Supporting Brighter Futures
It’s now six years since Swindon Will Writing announced it was supporting Brighter Futures – the charity for Swindon’s Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation trust. And, we’re pleased to say, we’re still in a committed relationship. As a Will writer, I’m supporting them by giving a 10% discount on my services to GWH staff.
This earlier blog explains more about the work of Brighter Futures and our reasons for supporting them. So, in this post, I’m going to talk a little about how much charities rely on gifts from Wills to carry on carrying on their important work.
The pandemic wrought havoc
The Your Later Life website carries a great feature on why charities are struggling. They point out how the Coronavirus pandemic had a dramatic, and negative, effect on charities’ finances. So, where leaving a charitable gift in your Will was ever important – it’s now more vital than ever.
There wasn’t a section of society unaffected by the pandemic with charities suffering an extra layer of pain. On the one hand, they couldn’t simply stop doing what they do during the lockdown periods. Because of course all those things that charities address – hunger, homelessness, illness etc – didn’t go away because Covid was stalking the world.
What’s more, as Your Later Life points out, the whole spectrum of charitable services had experienced a spike in demand in the before times. When the pandemic hit, that demand increased.
Why charities need Will legacies to ensure their survival
There’s a simple answer to that question. In the words of Rob Cope, director of Remember a Charity: ‘Charities find themselves having to do even more than before but with less money than ever. One in ten are now at risk of permanent closure. That’s a scary thought.’
Remember a Charity is a consortium of charities set up to encourage legacy giving. They’re more aware than most that there’s never been a more important time to use your Will to leave a gift to a charity or Charities that mean something to you.
Cope is at pains to stress that, over the last year or so, many charities – too many even – have relied on donations in Wills for their income. ‘Thank goodness for the kindness of those people who decided to leave them a gift in this way, because it’s been a lifeline.
Legacy donations have done more than help so many charities- they’ve been a lifeline. Gifts given via Wills are set to be the cornerstone of the sector’s economic recovery.
The Current Cost of Living Crisis
Were the effects of the pandemic not catastrophic enough for charities –in terms of reduced finances combined with increased need – the cost of living crisis we’re experiencing now is exacerbating the situation. Indeed, as the Masonic Charitable Foundation, in its blog how the cost of living crisis in affecting charities points out, rising living costs are putting more people in need of help, and charities are finding themselves overwhelmed with enquiries. Meanwhile, though, donations continue on a downward trajectory to below pre-pandemic levels.
It’s not hard to see then, why Remember a Charity’s Rob Cope is so emphatic about the importance of legacy gifts.
So: if, like many of us, you have the desire to give to charity but not the means to do it in our current economic situation then you could consider leaving a legacy in your Will. And of course, as a Will writer, I can help you with that.
To find out more about my Will writing and lasting power of attorney services don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can send a message via my webform here or make a good old-fashioned phone call. You’ll find my phone number on my home page here.