Gifts in wills are a major source of funding for UK charities, with more than £2 billion passed on by donors each year. But there is a gap between the number of people who say that they would like to leave a legacy to a charity and the number of gifts actually given.
Almost a third of people surveyed said that they would like to leave a gift to a charity but only 6% of wills actually contain such a gift. This should provide charities with all the incentive they need to contact their supporters to ensure that supporters are given ample chance to provide their charity gifts.
Our online will service for charities helps connect fundraisers with their donors.
The benefits of an effective legacy fundraising campaign can be enormous. In our experience, legacies typically amount to a few thousand pounds but the sky is the limit with gifts of hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions arriving as windfalls to a charity.
People also often choose to leave a share of their estate to a charity or specify the charity as a “beneficiary of last resort” in the event that they are the last living member of their family. These residuary gifts can be a significant proportion or even the whole of all of the worldly wealth a donor leaves behind.
Find out more about our service for charities here.
