Remember a Charity Week: ways to leave a gift to your favourite charity

Remember a Charity Week is an opportunity for people to take a moment to consider leaving a gift to charity in their will, after looking after their family or friends.

As a registered charity itself, Remember a Charity brings together 200 charities who rely on gifts in wills, and FRAME is delighted to have renewed our membership this year.

To mark this year’s awareness week (6-12^th September 2021), wills, trusts and probate solicitor Andrew Hitchon from Leicester-based law firm Bray & Bray describes the different ways you can leave a gift to a charity in your will, in a guest blog for FRAME.

There is a lot many people do not know about wills. If you don’t have one in place, you could be forgiven for thinking that all that goes into a will is a definitive ‘who gets what’ in relation to your property and money. However, there are many ways of leaving assets to others in a will. These include:

Gifting a set amount

If you have a set amount in mind to give to a certain charity, then it’s entirely possible to set aside this money in your will. Some people who gift money in their wills like to know the value of their money, in terms of what it can do to help the charity and its cause.

Gifting a percentage

Gifting a percentage can relate to money or assets. For example, you could have a set amount in mind to leave to family and friends, then gift a percentage of whatever is left to a charity. Similarly, you can give a percentage of your estate, whatever it may include – from houses to cars, motorbikes to boats, and even the sale of jewellery.

Gifting items

You can leave almost anything to a charity, whether it’s clothing or other household items such as white goods or upholstered furniture. If the charity can’t use it, they can, in some cases, sell the item to help them raise vital funds. If you wanted to leave high value items such as jewellery or technology to a charity, that is also possible through the inclusion of this in your will.

Gift over of assets

Some people are left in a position where there is no one left to leave their assets to, particularly if a beneficiary dies before them. In this case, you can nominate a substitute beneficiary, which can include a charity, to inherit the gift, which is referred to as a gift over provision.

Gifting everything

Some people don’t have anyone that they want to or are able to leave their assets to. In this case, if you did not stipulate any person or organisation in your will, it would be left up to the law to decide what happened to your assets (this is called intestacy rules).

Inheritance tax savings when leaving a gift to charity

Whether you leave the gift of an item, a set amount, or a percentage to charity in your will, there are ways that this can benefit your other beneficiaries. If you leave more than 10% of your estate to a registered charity, the rate of Inheritance Tax will decrease.

The value of what you are leaving to charity could also be taken off the value of your estate, so that it won’t be taken into account when Inheritance Tax is calculated.

About the author

Andrew Hitchon is a private client specialist and heads up the Wills, Trusts and Probate department at Midlands law firm, Bray & Bray. He is a Dementia Friends Champion and has achieved Trust and Estate Practitioner Status (TEP). For more information, visit: https://www.braybray.co.uk/for-your-family/wills-and-probate/

Leaving a gift in your will to FRAME

Those who kindly and generously pledge to leave a gift to FRAME in their will enable us to continue our work to develop new, scientifically valid human-based methods that will replace the need for laboratory animals in medical and scientific research, education, and testing.

As well as funding FRAME’s pioneering research, the donations and legacies we receive also help us to educate the general public, educate and train scientists and future scientists, provide grants and scholarships, offer scientific knowledge, expertise and guidance, collaborate with industry and academia, and promote the 3Rs worldwide.

If you’d like to leave a gift to FRAME, our details are as follows:

Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME)
Registered charity number: 1176266

Visit Remember a Charity’s website for advice on making a Will, finding a local, qualified solicitor to help you write a will, and leaving a gift to charity.

If you’d like to make a one-off donation to FRAME, you can do so here. We are grateful for every gift, no matter how small.