Malaghan Institute of Medical Research

Our work | Gift in Wills

The challenge

Malaghan Institute wanted to grow its Gift in Wills pipeline by attracting high-intent older supporters and driving them toward will-making tools or requesting a GIW information booklet. The challenge was reaching an age-65+ audience efficiently, reducing the previously high CPL, and building a journey that would feed into long-term bequest conversations.

The solution

Bigfoot ran a multi-layered GIW program combining top-of-funnel education, link-outs to Gathered Here, and direct Meta Lead Forms for booklet requests. Targeting was refined across Lookalikes of confirmed bequestors, warm remarketing, and age-55+ cold audiences. Creative was refreshed throughout September’s GIW Month, focusing on reassurance, the Malaghan legacy story, and support from the GIW specialist. These refinements lowered friction, improved engagement, and ensured the right audience received the right ask.

The impact

Since launching in August 2024, Malaghan’s ongoing Digital GIW program has become a powerful legacy acquisition engine. The campaign has generated 405 qualified GIW leads at a $45.43 CPL, alongside 1,686 GIW survey completions at just $3.36 per complete, and driven 19,000+ clicks to Malaghan’s Gathered Here page - significantly expanding the Institute’s legacy pipeline.

As of September 2025, the survey alone has resulted in 13 confirmed bequestors, 69 new intenders, and 113 supporters actively considering a gift in their Will. If realised, this represents a potential $23.4 million in future income.

Earlier testing phases also demonstrated strong efficiency gains, with CPL reducing from $250 to $128 during optimisation periods, and long-tail attribution identifying over $30,000 in early confirmed bequest value. Together, the program has positioned GIW as a high-value, scalable growth channel for Malaghan’s long-term fundraising strategy.

Client testimonial

"Working with Jeremy and the Team at Bigfoot fundraising has been a great and successful journey. We needed to build our digital presence from the ground up which is a daunting prospect for a small charity both in terms of workload and budget. We first partnered with Bigfoot in 2021 to support with digital wrap around for our annual appeal, and it enabled us to surpass our appeal target by over 100%. Since this successful first project, we have continued to partner with the team to implement a successful always on digital fundraising strategy, that has been the springboard to over 60% growth across our core annual individual giving fundraising campaigns.

We have also partnered with Bigfoot to grow our digital RG program, utilising a strategic funnel approach to Always On, coupled with a 2-step digital acquisition program that is converting quality and engaged new Regular Givers and is supporting significant growth in our supporter pipeline, growing our subscriber base from 4000 to now over 20,000 in just 2 years. We are now excited to move into the digital GIW space and continue our partnership with Bigfoot. Bit by bit Bigfoot has guided and supported us as we have taken larger and larger strides to really embrace the power of what a good digital strategy is and what it can do to boost and enhance every part of our fundraising. Jeremy and the whole Bigfoot team really are part of the team here at The Malaghan Institute, adding value in everything they do. And on top of that – they are all lovely people to work with!"

Laura Golland, Head of Fundraising, Malaghan Institute of Medical Research

Next steps

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