The present and future of in-memory and in-celebration giving

THINK’s Head of Intelligence Arani Mylvaganam takes a closer look at research we undertook in 2022 to explore the state of the current in-memory and in-celebration fundraising markets.

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I’m extraordinarily fortunate in my role that I get to think about all aspects of fundraising, undertaking research across all income streams and a wide range of clients. In this blog post, I’d like to highlight some of the findings from one of my favourite pieces of work from 2022.

Last year, THINK’s peer-to-peer Community Fundraising Forum commissioned a piece of research looking into The Present and Future of In-Memory and In-Celebration Giving. The sense from our forum members was that there is headroom for growth in these areas, and they wanted some evidence to help shape and improve their team’s performance now, and into the future.

First, some definitions

In-memory fundraising is defined as “any type of charitable giving or fundraising commemorating the life of someone special.”[1] This can encompass activities such as:

• Gifts at funerals
• Direct in-memory donations (one-off or regular)
• Setting up of tribute funds
• The purchase of commemorative objects (benches, trees, etc)
• Participation in fundraising events
• Legacies made in honour of a loved one

In-celebration giving is considered to be any income generated by celebrating a special occasion – such as weddings, civil partnerships, birthdays, Christmas or Eid ul-Fitr – or celebrating the life of a loved one.

Research highlights

According to Legacy Foresight, who drive much of the research in this area within the UK, 31% of adults gave in memory in 2020/21. The market for in-memory giving is around £2.2bn in the UK, but publicly available data for the in-celebration market is scarce. For our survey sample, the average income from in-memory giving is £1.45m, compared with £0.41m for in-celebration giving. Based on a small sample of charities surveyed, these combined sources of income are contributing around 5% of total donated income to charities.[2]

There is some evidence of a positive relationship between the contribution of in-memory/in-celebration income and causal area. As the proportion of income from these sources gets higher, we see more health and/or hospice charities in the list. This will not come as a surprise, as many donations of this nature are made to causes seeking to find cures or hospices who cared for the donors’ loved ones.

In-memory and in-celebration giving tends to be ‘owned’ either by community or legacy fundraising teams in most instances. Community teams are doing the majority of stewardship activities, followed by legacy teams.

Charities are generally strong at sending bespoke thank you emails/letters, and many charities have displayed other interesting stewardship features including anniversary communications, condolence cards, follow-up calls, and ring-fencing in-mem donors from certain types of communications.

Further asks tend to be made 6-12 months after the initial donation, and this is done in a variety of ways including providing information around setting up a cash appeal, regular gift, tribute funds or specific campaigns.

Based on our survey findings, an average 63% of in-memory/in-celebration income is received online, with the remaining 37% coming via other routes.

Events appear to generate less overall in-memory/in-celebration income compared to other activities, while direct donations were cited by 14 charities as being the channel that generated the most income.

Facebook is a popular source of both in-memory and in-celebration fundraising. GivePanel[3] found that in 2021, in-memory Facebook fundraisers raised more than non-in-memory fundraisers. For organic fundraisers, the average amount raised for in-memory fundraiser was £1,115.26, compared with just £185.60 for non-in-memory fundraisers – that is 501% more. When it comes to challenge fundraisers, in-mem fundraisers raised £803.58 on average, 107% more than non-in-memory challenge fundraisers (£388.23).

More than half of charities surveyed have not yet actively engaged in undertaking supporter insight for this audience, though many plan to do so.

There are positive levels of cross-fundraising team engagement when it comes to actively promoting in-memory/in-celebration giving amongst the survey respondents, though again community fundraising teams are taking the lead here.

Websites, online advertising, social media channels and supporter emails are the most commonly used promotion vehicles for both targeted and general promotion.

There are a number of highly admired in-memory products on the market, which all answer a core need of in-memory donors that the charity should never forget the ‘why’ behind their gift. In the in-memory space RNLI’s Launch a Memory campaign, British Heart Foundation’s Heart of Steel, Mind’s Memory Space and Macmillan’s tribute fund ‘Continue Their Story’ were cited as standout products. In contrast, very few charities are offering dedicated in-celebration products.

There is optimism about the future potential of in-memory and in-celebration giving, with 80% of respondents expecting to see an increase in income from these areas in the next 12 months. Some of this is down to external factors (eg uptick in community activities post-pandemic), but much is down to increased levels of investment, promotion and product development planned for the next few years.

The digitisation of in-memory giving will also play a contributory role. While our findings have been skewed towards health and hospice causes, there is evidence to suggests that ‘loved in life’ causes such as animals, domestic relief and the armed services may be receiving growing levels of in-memory gifts.

So what does this all tell us?

While there is limited existing research on in-memory and in-celebration giving, it is clear that this area has potential for growth and UK charities are – and should be – putting more investment and resources behind these areas, supporting their community and legacy teams to focus in on the relevant audiences.

Our research indicated that tribute funds are an area to watch, and potentially develop for charities of all sizes. Legacy Foresight’s research indicates that ‘tribute funds are very powerful fundraising tools… Once set up they become repositories for a myriad of in-memory donations from a wide range of different sources, encouraging and incentivising targets with their visibility’. A number of charities indicated that these generated the least in-memory and in-celebration income for them, compared to direct donations. However, many charities are planning to develop or invest in tribute funds in order to drive income in the coming years.

Finally, our research around the link between in-memory giving and legacy giving somewhat reinforces an existing study that found that in-memory giving can lead to more, and larger legacies. Data in this area is quite limited, and more research may be needed, but the indications for supporting and investing in this area are positive.

Arani Mylvaganam, Head of THINK Intelligence
January 2023

A note on methodology

The research comprised of desk research and a survey completed by 26 UK charities in May to July 2022. If you have any questions about the research, please contact Arani Mylvaganam, Head of THHINK Intelligence (aranim@thinkcs.org).

[1] Legacy Foresight, In Memory Insight:  Key Lessons from 10 years of collaboration (25 May 2021)

[2] Our sample was skewed towards health and hospice charities, so results must be treated cautiously; however these causal area charities do tend to have higher contributions to overall income from in-memory/in-celebration giving than other causal areas, including animal welfare.

[3] GivePanel, 2021 Facebook Fundraising Benchmark Report – UK and Ireland

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