People are increasingly willingly to leave part of their estate to a charitable cause close to their heart, according to new figures released by Remember A Charity.
The figures show that 27% of charitable donors questioned said they intend to leave a charitable legacy or have already included one in their will, which is an increase over the 23% who said the same in March 2009 when Remember A Charity first conducted the study.
In addition, the proportion who said they definitely wouldn’t be leaving a bequest to charity has fallen, from 13% in 2009 to 9% now.
There is also apparently a greater awareness of legacy giving, with only 12% of those questioned saying they didn’t know it was possible to leave money to a charity in their will, a fall from the 17% recorded in 2009.
“Legacy behaviour and attitudes are really starting to change,” explained Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity. “While we are likely to see some fluctuation year-on-year, now with nine years of comparable data, we can see a sustained shift in public attitudes towards legacies. This echoes findings from Legacy Foresight and Smee and Ford, showing longer-term growth in the number of gifts in wills and charities benefitting, as well as the amount given.”
“Bearing in mind that only 6% of people that die currently leave a legacy, even a small percentage increase can make a big difference in terms of charitable returns,” he added.
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