Over the centuries, generous church members have left gifts in wills to their local church. These gifts have often been transformational in helping a parish with its mission and ministry, its involvement with young children and families, continuing the strong musical tradition or preserving and protecting our unique heritage.
Many church members would like to know how they could leave a gift in their Will to their church, but they might be reticent about asking.
Here are some helpful ideas and resources on encouraging legacy gifts to your church.
How to get started with legacy fundraising
Encouraging legacy gifts to your church doesn’t need to be onerous or time-consuming. Our checklist and timetable on Promoting Legacy Giving is a good place to start.
Most people tend to make changes to their will at particular times prompted by life events such as retirement, house moves, death of a partner, etc. rather than directly in response to a legacy campaign. When they do, they will probably be asked by their solicitor if they wish to make or change any charitable gifts.
A steady drip-feed of gentle legacy messages over time will ensure that whenever this takes place, their church is in their mind when considering gifts to charity.
Some easy ways to do this are:
- Create a simple legacy leaflet and make sure it is always available in your church. Ask our Giving Advisor for templates to customise for your parish.
- Mention legacy giving when thanking or discussing donations in church services or events.
- Make legacy information available on your church website and point visitors to the national legacy website
- Share a story of how the church has benefited from a legacy in the past.
It is important that your PCC has a Legacy Policy in place – you can use this template as a starting point if you don’t already have one.
Writing legacy literature
We have a variety of templates available for legacy leaflets and other literature which you can customise for your own parish. To use these or have help with customising them for your parish, please send an email to our Giving Advisor.
Running a legacy event
If you decide to run a specific campaign to promote gifts in wills in your church, this helpful guide from the Church of England is a good place to start.
You might consider running a legacy event to inform and invite discussion in a friendly and relaxed environment. A legacy event can also provide a key focus point if you are running a dedicated legacy campaign.
There are a number of different ways you can run an event and areas you can focus on. This guide contains ideas and templates for content, structure and follow up.
Free online will writing service
The Church of England has partnered with Farewill, the UK’s favourite will writer, to offer a free online will writing service.
The link you can promote to access these free wills is: www.farewill.com/cofe-stalbans
Making a will and keeping it updated is an important part of Christian Stewardship and with Farewill individuals can do it from the comfort of their home, for free and in less than 30 minutes.
Do get in touch with our Giving Advisor for advice and guidance on getting started with legacy fundraising.
