The Story: The University of Dundee has a clear mission – to transform lives, locally and globally, by the creation, sharing and application of knowledge. Throughout it’s history, the University has been the grateful recipient of legacy gifts, however those gifts have most often not been anticipated which has limited the institutions ability to plan for the future funding of their important research and scholarship programmes.
The Story: The University of Dundee has a clear mission – to transform lives, locally and globally, by the creation, sharing and application of knowledge. Throughout it’s history, the University has been the grateful recipient of legacy gifts, however those gifts have most often not been anticipated which has limited the institutions ability to plan for the future funding of their important research and scholarship programmes.
The Brief: To reach out to their staff and student alumni on mass with a legacy message that would engage and inspire them with the opportunity to give back to the Dundee community with a gift in their will.
Our Response: We worked incredibly closely with the team at the University of Dundee to create their legacy proposition together. Combining our sector experience with their unique and invaluable understanding of Dundee – the University, the city and the people who are part of it.
Why it Works: The absence of existing tangible audience insight led us to an immersion approach where conversations with key stakeholders were crucial.
We needed to understand what might specifically motivate the Dundee community and we knew that the team held those vital nuggets of insight based on their relationships and interactions with alumni. Initial stakeholder conversations informed some early hypotheses which we were able to stress-test and build upon as a wider group during a series of working sessions.
We also heard from the alumni themselves. A series of one-on-one qualitative interviews with individuals both warm to legacies, and those for whom the idea was new, provided invaluable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of our propositions.
We identified a clear favourite and the insight enabled us to refine the proposition and messaging ahead of briefing our creative team to bring to life concepts for tangible creative assets (enquirer pack & fulfilment pack).
Results: Within the first couple of months of activity (Summer 2022), there have been 6 legacy pledge confirmations, 2 legacy enquiries, 2 direct debit donations and 1 single gift. So a great result so far!
Collaborative legacy proposition development