Legacies provide £1.9bn 'lifeline' for UK charities

Medical charities are benefiting from an ongoing increase in money left through legacies, it has been revealed.

According to new figures compiled by Cass Business School, charitable donations made through wills total around £1.9 billion a year, with health-related organisations particularly benefiting from donations of this manner.

The study found that six of the top 20 charities to which people left money through their will are health-related.

Cancer Research UK is the most popular benefactor, closely followed by the British Heart Foundation and Macmillan Cancer Support.

However, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the National Trust also featured prominently among legacies, being found to be the second and fourth most popular destinations for will donations respectively.

Commenting, Stephen George, chairman of Remember A Charity, explained that gifts left in wills are now a ’financial lifeline’ to many charities, particularly now that the economic climate is hampering individual gifts and charity investment levels.

’Without it many charities’ services would suffer, others would simply not exist,’ he added.

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