Gifts in wills consultancy Legacy Futures and legacy insight and notifications specialists Smee & Ford announce that they have agreed a partnership.
The newly formed group will offer charities the most comprehensive services to support the entire legacy journey; from notification data that alerts them to a gift in a will and expert legacy administration support, to market insights, research and forecasts, strategic fundraising programmes and consultancy services that “will help them grow future legacy income”.
Smee & Ford’s core services are identifying, reporting and notifying organisations of charitable bequests, as well as providing valuable insights and data to help charities understand their legator profiles in the context of others in the sector, plan their legacy marketing activity and forecast for the future.
They say that their “unique database is the only comprehensive source of UK legacy giving information and helps charities form their legacy fundraising strategies”.
Ashley Rowthorn says: “Legacy giving presents one of the biggest growth opportunities for charities in a time of significant challenge. Aligning the market leading knowledge and experience from across both organisations allows us to provide more joined up solutions for the benefit of the sector. By working together, we believe this new partnership will be a force for good, enabling charities to realise their growth potential and achieve their missions.”
Legacy Futures provides research insight and analysis of legacy fundraising data and supporter behaviour to help inform the sector and allow them to benchmark their own activity and results against peers. They also specialise in strategic legacy fundraising consultancy and estate services, such as legacy administration and management.
To make this partnership possible, MiExact, owner of Smee & Ford, has made an investment in Legacy Futures. Both companies will continue to operate their respective brands under their current leadership with Ashley Rowthorn remaining as CEO of Legacy Futures, and Polly Avgherinos as CEO of MiExact. A collaborative board will bring together expertise and services into an integrated and market-leading offer for charities.
Polly Avgherinos says: “We are eager to explore the opportunities our new partnership will bring to help charities grow their legacy income. By combining our expertise, we will create greater insight and clarity, innovations and new collaborative products and services. For our clients, knowing they can access the full complement of legacy services from one organisation makes the process simpler, and much more streamlined and efficient.”
The partnership has been welcomed by the sector’s legacy campaign Remember A Charity with Director, Lucinda Frostick, adding: “It’s fantastic news that Legacy Futures and Smee & Ford are joining forces. There is so much synergy across the two organisations and closer collaboration offers great potential to accelerate the sector’s knowledge and deepen our understanding of the UK legacy market, strengthening future forecasting abilities. At Remember A Charity, we look forward to continuing working with both organisations in their new collaborative form for many years to come.”
Matthew Lagden, CEO of the Institute of Legacy Management, adds: “We would like to congratulate both the Legacy Futures and Smee & Ford teams on the launch of this new partnership, which brings together two giants of the legacy sector.
“We have no doubt this will create a raft of exciting opportunities for both charities and wider legacy professionals and, with the interests of our members and corporate partners at the heart of what we do, we look forward to hearing how the new offering will help support the amazing work our members do every day.”
