Minister for Civil Society Rob Wilson MP, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Damian Hinds MP and Rob Cope, Director of Remember A Charity, have joined to send out co-signed letters to solicitors across England, Scotland and Wales. The letters encourage solicitors to remind clients to consider leaving a gift to charity when writing a will – known as ‘legacy giving’.
Meanwhile, Ed Vaizey MP, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy, has written to cultural organisations. He is encouraging them to get involved with the campaign and boost legacy giving during Remember A Charity in Your Will Week.
The government is also asking its workforce to consider remembering a charity in their wills, contacting over 400,000 civil servants during the week.
Find out how to Remember A Charity in your will.
Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society, said:
In Britain, we have a fine tradition of legacy giving, with legacy income worth around £2 billion a year to charities in the UK. It is a vital part of many charities’ income and we want to encourage more Britons to consider leaving gifts to charities, creating a lasting legacy for good causes. The steps we’re taking this week will help make considering legacy giving an integral part of the will writing process.
Rob Cope, Director of Remember A Charity, added:
Never before has the campaign achieved so much support from government and the legal profession and this is critical in extending our reach to new audiences and to achieve social change. This year’s Extreme Will Writing campaign aims to take legacy giving to new heights, with more charities and campaign supporters making more noise about legacies, more professional advisors prompting their clients to include a charity in their will and, in the long term, more people doing so.
This year, Remember A Charity has joined forces with the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, Scottish Government and Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Law Society and the Law Society of Scotland. The week is one of the largest collaborative charity campaigns, involving more than 150 charities and hundreds of solicitors and will-writers. It aims to raise awareness of legacy giving during Remember A Charity in Your Will Week and to make legacy giving a social norm.
This year’s public awareness campaign launched on 7 September.
Find out more about the campaign: Extreme Will Writing and see how you can Remember A Charity.