Bears love cookies so we use cookies to enhance your site experience. By continuing to use this site, you consent to the use of all cookies and these settings can be changed at any time. See our Privacy Policy for more details.

Leeds is…

Gifts in Wills help the University of Leeds to keep innovation and inspiration at the core of the University experience – attracting and retaining the best students for generations to come.

We were asked to inspire more alumni, supporters and staff to pledge a legacy to the University and to increase awareness of the importance of legacy giving to core audiences.

The Story: Gifts in Wills help the University of Leeds to keep innovation and inspiration at the core of the University experience – attracting and retaining the best students for generations to come.

The Brief: We were asked to inspire more alumni, supporters and staff to pledge a legacy to the University; to encourage those who have already done so to notify them of their gift; and to promote and increase awareness of the importance of legacy giving to core audiences.

Our Response: We created a new legacy proposition – Leeds is… – an idea rooted in recognising the special elements that make Leeds, Leeds.

Why it Works: Our pack format needed to be both striking and memorable because the mailing was part of an integrated campaign where mailing recipients would also receive a follow-up phone call, so recollection of the pack was important.

A large A4 format allowed us to use composite images of iconic University buildings from past years superimposed with a current day view of the same building that had been hugely popular on Leeds’ Instagram feed.

Finally, we included an invitation to an event for the Brotherton Circle – the group that pledgers belong to – in the pack and that invitation helped to dramatically improve the response times from previous packs because people wanted to attend this prestigious event.

Results: We were delighted that we beat our target across the number of enquirers, considerers and pledgers for this campaign and that over £90,000 in cash donations were also received in response – despite not including a specific ask for donations or a donation form!

Target-smashing legacy appeal