# Legacy opportunity missed

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/1998/03/19/legacy-opportunity-missed/
- Published: 1998-03-19T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

On 2nd March the Will of the late Diana, Princess of Wales was published. You can
read the [full text](http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9803/04/diana.will), courtesy of a
number of online news publications. Given the hundreds of professional fundraisers
that the late Princess encountered in her work, it is interesting to note that none
of them persuaded her of the importance of leaving a charitable bequest in her Will.

This raises the question of how to seek support from celebrity supporters. It is
not unheard of for charity fundraisers to ask celebrities to write a Will and to
include a bequest to their favourite charity or charities. No-one using a celebrity
to promote a Will pack would make the mistake of failing to check that the celebrity
had already left a legacy to a charity. Some years ago the advertisements for the
NSPCC’s Will pack featured Sir Harry Secombe: a contemporary magazine article by
the fundraiser involved implied clearly that Sir Harry had practised what he was
preaching by leaving a charitable bequest.

Are there any other high-profile and wealthy charity supporters who have not been
introduced to the idea of leaving a legacy?

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