Government supports Remember A Charity in Your Will Week
Howard Lake | 12 September 2016 | News
The Government is supporting this year’s Remember A Charity in Your Will Week, which aims to raise the importance of charitable gifts in Wills.
The week, which runs from 12-18 September 2016, is supported by HM Treasury, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Scottish Government and the Law Society.
Legacy giving is essential to many charities. Worth an estimated £2.5 billion, according to Legacy Foresight, legacy giving is the largest single source of voluntary income int he UK. It benefits almost 10,000 charities each year.
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But it could raise substantially more if more people included a legacy in their Will, after providing for family. If just a further 4% of the public were to include a charity in their Will, this would be worth an estimated £1 billion to good causes across the country.
Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), said:
“Legacy giving has a fine history in our country and is a vital part of charities’ income. Remember A Charity Week will help make considering legacy giving an integral part of the Will-writing process and benefit a huge number of good causes, helping make Britain a country that works for everyone.”
HM Treasury is using social media to support the public awareness campaign.
#MyWisdom
The theme for this year’s Remember A Charity in your Will Week is #MyWisdom, in which members of the public are invited to pass on something legendary, tweeting or sharing their advice for future generations using the #MyWisdom hashtag. They are also encouraged to remember a charity in their Will.
Member charities are hosting their own activities to raise awareness of Remember A Charity Week across the UK. These include regional legacy roadshows, promotion in hundreds of charity shops, and the use of branded merchandise.
Involving solicitors
Government Ministers, Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society, and Annabelle Ewing MSP, Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs have jointly written to 8,000 solicitors in England, Wales and Scotland, encouraging them to join over 1,000 other Campaign Supporters in highlighting the opportunity of leaving a gift to charity to their clients.
Aardman Animations film
This year Remember A Charity, the 170-strong coalition of charities who promote legacy giving, is using a new short film by Aardman Animations Ltd, creators of Wallace and Gromit, to promote the campaign. It showcases donors’ inspirational words for future generations.
In addition, campaign posters are on display at many of the UK’s service stations and on the London Underground.
Online quote generator
On social media, celebrities, charity supporters and the wider public are being encouraged to use the campaign’s online quote generator and share their words of wisdom with others.
The campaign launches with over 500 quotes have been from charity supporters and celebrities, including Emma Thompson, Lord Sugar, Rufus Hound, Gary Lineker and Bill Bryson.
Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, commented:
“This year’s campaign focuses on encouraging others to pass on their wisdom and to think about their legacy for future generations. We hope it will help inspire potential legacy supporters and achieve our goal of making legacy giving a social norm. We are grateful to Government and all our campaign supporters who are playing such a key role in promoting charitable legacies.”
He added:
“Remember A Charity Week is a great opportunity for everyone to come together and focus on the immense impact that gifts in Wills have on charities and their beneficiaries”.
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Meet some legacy legends in our four-part series:
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.