Voluntary sector organisations should support those working in legacy fundraising to develop their skills and progress towards charity leadership roles, a report published by Legacy Futures has urged.

The report’s recommendations, which were determined by a focus group of the Legacy Leaders Forum, a group of senior legacy fundraisers from 19 UK charities, aim to improve recruitment and retention of legacy fundraisers.

The report, published with Remember a Charity, urges charities to create a pathway for legacy fundraisers to progress to leadership roles and to remove the barriers that create a “ceiling” in legacy careers paths. 

It says charities should work with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising and other industry bodies to develop more advanced legacy training, which could include the introduction of official qualifications designed to support legacy fundraisers in their skills and career development.

The report suggests that charities could develop an informal mentoring scheme to support senior leaders in helping junior legacy colleagues to grow in their roles.

Charities are urged to celebrate the personal qualities and strategic skills of legacy fundraisers and to build awareness of the transferable skills that make for a good legacy marketer.

The report also calls for charities to look outside the sector for people who would thrive in legacy fundraising, including by encouraging interest from those with transferable sales, marketing, data, legal, wealth management and education skills.

It adds that the voluntary sector must do further consultation to learn why more people are not considering moving into legacy fundraising, urging that charities could simplify the language used in the job descriptions to make these roles more appealing.

The report’s recommendations came after the focus group reviewed findings from an online survey of 52 senior legacy marketers working for UK charities, which found that 77 per cent of respondents said there was a shortage of quality candidates for legacy roles.

Of those surveyed, 75 per cent said there was a shortage of candidates with the right legacy skills and 52 per cent said that candidates were unwilling to work for the salary offered.

The survey also found a number of retention challenges, with 67 per cent of respondents saying they had been tempted away from roles by competition from other charities. 

More than half of the respondents said they are leaving their roles for promotions at other charities due to a lack of career progression on offer, with nearly half of respondents saying there were no additional training and development opportunities in their current role.

Of those surveyed,  61 per cent said they were leaving their role due to salary dissatisfaction.

Lucinda Frostick, director at Remember a Charity, said: “Our people; their knowledge, creativity and passion for the cause are surely our biggest assets, alongside our supporters. And as more charities move into the legacy sphere, it becomes even more important that we grow and nurture talent.”