• March 29, 2024
 Remember A Charity aim to make charitable will writing the social norm

Remember A Charity aim to make charitable will writing the social norm

Charity consortium, Remember A Charity is calling on the general public to ‘pass on something legendary’.

The campaign which will return for its seventh year on 12th– 18th September 2016, and hopes to encourage generations to follow suit using the hashtag #MyWisdom.

The 170 strong consortium is calling on more charities to join up and take part, making the 2016 campaign the biggest yet. During the week, charities, Government, solicitors and Will-writers all come together to encourage the public to leave a gift to charity on their Will.
Aimed at consumers, the campaign will feature a short film that showcases donors’ inspirational words for future generations. Celebrities, charity supporters and the wider public are being encouraged to share their words of wisdom with others through tweeting using the hashtag #MyWisdom.

There will also be posters displayed across the UK at busy service stations and throughout the London Underground.
The consortium hopes to keep its momentum after a record year for charitable Wills last year; where men and women in their seventies were seen to write a charity into their Will 10,000 feet up in the air before skydiving back down to earth, this year again celebrates the legendary nature of legacy donors and fundraisers alike.

2015 saw some 37,261 Wills that went to probate in England, Scotland and Wales which included a legacy donation; up from 34,908 in 2014. This was the highest number of charitable estates ever recorded by data analysis firm Smee & Ford.
Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, says:

“Legacies have never been more important to charities and this year’s findings are great news for the sector, showing that more people are choosing to remember a charity in their Will than ever before. While the marketplace has benefited from an increase in property and share prices in recent years, inflating legacy values, it is the continued appetite for legacy giving among supporters that remains critical to long term market growth.
Legacy growth is testament to the collaborative work of so many charities, the legal profession and Government in becoming increasingly vocal about legacies and overcoming the barriers often associated with gifts in Wills.”

After last year’s Remember A Charity week, Oxfam reported a “significant increase” in web traffic to its legacy page and requests for legacy packs.

The charity’s director of fundraising, Tim Hunter, said:

“Remember a Charity gave us a hook and a focus and that enabled us to get our retail network of 700 shops involved; communicating the importance of legacies to both the people who come into our shops as well as our volunteers who work there.
“With this year’s consumer campaign, our focus is to give charities a range of resources that will help them deliver a strong legacy message that they can tailor for their own supporters. We want to encourage as many charities as possible to participate in Remember A Charity Week 2016, joining the consortium and shining a spotlight on legacy giving.”

Rachel Booth