Speaking legacy language

Five big UK charities (The National Trust, Barnardo’s, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Save the Children and World Vision) are working with an agency (TDA) to explore the effectiveness of the different types of message used in legacy marketing materials. What a good idea. Hopefully the spondolicks that TDA makes out of the contract will enable it to have a re-think about its web site.

The head honcho of legacies at the National Trust says: “One of the areas we’re keen to understand better is how we should speak to legacy prospects – what tone of voice should we use and how do we cover family issues.”

In a boomer focus group conducted by another agency (DMS) it found that vague phrases such as “after you are gone” were off-putting and open to interpretation by potential donors. Very direct phrases such as “after your death” or “after you have died” were the best received. The term “When you have passed away” was also liked as people saw it as being very direct but also compassionate.
This got me thinking about other terms that TDA might want to test. How about:

“Popped your clogs”
“Pegged it”
“Gone to meet the grim reaper”
“Fallen off the perch”

Does anybody else have ideas about attention grabbing terminology that might be appropriate? Dick Stroud