RNLI is turning to social networking to boost awareness of the importance of legacies to its work during its first Legacy Awareness Week.

Solicitors are today being seconded to the charity’s Twitter and Facebook accounts to field questions from RNLI fans and followers about the ins and outs of writing a legacy into their will.

Along with the practicalities, the RNLI’s inaugural Legacy Awareness Week will be promoting stories about individual legators and the impact of their gifts as well as the line that six out of every ten lifeboat launches are made possible by legacies.

The social networking assault will be accompanied by a real-world awareness-raising effort, with talks, banners and information at RNLI stations around the country.

Nina Stubbs, RNLI legacy manager, said that the charity was using personal stories of legators to combat the misconception that leaving gifts in wills is the preserve of the rich and famous.

“This couldn’t be further from the truth,” she says. “In 2009 the RNLI received 590 legacies that were under £500 each in value – and together they totalled nearly £80,000. This really demonstrates the old adage of strength in numbers.”