Legacy donations to charities 'will fall'

The economic downturn has impacted on charitable donations made in private bank customer’s wills, it has been claimed.

Spiro Va’os, area manager for membership at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said today that people’s budgets had been squeezed by the downturn and that charities were likely to suffer a tough 2009 as a consequence.

Specifically, the expert cited the potential impact of shrinking legacy revenues from high-net-worth individuals.

The analysis follows the release of a wide-ranging survey from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, which showed that the impact of the recession was leading one in five charity leaders to plan to decrease paid staff numbers.

Mr Va’os commented: ’The main source of income the RSPB gets is through donations, whether it be through membership or legacies.

’Possibly the legacy side of things is going to be the hardest hit - people often leave the money for us through their houses. Now obviously if people are leaving a £200,000 house, by the time they’ve sold it on the current market there is going to be less [funding] available.’

The UK economy looks set to endure its worst recession in decades.

Official government data showed that GDP contracted by 2.4 per cent over the first three months of 2009.ADNFCR-2318-ID-19268509-ADNFCR