Your First-Year Bequest Plan

The 12-Month Minimum Viable Bequest Program

1. 1 Month 1: Confirm the Australian facts before writing anything What to do: Create and approve the internal bequest facts sheet from Lesson 8. Confirm the charity’s full legal name, ABN, DGR status, ACNC registration details if used, and the staff boundary for legal, tax and estate questions.
   
   What good looks like: A supporter-care officer, fundraiser and CEO all answer the same basic question the same way: “We can provide our correct legal name, ABN and general information about gifts in wills, but your solicitor or adviser must advise on your will.”
   
   What to avoid: Do not publish a gifts-in-wills webpage until the legal name, ABN and DGR status are verified. Do not copy UK or US legacy language. Australia has no inheritance tax, estate tax or death duties, and bequests generally do not create an income-tax deduction.
2. 2 Month 2: Set the internal rules What to do: Agree on the pause rule, advice boundary, CRM stages and escalation process. Use the categories from Lesson 9: activity, enquiry or interest, disclosed intention and realised income.
   
   What good looks like: Staff know what to do when a donor asks for the ABN, says family comes first, discloses a gift, asks for wording, appears confused, or raises a possible family dispute.
   
   What to avoid: Do not rely on individual instinct. Bequest conversations are too private and too legally sensitive for every staff member to invent their own response.
3. 3 Month 3: Build the minimum public materials What to do: Create three simple materials: a website section or page; a short paragraph for an annual report, newsletter or supporter update; a one-page information sheet for donors who ask.
   
   What good looks like: The materials explain why gifts in wills matter, name the future work such gifts can support, provide the correct legal name and ABN, state DGR status accurately, recommend qualified legal advice, and avoid pressure.
   
   What to avoid: Do not lead with death, urgency or tax. Do not promise “forever.” Do not imply that a gift in a will is tax-deductible in the same way as a lifetime DGR gift. Do not provide will wording as legal advice.
4. 4 Month 4: Train the people who already speak with supporters What to do: Hold one 60-minute staff session for fundraising, supporter care, reception, the CEO and any program staff likely to receive donor comments. Cover four things: what gifts in wills are and why they matter; what staff may say and must not advise on; when to pause or stop; how to record the contact.
   
   What good looks like: Staff leave with approved lines, not just principles. They can handle a direct question, a family-first concern, a request for legal details, an unsafe moment and a disclosed intention.
   
   What to avoid: Do not train only the fundraiser. Bequest signals often arrive through supporter care, reception, events, volunteering and CEO contact.
5. 5 Month 5: Choose the first warm-base group What to do: Build a first list of 25 to 50 supporters for bequest-aware stewardship using the Warm-Base Readiness Scan from Lesson 3. Use evidence from the relationship: long loyalty, personal connection, future-facing language, deep engagement, persistence through change or self-identified life-stage cues. Include modest donors. Estate gifts are often 10× to 100× a donor’s typical annual gift, so current annual amount is not the same as bequest potential.
   
   What good looks like: Every supporter on the list has a written reason tied to behaviour or language, not assumed wealth, age, gender, childlessness, suburb or property ownership.
   
   What to avoid: Do not run a crude “everyone over 70” campaign. The Facts Pack warns that cold demographic blanket-mailing ignores that about 61% of realised bequestors in Include a Charity’s 2023 participating-charity analysis were already known to the charity.
6. 6 Month 6: Make the first donor-facing mention What to do: Add one calm, accurate bequest mention to an existing supporter communication. Do not create a dramatic standalone campaign.
   
   What good looks like: The mention connects the donor’s existing care to future work and gives a clear pathway for people who want details. It does not ask for a decision. Example: “Some supporters choose to include [Charity Legal Name] in their will because they want this work to remain available for future clients. A will is a personal legal document, and we always encourage supporters to speak with a qualified solicitor. The details most often needed are our full legal name, [name], and ABN, [ABN].”
   
   What to avoid: Do not write, “Your final gift can change lives forever,” “Don’t wait until it’s too late,” or “Remember us when you are gone.”
7. 7 Month 7: Add solicitor and will-writing touchpoints proportionately What to do: Map the places where a supporter might be making or updating a will, without building a full intermediary strategy. Include three checks: is the charity listed accurately in any existing free-will, discounted-will or Include a Charity-style campaign it participates in; are the charity’s legal name, ABN and DGR status correct in any material a solicitor, adviser or will-writing service might use; is there one local or sector-relevant solicitor/will-writing contact worth informing that the charity can provide accurate details if clients ask.
   
   What good looks like: The charity has a small “will-writing touchpoint” note in the plan: “By Month 7, confirm whether we will participate in a credible free-will or sector campaign this year; update our legal details for any partner listing; prepare a one-page solicitor information sheet with our full legal name, ABN, DGR status, purpose statement and staff contact. No legal wording advice.”
   
