Top tips for delivering impactful legacy stewardship and building one-on-one relationships

Keele and Exeter show how collaborative, agile teams can elevate alumni engagement and individual giving. From milestone celebrations to cross-team campaigns, they share practical examples of breaking silos, unifying storytelling and maximising resources to drive stronger results and wider reach across diverse audiences.

No longer "stuck" in the middle, Mid Value is a high impact area. Join Aileen from Imperial College London and Emily from the University of Manchester for case studies and practical advice on making the most of your existing regular giving programme, and transforming Mid into Major value

This session explores how universities are currently managing the complexities of legacy administration and the constraints they face in doing so. As legacy giving becomes an increasingly important source of long-term income, institutions must balance legal, operational, and stewardship responsibilities while often working with limited internal resources and legacy systems. Using real-life case studies, the session will examine how Imperial College approaches legacy administration in practice. In particular, it will demonstrate how Imperial works with specialist partners such as Legacy Link to support a smooth, end-to-end process — from estate realisation through to final distribution to the legator’s chosen purpose.

Neurodivergent individuals sometimes have superpowers that can be highly prized in the world of university fundraising - and there are particular features of the university fundraising world that make it an attractive career option for some neurodivergent people. However, with those superpowers often comes a Kryptonite - pitfalls and difficulties that can cause problems. When you and your team understand these issues, the superpowers can be harnessed for everyone's benefit while supporting and avoiding the pitfalls - so this session is an opportunity to talk about the benefits that neurodiversity can bring to your team - both among your student callers and among Development Office staff, and will include opportunities to share your experiences and ideas.

Storytelling is at the heart of successful fundraising, yet many programmes struggle to get it right. In this interactive session, we’ll explore three storytelling challenges that regular and legacy giving programmes face and that we see time and again: • Lack of an overarching case for support and disconnected appeals • Failure to communicate impact effectively and source compelling beneficiary stories. • Poor understanding of audience motivations and how to weave these into your communications. We’ll share examples of institutions that have addressed these challenges, then invite you to discuss practical solutions with peers. You’ll leave with actionable ideas to strengthen your storytelling and deepen donor relationships.