With estimates suggesting that in-memory donations will be worth up to £10 billion in less than a decade, this area of fundraising is becoming more and more important for charities to survive.
But why MuchLoved? What difference does our platform make to your charity’s in-memory income? We spoke to two of our charity partners to ask them just that.
Guts UK, the charity for the digestive system first started working with us in June 2020. We spoke to their Communications and Fundraising Officer, Jenny Holdsworth, to find out how working with us has made a difference to their charity.
Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity. We talked to Ruth Armstrong who has been the In Memoriam assistant since 2020 to find out about the impact our service has had on their in-memory giving.
Jenny - Guts UK: Before partnering with MuchLoved, we never had a set platform, we were purely reactive, and accepted direct donations. We’d had a couple of funds set up on MuchLoved, but our in-memory page on our website wasn’t particularly helpful for people.
We did have a supporter journey that we knew worked, as we had a very high amount of web traffic too, but we weren’t capturing people at the time they visited our website.
Ruth - Alzheimer's Society: We had a detailed stewardship journey already in place, which included in-memory donors receiving an instant acknowledgement, handwritten thank you card, welcome emails to donations from funeral directors and stewardship across the fundraising team where appropriate.
Jenny: Since we invested in a package with MuchLoved, we’ve seen a 4070% increase in income - via MuchLoved. It has been fantastic having a direct link embedded within our website.
We feel much more proactive now when it comes to the families we support. We love being able to offer our families a platform that remembers their loved ones in such a beautiful way. It’s so invaluable for families to have a permanent, virtual place to visit to remember their loved ones, read stories, and share photos.
Ruth: It has increased massively, it is so heart-warming to hear from supporters how they appreciate this platform and have shared their loved one’s page with family and friends.
To put it in numbers; in January 2020 we had 157 new tribute pages created. This increased to 387 new pages in January 2021, and our income increased from £36,000 per month to over £140,000 per month.
Between January to March this year we've had 274 new tribute pages created for us - this is 154 more than this time last year - or almost 130% increase.
Jenny: 100%. I regularly do, on Fundraising groups on Facebook.
Ruth: Yes, without a doubt. The MuchLoved platform and in-memory giving have been imperative to our income this past year for the Alzheimer’s Society - more than ever before. We are so grateful we have this partnership with MuchLoved and already had the stewardship process in place before the pandemic hit. Without having this platform our loyal supporters would not have had the information, welcome and gratitude they required when leaving a donation in memory of a loved one.
The MuchLoved platform ensures a longer fundraising relationship with our loyal supporters and has increased our in-memory giving income. It’s a way to remember loved ones in a sensitive way but also encourages that all-important, further support.
Jenny: For us, around 80% of our in-memoriam fundraisers via MuchLoved have only just lost their loved ones. They’re very early on in their grieving process.
Contacting them as soon as you can after they’ve set up their page or contacted you has been important for us.
The same time they’re setting up the page is the time they’re in the headspace of ‘taking action’ - doing something to ensure other families don’t suffer like they did. This is when they’re more likely to engage back with you. We regularly say we help our families find purpose through the pain.
Ruth: Be well informed and welcoming. Do not be afraid to email the name of the lost loved one, share the tribute page link (MuchLoved send an automatic welcome also) and attach a welcome document showing what they can do with the tribute page.
Even though there is not always a response initially from supporters (as they are going through a difficult time) they always know where to turn for their future fundraising in memory of the loved one the page was created for.
If you would like to know more about working with MuchLoved, and how we can support your charity's in-memory giving, contact us on 01494 722818 or email support@muchloved.com
