Fundraisers should not focus on their charity's needs, but rather on a donor's own autobiography when chasing legacy bequests, according to research presented in London yesterday.

Dr Russell James, from Texas Tech University, presented the results of a unique experiment using brain imaging MRI scans to monitor people's responses to the suggestion that they leave a legacy to various specified charities.

Speaking to the Institute of Fundraising's special interest group on legacy marketing, Dr James said his research, which is still under peer review for a scientific journal in the US, showed that the two areas of the brain activated by talk of legacy giving deal with visualisation and imagining oneself in the third person.

The talk of leaving a legacy lit up parts of the brain which enable 'visualised autobiography'.

These are areas that are lit up when people see pictures of themselves from the past and remember where they were and what they were doing at the time.

"Charities need to focus on the links between the person's autobiography and the charity, not the charity's needs," said Dr James.

"[Leaving a legacy] is a decision about whether this cause fits in my autobiography."

The American academic encouraged fundraisers to use materials which would fit within prospective donors' life narratives in order to boost the chances of scoring a bequest.