Wills - what worthy charity would you choose?

[LoveRules]

We are getting married and therefore redrafting our wills. We both have children from previous relationships so a little bit complex which we have worked through.

Our will writer has advised that in a worst case improbable scenario it is best to write in who our estates might go to if everyone pre-deceases the owner of the will to avoid being intestate.

I'd like to leave my share to an impoverished but life long friend plus a worthy charity but don't know who to choose. Maybe smile train or a mental health charity but would be interested in who others might choose.

Part of my job involves analysing legacies. I won't tell you which small charity I work for as it is totally outing but I can say the most popular charity named in the wills we've been included in during the last three years is the RNLI, both in terms of frequency and amounts of money. I can understand why - hard to argue with what they do.

I would be inclined to go for a local charity rather than a national one, because your money is likely to make a bigger difference to them than it would to a much larger, national charity which might already have a whole department focused on maximising income from legacies. I do give regularly to some big national/international charities, but the two smaller local ones that I'm involved with would be absolutely thrilled to get a legacy - it could make a real difference.

As to which one, it depends on the causes that interest you, I suppose. My personal priority tends to be for charities that focus on social justice/tackling the underlying causes of poverty, but you might care about something completely different. What are the social issues that concern you the most?

Mine would go to the air ambulance probably but then as life goes on you may use charities like a hospice and want to change

Also sponsoring care leavers would appeal to me.

My aunt left 10k to WWF

And several 1k amounts to local charities involving animal welfare.

The local children's hospice who look after my little boy. The support they give us is amazing so I would like to repay them.

Personally I donate to youth homelessness charities (mainly Centrepoint, plus some local ones) because I just think it's such a major issue for our society at the moment and once a young person is homeless it's very hard to get life back in track.

I wouldn't donate to animal charities or RNLI, not because I don't think they do wonderful work, but I know these charities have big incomes (particularly legacy incomes) already. Some animal charities have more money than they know what to do with. I'd pick something less high profile/well supported.

My dd volunteers at the local children's hospice. It does truly incredible work.

That said, dd is pretty in awe of a lot of the parents whose children are supported by the hospice as well. She assists with checking new families in, and she is frequently bowled over by seeing the parents talk through their children's care needs with the nursing staff...by how much they do on a daily basis, by how much medical knowledge they have acquired in relation to their children's needs, and by the depth of strength and compassion that they show. She finds it quite humbling.

The problem is that if they’re unlikely to be able to sustain that level of funding longer term it can be a bit of a poisoned chalice, unless they use it as an endowment ( don’t touch the capital, just spend the investment returns) in which case the annual impact would be much smaller but sustainable longer term. Otherwise the risk is that they build out a level of activity using an unusually large donation that then can’t realistically be sustained.

The other “don’t” for legacies is restrictions. Some charities have employees whose sole job is to try to get restrictions removed from legacies as otherwise they can’t spend it- an extreme example would be “ x amount to be invested in perpetuity and the income used to support the welfare of mail coach horses” of which there are now obviously zero! At the time I’m sure it made perfect sense but there are a lot of really big endowments that are now basically worthless as their purposes are no longer relevant.

Cats protection league. I donate to them monthly and I know they do care for unfortunate kitties. 😺

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I guess I had kind of naively assumed that most people leaving a legacy to charity would do it in the form of unrestricted funds, but perhaps not!!

Totally agree that, if restricted, limited funds for a relatively short time period might end being far more trouble than they're worth!!

Best way is to choose a charity with a mission/purpose that you believe in, determine whether you consider that charity to be competent to deliver effectively on that mission, then leave the funds unrestricted so that the charity can use its own judgement about how best to use them to further its objectives.

Mine is going to dignity in dieing and DH has left his to our local nighshelter

Mine would be guide dogs and Chas which it’s the hospices in Scotland for children

Mine will be split between a local wildlife charity; Wales and Dolphins Conservation; some to my church; local hospice.

Donate to a cause/s you really care about. Some charities get more than others (children, animals, hospices), and some like RNLI or the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth really don't need the money.

Would you think of something really worthwhile but not glamorous, which struggle because they don't have an awww factor?

The only charities I've ever supported by direct donation have been Shelter and the RNLI. The latter mostly just to irk Farage.

I'd pick something that means something to you remembering that the smaller the charity the bigger the impact it'll have.

Great Ormand Street Hospital, The Children's Trust, RNLI, Air Ambulance, Lucy Rayner Trust and Wildlife Aid Trust. These are ones we support - some personally and some through our business, we've gone with these as we've seen how the money is spent.

Women's Aid.

The RNIB as my mum is blind.

Aspire, a charity for those who have suffered spinal injury; the local hospice and a charity that gives free books to children. I always give to Crisis and the Salvation Army. If only my estate would run to large donations to all of these people and buy the GC a house each!

Look at the CEO salary of any charity before you donate to them.

I also look to see if they’ve been ideologically captured by so-called progressive causes which are in fact ones I disagree with.

A cause that is close to your heart or has made a significant impact upon your life or that of your loved ones.

I also prefer small local charities where they don’t have people on massively inflated salaries and the money actually helps fund what it’s meant to.

The likes of RNLI, WWF etc won’t get a cent from me. Re the latter I say that as a massive animal welfare supporter. Helping animals is a massive priority for me.

Examples I have given chunks in the past to include:
Air Ambulance - daughter rides, and am conscious she might need it more than me but it's something you might wish to support.
A locally based reading scheme - trains volunteers to go into schools and help children that need extra help with reading. This generally helps the less advantaged children to achieve better outcomes. When I have time I will volunteer myself.
A mental health charity (national) that has in the past supported a very good friend, and was much appreciated at the time.
I passed on some of an inheritance to a charity the deceased used to support - so is there anything you already support?

Greyhound Rescue Wales

Woodfield animal Samctuary - Gower

Ty Nantymoel Cat Sanctuary - Port Talbot

Chaldon Animal Sanctuary - Surrey

Ty Nant ^^^ Not Nantymoel!

Woolly Hugs and Women's Aid.

DH and I both have our DC's primary school in our wills... now grown up, but the school was lovely and I'm sure the money would make a difference 🙂