Ten years on from the first Remember A Charity Week, we’re shifting the focus of our public messaging from raising awareness about gifts in Wills to building understanding and inspiring supporters into taking action; writing a gift into their Will.

This year’s Remember A Charity Week (9-15 September 2019) will see over 200 charities come together with 1,300 campaign supporters (solicitors and Will-writers) to challenge the public’s biggest misconceptions about gifts in Wills through a humorous and nostalgic 1970s-inspired campaign.

With video footage developed in conjunction with a BAFTA award-winning comedian, the campaign will explore common myths about legacy giving, encouraging the public to ask their own questions and breaking down the barriers that can prevent people from leaving a gift in their Will. This will include addressing concerns that legacies have to be particularly large, that they are complex to arrange and that they might prevent people from passing on their estate to their families.

Building on the success of last year’s Remember A Charity Week, the public will be encouraged to ‘pass on something wonderful’ to future generations. Our member charities will be provided with materials, media and social tools, which can be tailored to their own audiences and potential legacy supporters.

Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, says: “Raising more than £3 billion for good causes annually, legacies are a critical part of the UK fundraising landscape, but we shouldn’t be afraid of injecting a little humour into the way we talk about them with supporters. Legacies have a huge impact on the world and the more approachable we can make the topic the better.

“This year’s campaign is all about enabling conversation around legacy giving, addressing any misconceptions people might have and, ultimately, taking us even further along the behavioural change spectrum from awareness to take action.”

The change in focus reflects our mission to inspire behavioural change and grow the proportion of charitable estates at probate to reach 18% by the end of 2021, up from 15.8% in 2017.

The most recent consumer tracking studies indicate that only 10% of the over 40s are unaware of the opportunity to leave a bequest in their Will, with 40% saying that they would be happy to donate in this way, up from 35% a decade previously. During that time, charities’ annual legacy income has grown from around £1.8bn to £3bn.

Over the years, our Remember A Charity Week campaigns have included the launch of a pirate radio station in 2017, top British stuntman Rocky Taylor taking a death-defying leap from Battersea Power Station in 2011 to make it into the Guinness Book of Records and the comedic Take A Moment campaign of 2013, shown in cinemas across the country.