How Generation Rising Turned a Simple Campaign into a 340x ROI with Epilogue
Generation Rising is a Canadian Christian charity that supports children and schools across Latin America by helping provide safe classrooms, caring teachers, and Christ-centred education.
Generation Rising wanted to:
Make it easier for donors to take the step into legacy giving;
Engage donors who may not otherwise create a Will; and
Test a simple, scalable way to introduce legacy giving to their community.
Since working with Epilogue they:
Launched a targeted outreach campaign (1,925 direct mail pieces and 1,002 follow-up emails);
Saw immediate donor engagement (requests for Will codes within days); and
Generated 5 legacy gifts with an estimated value of ~$1,205,000.
The Opportunity
Q: Before partnering with Epilogue, what challenges were you facing with your legacy giving program?
Generation Rising was looking for a practical way to introduce legacy giving to their donor base without adding complexity for their team or their supporters.
They wanted an approach that was simple to execute, easy for donors to understand, and capable of generating early traction without requiring significant internal resources.
The Solution
Q: What led you to choose Epilogue as your legacy giving partner?
Getting started with Epilogue was straightforward and low-lift.
The Epilogue team was responsive, collaborative, and easy to work with:
This made it easy for Generation Rising to launch a campaign quickly and confidently.
The Results
Q: How quickly did you start seeing impact? What did that look like?
Results came in almost immediately.
Following their outreach, Generation Rising began receiving requests for Will codes within one to two days of sending their email.
Their campaign included:
1,925 direct mail pieces sent to donors
1,002 follow-up emails (including both mail recipients and additional donors)
This early engagement translated into meaningful results:
5 total legacy gifts
2 gifts of $5,000
3 additional gifts structured as contingent or percentage-based bequests
3 donors chose to remain anonymous
Estimated total gift value of ~$1,205,000
340x ROI
Summary
What’s Next for Generation Rising
The early results demonstrated that a simple, well-executed outreach strategy can quickly unlock meaningful legacy commitments.
With minimal internal lift and strong early engagement, Generation Rising now has a clear path to continue building its legacy giving program and expanding its reach to more donors over time.
