Prior to Covid, the Courtyard Centre for the Arts in Herefordshire was welcoming over 300,000 visitors each year, but when we closed our doors on 20 March 2020, we didn’t know what the future would hold. Most staff were furloughed and we had to pause our £1.2m capital redevelopment project called 'Transform the Yard'.
Funded through Arts Council England, trusts and foundations and individual giving, including a generous legacy from a long-term patron, Transform the Yard did eventually go ahead. However, the Courtyard didn’t reopen to the public until May 2021, and audiences took until late autumn last year to return with any degree of confidence.
At this point our once three-strong fundraising department team was reduced to just myself. Our strategy had to adapt and the organisation’s leadership agreed that I would focus on applications to key grant makers and develop a new legacy strategy.
However, getting the message across that an arts organisation needs support through legacy giving is quite challenging. It could be argued that arts and culture are not necessities but there is a priceless feeling of wellbeing engendered by being together, clapping, laughing, joining in a song or dance, sharing experiences – and that’s exactly what we offer through our performances and events programme.
What’s the message?
When people began to return to the Courtyard, many expressed the view that they had missed attending performances and community engagement events and were delighted to be back. These comments and conversations, in the Courtyard Café Bar, at patrons’ events, with our volunteer stewards, and even in the streets of Hereford, have been really helpful in developing my thinking around legacies.
My focus is on memory making, encouraging people to think about their favourite show or film, perhaps the pantomime they attended with their family, and how that made them feel. Then getting them to think about it through a legacy lens. By supporting with a gift in a will they can ensure that future generations can make memories at the Courtyard too. Any size of gift can make a difference to the work we do.
In line with our new legacy strategy our website now includes up to date information about will making and I’m focusing on creating physical assets with QR codes. These are all new elements for the Courtyard and they will be vital for engaging with younger donors.
What does the future hold?
We’re using Remember A Charity Week as the launch pad for our legacy giving newsletter and emails to stewards and patrons. Longer term I’ll be touching base with solicitors and funeral directors regularly across the country and working with colleagues to embed legacy messages into the wider organisation. I’m particularly interested in working with those in the box office who speak to visitors daily.
I’m keeping things straightforward with the legacy strategy, not setting targets, or having any expectations. It’s an old cliché, but gaining income from legacy giving is a marathon, not a sprint. My main goal is to share information as widely as possible, mindful that the majority of legacies come from people who have not made their intentions known to you.
We hope that our legacy strategy will encourage more conversations about gifts in wills around our organisation and that this will inspire those who love what we offer to consider leaving something to us in their will. My constant reminder to people is that every gift helps, no matter how big or small. If it wasn’t for legacies, we wouldn’t have been able to make the progress we have today.
Clare Wichbold is fundraising manager at the Courtyard Centre for the Arts
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