The Forever Stone

Legacy income is crucial to most charities. Yet with nearly two thirds of the UK population not even having a will in place and legacies addressing one of life's biggest taboo topics in death, it is hard for charities to engage and develop this vital income stream with the community that the charity serves. For North Devon Hospice, legacies account for 25% of our total charitable income. Following several years of poor legacy income we needed to be more pro-active in engaging with the community to increase their awareness of the importance of gifts in wills to us and be able to start that conversation in a less direct and appropriate way. In addition, we wanted a way to recognise, in a personal way those people who have also pledged gifts in their wills already. From these needs Bray Leino took on this challenge as a gift in kind and developed the Forever Stone concept. A physical symbol that not only represents the importance of legacies to us but as a symbol acted as a suitable ice breaker to start the conversation with people. In addition its innovative use of Artificial Intelligence enabled us to honour pledged legators permanently.