   What to avoid: Do not expect solicitors to become fundraisers for the charity. Do not ask them to pressure clients. Do not create a complex professional-adviser program in year one. This touchpoint matters because the Facts Pack identifies the solicitor and will-writer channel as a major lever. Include a Charity attributes part of Australia’s intention–action gap to the fact that solicitors and will-writers rarely raise the charitable option, and applies UK evidence showing that a low-pressure solicitor question can materially increase charitable gifts in wills. That evidence is UK evidence and should be treated as such, but the planning implication for Australian charities is clear: make accurate information available where will-making happens.
8. 8 Month 8: Follow up only where the donor created the opening What to do: Review replies, enquiries, calls, clicks, notes and conversations from the first donor-facing mention. Follow up only where the donor has shown interest or asked for something.
   
   What good looks like: A donor who asked for the ABN receives the ABN. A donor who asked about impact receives future-work information. A donor who raised family concerns receives respectful acknowledgement. A donor who did not respond is not treated as a prospect.
   
   What to avoid: Do not convert non-response into a chase list. Activity is not interest.
9. 9 Month 9: Steward disclosed interest lightly What to do: Create stewardship notes for anyone recorded as enquiry, interest or disclosed intention. Confirm preferences where appropriate. Keep contact proportionate.
   
   What good looks like: The charity knows who wants one email, who wants ordinary updates, who wants no follow-up, and who has disclosed intention privately.
   
   What to avoid: Do not start asking whether the will has been signed, whether the donor has told family, or what amount has been left.
10. 10 Month 10: Review risk and repair weaknesses What to do: Audit the first nine months for unsafe practice. Look for: staff giving wording, tax or family advice; vague CRM labels such as “hot legacy prospect”; bequest mentions that lead with death or tax; follow-up where the donor did not create an opening; board reports that combine activity, interest and income; contact with donors who should have been paused because of grief, confusion, complaint or pressure.
    
    What good looks like: The review produces a fix list, not a defensive conversation.
    
    What to avoid: Do not judge success only by the number of enquiries. One prevented overreach is also a program success.
11. 11 Month 11: Give leadership a clean progress report What to do: Report progress through activity, relationship and system measures. Use this structure: materials completed; staff trained; warm-base stewardship contacts completed; enquiries received; disclosed intentions recorded with permission; solicitor or will-writing touchpoints checked; stewardship actions completed; risks identified and fixed; realised estate income, if any.
    
    What good looks like: A CEO can say to the board: “We are not forecasting bequest income from year one. We are measuring whether we have built the program conditions responsibly. This year we verified legal details, trained staff, created public materials, contacted a first warm-base group, recorded enquiries properly, checked will-writing touchpoints, and kept disclosed intentions separate from income.”
    
    What to avoid: Do not use a single “bequest pipeline” number. It will almost always blur stages and inflate confidence.
12. 12 Month 12: Decide what to repeat, deepen or stop What to do: Hold a one-hour review and make three decisions: what should repeat next year; what should deepen next year; what should stop because it created risk, confusion or little value.
    
    What good looks like: The charity chooses a second-year focus based on evidence: better stewardship, clearer materials, staff refreshers, a stronger will-writing touchpoint, more warm-base conversations, or improved board reporting.
    
    What to avoid: Do not expand volume until the basics are reliable. A weak program at larger scale becomes a larger weak program.

One-page first-year plan structure

1. 1 First-year objective and owner Objective: “By [date], we will build a safe, accurate and active first-year gifts-in-wills program that makes the option visible to appropriate supporters, records responses correctly, and reports progress without treating intentions as income.” Owner: name one accountable person [Name / role].
2. 2 Approved facts and boundaries Confirm: full legal name verified [yes/no]; ABN verified [yes/no]; DGR status verified [yes/no]; staff advice boundary approved [yes/no]; pause rule approved [yes/no].
3. 3 Minimum materials Set dates for: website paragraph/page; donor information sheet; annual report/newsletter mention; internal language bank.
4. 4 Staff readiness Set dates for: supporter-care trained; fundraising trained; CEO/leadership briefed; reception, volunteers or program staff briefed where relevant.
5. 5 Warm-base activity Define: first readiness list size [25–50 supporters]; inclusion rule [relationship evidence only]; first stewardship action [date/channel]; exclusion rule [complaint, vulnerability, acute grief, confusion, no fundraising contact, poor timing].
6. 6 Solicitor and will-writing touchpoints Confirm: free-will or sector campaign reviewed [yes/no/date]; Include a Charity-style partnership considered [yes/no/date]; legal details checked on any partner listing [yes/no/date]; solicitor information sheet prepared [yes/no/date]; named staff contact for professional enquiries [name/role]. Boundary: “We provide charity information only; we do not provide legal wording or estate advice.”
7. 7 CRM and reporting Confirm: GIW stage field created [yes/no/date]; notes standard approved [yes/no/date]; permission-to-record process approved [yes/no/date]; monthly or quarterly report format approved [yes/no/date].