Legacy Fundraising
How charities receive gifts through wills, why donors choose to include them, and how to make a charitable bequest part of your own plan.
Is a Legacy Pledge Legally Binding?
A Legacy Pledge is a simple public statement that you intend to leave a share of your legacy to charity. It is not legally binding — here's exactly what it does and doesn't commit you to.
Legacy Pledge vs Giving Pledge vs Bequest
A Legacy Pledge is a free public statement that you intend to leave a share of your legacy to charity. Here's how it differs from the billionaires' Giving Pledge and from a legally binding bequest in your will.
What Is a Legacy Pledge? A Full Walk-Through
A Legacy Pledge is a public commitment to give a significant portion of your wealth to charity, either during your lifetime or at your passing. This piece walks through where the idea came from, who's signed it, what they actually promised, why some are now trying to walk it back — and how the same instinct scales down to families with vastly less money.
Why Legacy Giving Starts Long Before the Will
If you run legacy fundraising and you are waiting for the moment a supporter tells you they have finally been to their solicitor, you are waiting for the last chapter of a decision that has been unfolding, quietly, for a decade or more. This is the piece about the years before that chapter — what happens in them, why supporters spend so long in them, and what your charity can do to be part of the conversation while it is still happening.
Why People Give — and What It Actually Does for Them
If you've ever wondered what actually happens inside a person when they give — why the effect on the giver is measurably larger than the money would suggest, why children who watch their parents give end up giving more themselves, and what all of this has to do with the good life more generally — this is the walk-through.
How Charities Actually Build Legacy Programs
If you've ever wondered what happens inside a charity's fundraising office when they decide to build a legacy giving program — how they staff it, what it costs, what it earns them over ten and twenty years, and why it changes not just their finances but the way they can plan their work — this is the walk-through.
Why People Actually Leave Money to Charity in Their Will
If you've ever wondered what really drives someone to include a charity in their will — the honest reasons behind the polite ones — this piece walks through the six motivations donor research consistently finds, the interviews and case studies that anchor them, the books worth reading if you're considering it yourself, and the organisations that can help you think it through.
How Legacy Fundraising Actually Works
If you've ever wondered what's actually going on when a charity quietly invites you to include them in your will, this is the inside view — how the practice works, why it exists, what your four options look like, and how to do it yourself if you want to.