Adam shines the spotlight on legacies at the Royal Ballet and Opera

When Adam Gray decided it was time to step off the stage after 15 years in musical theatre, he wanted a career that would be both fulfilling and keep him involved in the arts.

Fast forward to today and he is Legacy Manager at the Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO), based at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden.

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The position encompasses everything from legacy administration and payments to answering questions from solicitors and executors, stewarding legacy pledgers – called Baton Associates – and hosting backstage tours for families of legators.

“My role was initially split between dealing with our patrons (high level givers) and doing legacy administration which, until then had been passed around the department on a slightly ad hoc basis,” says Adam.

“That first year gave me a chance to learn about legacies, then in January this year, they decided to grow the legacy aspect and made this a full time position.

“I find it so interesting, and I have been lucky that our Head of Membership was from a legacy background and our Chief Development and Advocacy Officer also had legacy experience, so they both understand the power of legacies.”

Last year, general running costs for the Royal Ballet and Opera were just under £172m and box office income was £54.5m. So, as Adam explains, tickets are effectively subsidised by about two thirds from other income sources, including philanthropy.

He continues: “People are always surprised at how much it costs to run the building every year and, of that, legacies contribute £1m – £2m.

“We are very fortunate in having such great buy-in at a senior management level. Our CEO, Sir Alex Beard CBE is very aware of the importance of legacies and whenever we have Baton events he always comes down to speak to guests.

“We almost always hold these events in the building and our membership, development, appeals and philanthropy teams come down to help too, which is lovely. I also bring in people from our technical team to have conversations with our Batons and stress how important their pledges are.

“Brand loyalty is very important to the people who come here and we have a very strong membership programme. About 75% of our Batons are members and their pledges are seen as an extension of their wanting to support the building in the future. Once they are with us, our pledgers stay with us, 87% of pledges convert to a legacy, which is a very good conversion rate.

“I know, having spoken to other charity legacy officers, that they sometimes have resistance from their membership teams when talking about legacies and I find that surprising. I think it helps that all the development team sit together in one office and most of us are in here at least three days a week – it’s a combination of things and there’s no doubt that support for legacies starts at the top too.”

Adam writes a quarterly newsletter for Batons and contributes to internal newsletters sent to all heads of department by the philanthropy department.

“I try and write about legacies twice a year to explain about the gifts people are leaving, their connection to the building – for example, if we know the number of performances they have attended – anything that will humanise the story and show the importance of legacies.”

Today, most pledgers keen to leave a legacy are directed towards the Royal Opera House Endowment Fund, which grants the Royal Ballet and Opera funding for productions, backstage improvements and helps support its extensive learning programmes.

Alongside financial gifts, RBO often receives specific legacy gifts, with one recent highlight being a tiara worn by prima English ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn, who danced with the Royal Ballet for many years.

“A lady who had danced here in the ‘60s bought a tiara at auction from the very production where she had danced with Dame Margot and she very generously bequeathed it to us in her Will.

“When I showed the tiara pictures to our collections department they were very, very excited because they had the matching tutu and we managed to bring the two pieces together into a full ensemble. We have lots of display cases so I’m hoping we can get that on temporary display at some point.”

While the RBO’s 22,000 members provide a strong pipeline of legacy givers, Adam says he is keen to reach out to other potential donors too.

This October will see the launch of a new mail campaign aimed at individuals who support the RBO in other ways, for example by watching performances via its streaming services or attending UK-wide cinema screenings.

“We know there are a lot of people who used to be regular visitors but, for different reasons, may no longer be able to travel to London. We will be taking a very gentle, soft approach, telling them about the endowment fund, what it does and how they can support us.

“We are also trying to get younger people (under 40s) involved with RBO, we have family events and performances and a Young Friend membership for those aged 16-30 – we want to get them rooted in the culture and the building and then build their journey from there.”

Currently studying for his CiCLA, Adam says the ILM’s knowledge base and webinars have been very useful as, while learning “on the job is great”, the course is helping to build confidence in administering legacies and provides greater in-depth understanding.

This May, Adam attended the ILM Conference for the first-time, taking advantage of the buddy system to link up with Rosalind Sherlock-Jones, Legacy Manager at WaterAid, as his mentor for the day.

“We had a quick introduction by Teams beforehand, but we only met at conference and I couldn’t have asked for a better buddy. Coming to the event on my own and being quite new to legacies, I didn’t have any touch points, Ros took me straight into the middle of the room and started introducing me to everyone.

“I actually met one of our legacy pledgers there, which was wonderful. I wouldn’t have got anywhere near as much out of the day if it hadn’t been for Ros and I was very grateful.”

Adam recently returned the favour by inviting Ros and her colleague Zahraa Daoud, Legacy Management Officer, to visit RBO for a tour and the opportunity to talk all things legacies.