Selecting the right charity to support – and ‘targeting’ your legacy

Now in its 9^th year, the ‘Remember A Charity Week’ campaign is launching a new tool to help individuals discover charities whose work is close to their heart.

The ‘Human’ search engine will allow the public to ask questions directly to a network of over 200 charities, their beneficiaries and supporters about the incredible work that they do, and their goals for the future. Questions like ‘How can we prevent people from sleeping on the streets?’ or ‘How can we ensure no more animals become endangered?’will be answered by the search engine- with many of the answers given via video. The significance of the campaign is to highlight how the biggest challenges faced by society are often being tackled exclusively by charities.

The search engine is being run alongside the ‘Remember A Charity in your Will Week’ campaign to highlight not only the importance of legacy giving, which provides over £2.8 billion a year to UK charities, but to encourage the public to engage with charities directly, and discover more about the important work that they do. By giving testators the chance to pinpoint exactly which cause they would like to support, the campaigners hope that legacy giving will be considered more seriously.

Aside from selecting a charity (or charities) to support via a legacy in your Will you can request that the charity use the funds for a particular purpose. For example, you may wish for your legacy to go to a local branch, to improve the look of the charity shop fronts, or to exclusively go towards training new researchers or staff. It is important to seek advice from your solicitor when drafting your Will, as a gift which is too narrowly defined could fail if that specific purpose cannot be met. In addition, the legacy clause in your Will needs to be ‘future proof’ to ensure that if your charity changes name, merges with another charity or ceased to exist, your legacy will still take effect.

For further information or to make an appointment to make or change a Will, please contact Alison Craggs or another member of the Blake Morgan Succession and Tax team.

Blake Morgan is supporting Remember A Charity Week, which runs from 10-14 September 2018.