Total UK legacy income grew from £800m in 1990 to £3bn in 2020, a doubling in value in real terms
Legacy incomes will reach £5bn a year by the start of the next decade, new figures show.
Research by the charity legacy consortium Legacy Foresight estimates legacy income will be worth £19.6bn between now and 2025 and climb to £23bn in the second half of the decade.
The consortium predicts that charities will receive £5bn in legacy income in 2030 from 146,000 bequests.
Total UK legacy income grew from £800m in 1990 to £3bn in 2020, an annual growth rate of 4.5 per cent a year, it said.
After considering inflation, income is up by 2.7 per cent a year, which means that the real value of gifts in wills to UK charities has doubled over 30 years.
Over the same period the number of charitable bequests rose by almost 50 per cent to 112,000 in 2020.
Legacy Foresight said that because of the size, wealth and lifestyles of the Baby Boomer generation, legacy incomes are expected to double again in real terms by 2050.
The consortium estimates that 40 per cent of all UK deaths result in a will at probate and 16 per cent of those wills at probate are now charitable.
On average, there are 3.3 charitable gifts per will, as 38 per cent of charitable wills contain just one bequest and 28 per cent include four or more.
Legacy Foresight also found that more specialised and often local cause areas are gaining ground.
Over the past 10 years, the fastest-growing sub-sectors have been air ambulances (14 per cent a year) and wildlife trusts, followed by arts and education charities, NHS hospitals and mental health charities.
Legacy notifications are expected to reach record numbers in 2021 and 2022.
A report published at the end of last month by Legacy Foresight revealed legacy income growth in Scotland had outstripped the rest of Britain over the past five years.
Each week, 47 people in Scotland leave a gift to charity in their will
Charities in Scotland are raising more than £90 million a year from gifts in wills, a new report has revealed.
Remember A Charity, Legacy Foresight, the Institute of Legacy Management and Smee & Ford have partnered to publish a study on legacy giving in Scotland.
The new report, Building back stronger with charitable legacies, explores the role of legacies for Scottish charities in the current environment, featuring new market data and commentary from experts in the field.
It reveals that legacy income to Scottish charities has been growing at an average of 7% per year, exceeding the 4.6% average growth rate for charities in England and Wales. A vibrant legacy market, around 500 Scottish charities benefit from gifts in wills each year and almost two thirds of those are smaller charities and community-based organisations (64%).
Although it is estimated that just 50 registered Scottish charities generate the lion’s share (70%) of legacy income, the market is broadening. From 2013 to 2018, there was an 18% increase in the number of Scottish charities named in wills.
Each week, 47 people in Scotland leave a gift to charity in their will. However, consumer polling indicates that there is far greater growth potential, with 42% of people in Scotland aged 40+ saying they would be happy to give in this way.
You can also access the full report here.
Charities are set to experience an “exceptional period of growth” from legacies over the next 10 years, new figures show.
The charity legacy consortium Legacy Foresight has upgraded its forecast for charity legacy income over the next 10 years from £40bn to £43bn, according to a statement released today to mark the start of Remember A Charity Week, which encourages people to consider leaving a gift to charity in their wills.
Legacy Foresight predicted at the end of last year that the number of charitable gifts in wills could be as much as 50 per cent higher in 2021 because of a record-breaking death rate and a backlog of existing bequests.
But the statement today said the next decade was “expected to bring an exceptional period of growth, fuelled by the intergenerational wealth transfer from baby boomers”.
It said: “Appetite for legacy giving is growing and, despite recent delays at probate, the number of charitable bequests is predicted to rise by 30 per cent over the decade.”
It comes as figures from the legacy information company Smee & Ford show that more than one million gifts totalling over £23bn have been made to charities between 2010/11 and 2019/20.
A recent report co-authored by Smee & Ford, Remember A Charity, the Institute of Legacy Managementand Legacy Foresight, explores how vital legacy income has been in 2020 and emphasises how charities must collaborate to grow and normalise legacy giving.
Legacy giving shapes the world around us and this has been more evident during the coronavirus outbreak than ever before. While many fundraising channels and activities ceased, gifts in Wills – the largest source of voluntary income – sustained vital charitable services across the UK.
The recent report, Strengthening Charities’ Resilience with Legacies, features views from 12 leading legacy experts and findings from a survey of over 120 charity representatives. It looks at the shape of the sector now and possibilities for the future, including recommendations on how charities should prepare their legacy fundraising strategies for more uncertainty as well as potential sector growth.
“Legacies really did enable us to weather the storm. Because we knew roughly what legacy income is coming our way and because that income is such a large part of our funding base, we felt confident that – even if legacy values dipped a little – the money would still make it through. That pipeline has kept us going. It meant that we could plan. It gave us the ability to manage cashflow and some certainty at a time of uncertainty.”
Jayne George, Director of Fundraising, Marketing & Media, RNLI
A predicted legacy boom worth up to £40 billion over the next decade[1] presents charities with a unique window of time to act and benefit from market growth, according to a new joint report produced by ILM, Remember A Charity, Legacy Foresight and Smee & Ford.
Expectations are that the substantial uplift in demand for Will-writing coupled with the scale of inheritance anticipated from the baby boomer generation has created an exceptional opportunity for longer-term legacy growth. But the report also conveys a sense of urgency; a limited timeframe in which charities can act to benefit from this growth, emphasising the need for charities to continue to communicate the importance of legacies both within and beyond their supporter base.
With over 10,000 charities named in Wills each year[2], the legacy market is an increasingly competitive space, making it all the more important for fundraisers to focus not only on market share, but on working together to grow the market and inspire future generations to leave a gift in their Will.
The UK faces a predicted legacy boom worth up to £40 billion over the next decade, presenting charities with a unique window of time to act and benefit from market growth, according to a joint report by Remember A Charity, Legacy Foresight, the Institute of Legacy Management and Smee & Ford.
The report indicates that a substantial uplift in demand for Will-writing coupled with the scale of inheritance anticipated from the baby boomer generation has created an exceptional opportunity for longer-term legacy growth. However, it also conveys a sense of urgency, pointing to a limited timeframe in which charities can act to benefit from this growth, and emphasising therefore the need for charities to continue to communicate the importance of legacies both within and beyond their supporter base.
Earlier this week, a group of organisations in the charity legacy sector including ILM and Remember A Charity released a report on the future of legacies, Strengthening charities’ resilience with legacies. Projections by Legacy Foresight included in the report estimate that cumulative legacy income for charities will amount to £40bn over the next decade. –
A predicted upsurge in legacies worth up to £40 billion over the next decade presents charities with a unique window of time to act and benefit from market growth, according to a joint report by Remember A Charity, Legacy Foresight, the Institute of Legacy Management and Smee & Ford.
Figures from Legacy Foresight predict that, as well as a substantial increase in legacy donations in the next ten years, legacy income will double in real terms over the next 30 years, with it being the volume of donations that will be critical in driving future market growth.
But, while an uplift in demand for Will-writing coupled with the scale of inheritance anticipated from the baby boomer generation has created this opportunity for longer-term legacy growth, the report, Strengthening Charities’ Resilience with Legacies, also highlights a limited timeframe in which charities can act to benefit from this growth. This, it says, means there is a real need for charities to continue to communicate the importance of legacies both within and beyond their supporter base.
Read the news in full, here.