Cancer Research UK free will service passes £10 million mark
Howard Lake | 10 February 2008 | News
Cancer Research UK has now raised £10.6 million through legacies left in wills since it set up its Free Will Service in 2002.
Last year alone it received over £2.5 million in legacies generated by the scheme, the most successful year for the scheme to date. In the same year, more than £30 million was pledged in more than 5,000 wills.
Indeed, Free Will Services run by Cancer Research UK’s two predecessor charities have raised £25 million since 1996.
The Free Will Service, which operates throughout the UK through a network of over 1,000 solicitors, offers people over 55 the opportunity to make or update a basic will.
Paul Farthing, director of legacies at Cancer Research UK, said: “We rely heavily on legacies to fund our life saving research. Last year over a third of it was paid for in this way.
“We would like to thank all of the solicitors who have worked with us as part of the Free Will Service for their invaluable contribution to Cancer Research UK. In future we expect the Free Will Service will make an even bigger contribution to our work.”
In 2005 legacies generated £1.5 billion for charities, around one third of the charity sector’s total voluntary income.
http://legacies.cancerresearchuk.org
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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.