• LEAVING A GIFT TO CHARITY IN YOUR WILL NEEDS TO BECOME THE NORM RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION IF CHARTIES ARE TO WEATHER FUTURE DOWNTURNS, URGES REPORT
• CURRENTLY THE £1.9 BILLION RAISED ANNUALLY FROM LEGACY GIVING - THE EQUIVALENT OF 25 RED NOSE DAY APPEALS - COMES FROM ONLY A TINY PROPORTION OF THE POPULATION (7%)
Leaving a charitable gift in your will needs to become a normal thing for people to do if UK charities are to reliably contribute in future downturns and the long term, concluded a report into legacy giving published today by the Smith Institute.
Currently the £1.9 billion raised annually from legacy giving - the equivalent of over 25 Red Nose Day appeals - comes from only a tiny proportion of the population (7% of adults aged 40+ in the UK) .
This is in contrast to the 74% of people in the UK who support a charity during their lifetime and 35% of people who, when asked, say they are happy to give a small percentage of their will as a gift to a charity after they have looked after their family.
The report ‘Charitable legacies in an environment of change’, authored on behalf of the Smith Institute by Professors Jenny Harrow and Cathy Pharoah, co-directors of the ESRC Research Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy, Cass Business School, found that the current recession is highlighting the fragile, yet vital role of charitable giving in wills to charities.
Without the reassurance that legacy income provides, many charities would not be able to offer their normal services in a downturn, and others would simply not survive.
And whilst charities rely heavily on legacy income in a recession, this form of income is also heavily susceptible to two macroeconomic factors - the stock market and house prices. Professor Cathy Pharoah explains:
'If the value of charitable legacies drops at the same annual rate as house prices in 2008, that could mean a loss to charities of between £150 million to £200 million: this makes it even more vital to increase awareness of the importance of legacies to the work of charities, and the number of people who leave charitable bequests.'
Legacies are the very foundation of many of the UK’s best-known and loved charities. Legacy income represents 34% of the total fundraised income of the top 10 charities. In some cases, it is as high as 70%.
'Legacy giving is the invisible lifeline for so many UK charities, yet many people don’t realise they can make a gift in this way; they think it’s about large gifts, and is not for them.
'The truth is, that after looking after family and friends first, a small share of whatever is left can make a real difference to charities and the invaluable work they do.' explained Stephen George, Chair of Remember A Charity and Development Director for Legacies at NSPCC
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For further media information please contact Adrian Chitty or Amy Ashworth at Good Relations on 0207 861 3102.
Access the report ‘Charitable legacies in an environment of change’.
