Increase in legacy gifts to arts organisations

Remember A Charity’s report The Art of Legacies explores the impact and opportunity of charitable gifts in wills for the arts. It has been released to support arts, culture and heritage organisations in maximising their long-term income through legacy fundraising. 

The report says: “there has been a welcome shift in attitudes towards leaving a charitable legacy. Remember A Charity’s long-term benchmarking study finds that one in five (21%) UK charity supporters aged 40+ say they have left a gift in their will, up from 15% in 2018.”

Lucinda Frostick, director of Remember A Charity, says: “It’s not that long ago that legacy giving was viewed largely as the preserve of the wealthy. Now, thanks to the sector’s willingness to collaborate to build understanding about giving from your will and to support from the legal sector, legacies are not only more widely understood, but they are becoming more commonplace. And these gifts are transforming the world around us, sustaining vital projects and programmes, and protecting places, properties and collections long into the future.”

Remember A Charity is a consortium of UK charities working to grow the legacy giving market, and are funded through the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s RAISE programme.

Kathryn Horsley, senior consultant at Legacy Foresight, says: “The fast growth of the arts, culture & heritage sector over the past 10 years reflects a trend we have seen across the whole sector – a shift from people leaving gifts to the largest well-established charities towards smaller, niche and often local charities. We would expect this trend to continue in the future, as the boomer generation seek out charities that they have a personal and emotional connection with, and this is something charities in the arts sector can take advantage of.”

The Art of Legacies report explores the impact charitable gifts in wills are having for arts, culture and heritage organisations at different stages of their legacy fundraising journey; the opportunity for income growth from charitable gifts in wills; how fundraising and development professionals at arts centres, galleries, museums, and dance and music charities are approaching legacy fundraising; advice and insights about how arts organisations can grow through gifts in wills; guidance on building a legacy fundraising strategy, as well as tips on successful legacy fundraising in the arts; in-depth case studies from arts, culture and heritage organisations at different stages of the legacy fundraising journey, including The Amber Trust, The Courtyard Centre for the Arts, Dance Professionals, English National Opera, National Museums Liverpool, the V&A, and Young Sounds UK. 

Emma McCormack, the head of legacy giving at the V&A, said: “Something I often hear is that people do not realise that arts organisations are charities, and therefore don't think of them when writing their will. If, together, we can all work towards promoting the message that arts, culture and heritage organisations are indeed charities that need and value gifts in wills, then collectively, we will all benefit. Because all boats rise with the tide.”  

Remember A Charity chair Anaish Yilma-Parmar, head of legacies at the British Red Cross and trustee at Magpie Dance, added: “We know that arts, culture and heritage organisations have a really special place in people's hearts. They're loved in life, and they can be loved and supported in death too. There's a huge opportunity here for us as organisations to inspire people to support us in this way, building that long term sustainable income for the impact that we all deliver every day.” 

The charity is keen to enthuse arts organisations about legacy giving because the UK is approaching a crucial window of opportunity for legacy growth, with £5.5 trillion expected to be passed down from Baby Boomers to the next generation over the coming years.  

The full report can be downloaded for free here.