Legacy values continue to drop but bottom is near, predicts report

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 15 Jun 2010

Legacy values have continued their slow and steady decline, but are likely to return to growth over the coming months, according to research released today.

Legacy values for the 42 charities which form the Legacy Monitor fell by £11m in year-on-year terms in the year ending March 2010, but the rate of decline has slowed significantly. The total amount brought in by legacies to the Legacy Monitor charities fell by 1.2 per cent over the year, but remain significantly below the highs achieved in the year to March 2008.

“There is a sense that perhaps the worst is over now,” said Meg Abdy, director of Legacy Foresight. “We do think that [legacies] will pick up again in the second half of this year.”

Abdy added that the fall in legacy income had not been as dire as some had predicted at the onset of the recession.

While the number of pecuniary gifts continue to rise, their average value continues to also steadily rise by 7 per cent a year, now standing at an average of £3,500. Residual legacy values, meanwhile, have stabilised at around £52,000.

Abdy said, however, that performance varies “a lot” between the Legacy Monitor consortium charities, with health charities such as Alzheimer’s Society seeing less or no fall in legacy values, while others report bigger declines.

Directory: Legacy Foresight

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.