Capacity Marketing for Charities has been running Free Wills campaigns since 2001.
The thinking behind them is simple - many people don’t have wills, even though they know they should. What’s more, charities rely on gifts in wills to continue their work. If more people have wills there should be more charitable gifts.
Our most successful programmes are Free Wills Month and the National Free Wills Network. Both use a free simple* Will as a means to overcome the inertia many people feel when it actually comes to going along and seeing a solicitor. There is no obligation for users of either programme to include a gift to charity in their Will, but the majority of people do and this accounts for around £15m of future income being raised for participating charities each year.
For firms of solicitors, both campaigns can provide a vital source of new clients. You can dictate how many Wills you write under each campaign and you receive a fee for each Will you write. Once a member of the public contacts you, they are your client as they would be through other sources of enquiry and you can advise them freely. The cost of the simple Will is covered by the charities taking part but you are able to charge clients the standard rate for any necessary additional work.
Many of the solicitors currently participating in our Free Wills campaigns have been with us for more than ten years. This is because, alongside the positive publicity they enjoy from working with some of the UK’s best loved charities, they find a number of clients return to them for extra services.
Free Wills Month is promoted to the general public and uses a very busy website as the hub for enquirers referred by publicity in local newspapers, national TV and radio, social media, outdoor and internet advertising. It is open to anyone aged 55 and over – the average user is 67 years old. The campaign is supported by charities like British Heart Foundation, Marie Curie, Oxfam, RNLI and WWF-UK. Each year most major towns and cities in the UK are included in either our March or October campaigns.
The National Free Wills Network runs year round and is promoted by member charities to their warmest supporters. The charities refer interested supporters to the Network office and they are then sent a list of local participating solicitors and a form to authorise invoicing of Will/s. The Network has referred well over 35,000 charity supporters to participating solicitors since its inception in 2008. There are currently 70 charities involved in the Network, ranging from household names like Amnesty International, Guide Dogs and NSPCC to more niche organisations like Coram, Compassion in World Farming and Freedom from Torture.
If you’d like to know more about either promotion (or both) please email enquiries@capacity-marketing.com or call 0345 686 4309.
* ‘simple’ is defined by the drafting solicitor
