How Outright International increased visibility and secured $950K+ in Bequests  

The Opportunity

Outright International works with partners around the globe to strengthen the capacity of the LGBTIQ human rights movement. With many donors supporting Outright’s mission over the years, they recognized the untapped potential to increase legacy contributions from this group.

Outright began communicating with donors about planned giving in 2020 when they launched their Outstanding Legacy Circle; however, their team did not have the bandwidth, expertise, or resources to grow these efforts significantly right away.

During the pandemic, Outright connected with FreeWill and attended their weekly webinars to learn new creative ways to build relationships with their donors and find community with other development professionals.

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Partnering with FreeWill on their Planned Giving Suite and National Featureship was a natural next step in developing a more robust planned giving strategy and to increase the visibility of their mission and programs.

According to Katie Hultquist, Director of Leadership Giving: “It was very clear from the beginning that FreeWill would be the right partner for us, because of their professionalism, creativity, and the value that we had already received.”

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The Solution

Through FreeWill’s National Featureship, Outright has been able to introduce will-makers interested in supporting Humanitarian and Civil/Human Rights causes to their mission by being listed as a beneficiary option during the will-making process. Outright collaborated with their strategist to evaluate data and determine which sector they should be categorized in to maximize engagement and gift commitments.

Outright also uses FreeWill’s resources to have more impactful conversations about estate planning and legacy giving with their supporters. Historically, members of the LGBTIQ community were not necessarily guaranteed that their assets would be transferred to their loved ones or that their chosen family would have the right to be a guardian for their children and pets. Estate planning allows LGBTIQ individuals to exercise agency over these decisions while providing an opportunity to make a legacy gift, creating a generational impact that supports organizations advocating for equal rights.

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“As we witness a rising backlash against and challenges to LGBTIQ rights in many places, queer people understand that investment in organizations that support and defend the rights of their community is essential to protect and continue progress”, shares Hultquist.¹

With the Planned Giving Suite, Outright works with an assigned Partner Success Strategist and custom Content Writer to share legacy giving messaging tailored to their audience, educating them on the benefits of estate planning and providing a free will tool, encouraging supporters to leave a bequest commitment to Outright in the process. This has proven to be a huge advantage for their small but mighty team, where no single staff member is in charge of planned giving.

By encouraging members of the LGBTIQ community to create an estate plan, Outright is helping their followers take control of the decisions that impact their loved ones and assets, making a generational difference that supports each other throughout the global LGBTIQ community.

In their first five months of partnership, Outright has secured 33 primary bequests with a total value of over $950,700. Of these, 28 bequests worth over $835K were a result of their National Featureship.

We have seen so much progress toward equality for LGBTIQ people over the last few decades. We believe we can radically accelerate social and legal change to improve the lives of queer people around the world – if more people join us in working toward this vision.

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Results

• $950K+ in bequest commitments
• $835K+ committed through the National Featureship

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^1. Why Estate Planning Matters for LGBTIQ Donors and Causes, Inside Philanthropy