accident; I had done some volunteering for Maggie’s Centres after a patch of misfortune and when they created their new Supporter Care team, they invited me to apply! I was delighted to work for them for around 3 years before getting a taste for fundraising and moving on to a promoted role at Mary’s Meals. I spent around 5 years there before moving onto another promoted post at the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, where I came in at the end of their £21m capital appeal to build a new facility, I really enjoyed my time there and hope I made a decent contribution to this amazing hospice. I really have been around the houses though, covering Community, Individual Giving, Corporate, Major Giving, Events, Trusts and now Legacies!
After a few years at the Hospice an incredible opportunity came up at Erskine, a mile and a half from my home, and I just couldn’t pass it up. I knew that Ann McCallum was retiring, everyone in Legacy circles in Scotland knew Ann, she is legendary, so I knew that whoever they recruited would have large shoes to fill – but I was determined, and I knew this would make the biggest difference to my home life since having my daughter. As a single mum life can be hard when you work full time, especially when it’s an hour commute away. I went to the interview as prepared as I could be and was over the moon to be successful – I cried on the phone when they offered me the position!
Legacies at Erskine amount for around half of our voluntary income, so incredibly important to us, by income we’re the 4th charity in Scotland (behind The National Trust for Scotland, SSPCA and a £12m bequest to Beatson Cancer Institute). Our most recent campaign, One Day, was shortlisted at the Scottish Fundraising Awards in Best Legacy Campaign, which was an amazing achievement for me and the rest of my team. We’re delighted! I am so lucky that I have the buy in of our Senior Management Team and Board of Trustees, so I have their support for my crazy ideas for legacies, but they have also invested heavily in me by allowing me to go training to further my career. I feel very fortunate that we have a great 2-way relationship. My role is dual, and I do the administration of legacies we receive as well as the development side of things, having the responsibility of our future legators too.
I really love legacies and think this is where I’ll stay for the foreseeable future. I love that the sector is really coming to the fore with charities finally recognising how valuable they are and with very small investment you can reap massive rewards. In Scotland, we have some of the best experts who are always happy to help, and I sit on the committee for the Scottish Legacy Group; I’m also always happy to speak to anyone who wants to run a problem case by me or ask advice on a campaign. I think one of the advantages of being a lone worker is that we’re always happy to chat about legacies to other fundraisers the Institute of Legacy Management! I’m also incredibly interested in people (or nosy if you prefer) and I think it’s amazing how much you can tell about a person from their Will and bequests.
While I’ve been at Erskine, I haven’t had the best run of health and was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer back in 2021 and had almost a year of gruelling treatment. Ann came back from her retirement to help out while I was too sick to work, and to help me while I recovered. During this time I was supported by an amazing little cancer support group in Elderslie called Rays of Hope. They were a subsidiary group of the local church who just applied for and got their own charitable status. They are now fundraising for an extension on their existing building which I’m helping them with in my spare time. Thankfully I’m now doing well, my recovery hasn’t been the easy ride I thought it would be but I’m getting there, my hair is (slowly) growing back and life is just about back to where it was before.. I had the double whammy of Covid then cancer, so remembering what life used to be like is much trickier than it sounds!
Being faced with an illness which could take your life makes you stop and think sharply. I decided that if anything was to happen to me I want to be remembered for the good things I’ve done and so I dropped a few hobbies which no longer bring me joy and I began volunteering for causes I want to help.
In true Legacy Manager fashion, there’s a few things I want to remind you of while I have your attention:
- Life is short and can be snatched from you in the blink of an eye
- Do the things that bring you joy
- Tell people what they mean to you
- Write a Will, or if you have one already, make sure it’s up to date
- Remember your favourite charity in your Will and let them know you’ve left them a gift. Most offer a special and tailored supporter journey for Legacy Pledgers!