Appetite for legacies strong, finds survey 1

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 27 Apr 2010

Nearly a third of over-55s would consider leaving a gift to a charity in their wills, but an alarming percentage have failed to write a will in the first place.

Research conducted by YouGov for Barnardo’s found that 32 per cent of people aged over 55 would be willing to leave a legacy, and was hailed by Ginny Harris, the charity’s wills marketing manager, as showing that public campaigns to debunk the misconception that leaving a legacy was the preserve of the wealthy are working.

"This is very encouraging as in the past only 15 per cent of wills have had a donation to charity,” she said.

These latest figures are an improvement from the annual Wills and Trusts Research Report, released by Standard Life in January, which found that around a quarter of the population might consider making a bequest.

But a lack of education about the importance of wills persists, with 29 per cent of adults in the age bracket not having made a will and a quarter believing that, without one, the money will end up with their families anyway.

Directory: Barnardo's

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David Burrows
Head of Fundraising
TDA
28 Apr 2010

I agree that it sounds like good news but it is tricky comparing intentions in a market research survey with the actual percentage of people taking action. (I 'intend' to lose a stone this summer but I fear the 'actual' may fall short of this!) We also need to be cautious about a survey in April giving a different result to one in January, when not much of substance has happened in between. We need to see a 'poll of polls' carried out over time.

A figure of 32% of 55s being willing to leave a legacy to charity in 2010 is very similar to a quant survey result we got back in 2007. We found that 26% of 1,000 people aged 50+ strongly disagreed with the statement 'I have never seriously considered leaving money to charity in my will' (implying that they had) and a further 13% slightly disagreed (implying that they had given legacies some consideration). Put those together and they add up to much the same as this result.

When it comes to making legacy giving 'normal' I think it is a case of 'job begun' rather than 'job done'.

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