Why People Leave Gifts in Wills (And How to Inspire Them)
Legacy fundraising isn’t about persuading people to do something they don’t want to do. It’s about connecting with people who already care about your cause and making it easy for them to support it beyond their lifetime.
Most charities approach legacy fundraising like they’re selling something nobody wants. They apologise for bringing it up, tiptoe around the subject of death, and hope supporters will magically decide to include them in their wills without being asked.
Then they wonder why legacy income stays flat year after year.
The truth is, people leave gifts in wills for specific, understandable reasons. If you understand why people choose to leave legacy gifts, you can inspire more of them to do it. Not through manipulation or guilt, but through genuine connection to what matters to them.
The Emotional Motivations
They Want to Create Lasting Impact
The most common reason people leave legacy gifts is simple: they want their values to outlive them.
Someone who’s cared about protecting the environment, supporting children, funding medical research, or helping homeless people doesn’t stop caring just because they’re planning their will. They want those causes to continue thriving after they’re gone.
A legacy gift is a way to extend their impact beyond their lifetime. This motivation is strongest among people who’ve been long-term supporters of your charity. They’ve seen your work, they trust you, and they want to ensure it continues.
How to inspire this: Talk about the future. Share your long-term vision, your strategic plans, and the work you want to do in 10, 20, 50 years. Help supporters see that their legacy gift will fund something meaningful and lasting, not just keep the lights on next year.
They Want to Be Remembered
Leaving a legacy gift is a way to create a positive legacy. It’s their name associated with something good, something that helped people, something that made a difference.
Not everyone wants public recognition, but many people appreciate the idea that they’ll be remembered for supporting something meaningful. Even those who prefer anonymity often appreciate the knowledge that someone, somewhere, will know they did this.
How to inspire this: Offer recognition options that suit different preferences. Public acknowledgment for those who want it. Private thank you events for those who prefer discretion. Let people choose what feels right for them.
They Want to Honour Someone
Many legacy gifts are motivated by personal connection to your cause through loss or experience.
Someone who received care from your hospice might leave a legacy gift to ensure others receive the same support. Someone whose parent had dementia might support dementia research. These gifts aren’t just about the cause. They’re about the people who mattered to the donor.
How to inspire this: Share stories that show the human impact of your work. Make the connection between “someone like you” or “someone you loved” and “someone we’re helping today” clear and tangible.
They Want to Give Back
Some people leave legacy gifts out of gratitude for the life they’ve lived. They feel fortunate, they have enough, and they want to share that with causes that matter to them.
This motivation is particularly common among people who don’t have children or who have adult children who are financially secure. They look at their estate and think, “I have more than my family needs. I want some of this to go to causes I care about.”
How to inspire this: Normalise legacy giving as something generous, thoughtful people do. Frame it as a natural extension of the giving they’ve already been doing. Make it clear that legacy gifts don’t require wealth or sacrifice, just a desire to support what matters.
The Practical Motivations
They Want Tax Efficiency
Legacy gifts to registered charities are exempt from inheritance tax. For estates large enough to be subject to that tax, leaving a gift to charity can reduce the tax burden on their heirs whilst supporting causes they care about.
This isn’t about dodging taxes. It’s about making strategic decisions that benefit both their family and the causes they support.
How to inspire this: Provide clear information about tax benefits without making it the primary message. Include will wording that makes it easy for solicitors to structure gifts tax-efficiently.
They Want Simplicity
Many people leave legacy gifts because it’s easy and doesn’t affect their current finances.
Unlike regular giving or large one-time donations, legacy gifts don’t require any money now. Someone can pledge a legacy whilst keeping full control of their assets during their lifetime. They can change their mind if circumstances change.
How to inspire this: Make the process genuinely simple. Provide clear will wording that supporters can take to their solicitor. Explain that family comes first and legacy gifts come only after loved ones are provided for.
They Don’t Have Other Priorities for Their Estate
Some people leave legacy gifts because they don’t have children, close family, or other obvious beneficiaries for their estate.
Many people reach later life without the traditional family structure that dictates most estate planning. For these supporters, leaving gifts to charities they care about is a positive choice that gives their estate purpose and meaning.
How to inspire this: Don’t make assumptions about family structure. Approach everyone with the same respect and understanding. Some childless people will leave substantial gifts. Others have other priorities. Treat both as valid.
The Personal Motivations
They Were Asked
This is perhaps the most important motivation of all: someone asked them.
Most people don’t spontaneously think, “I should include a charity in my will.” Even people who care deeply about your cause, who’ve supported you for decades, often don’t do it simply because nobody ever suggested it.
How to inspire this: Ask. Directly. Clearly. Regularly. Include legacy giving information in your standard communications. Have conversations with long-term supporters. The more you ask, the more people will say yes.
They Trust You
People leave legacy gifts to charities they trust. That trust is built over years of good stewardship, transparent communication, and demonstrated impact.
Nobody leaves money to a charity they suspect will waste it or fail to deliver on its mission. Legacy pledgers are betting on your charity’s future. They need to believe you’ll still be around in 10, 20, 30 years and that you’ll use their gift well.
How to inspire this: Build trust through everything you do. Communicate transparently about finances, challenges, and impact. Steward donors well. Show that you’re stable, well-managed, and focused on your mission.
Someone They Know Did It
Legacy giving is socially influenced. People are more likely to leave legacy gifts if they know others who have.
When supporters hear stories about other people leaving legacy gifts, when they attend events with other legacy pledgers, when they see their peers recognised for including your charity in their wills, it normalises the idea.
How to inspire this: Share stories about legacy pledgers (with their permission). Create opportunities for legacy supporters to connect with each other. Make legacy giving visible so it becomes part of your charity’s culture.
What Doesn’t Motivate Legacy Gifts
Guilt doesn’t work. Making people feel bad for not leaving a legacy gift creates resentment, not commitment.
Pressure doesn’t work. Pushing people to pledge before they’re ready damages relationships and often leads to pledges being removed later.
Emotional manipulation doesn’t work. It might get a pledge, but it won’t create the genuine connection that keeps that pledge in someone’s will for decades.
Complexity doesn’t work. Making legacy giving seem difficult, technical, or only for wealthy people puts supporters off.
What does work is understanding what genuinely motivates people and connecting those motivations to your cause authentically.
The Bottom Line
People leave gifts in wills because they care about your cause and want to support it beyond their lifetime. Because they want to create lasting impact, honour someone they loved, or give back to the world. Because it’s tax-efficient, simple, and doesn’t affect their current finances. Because someone asked them and they trust you.
Your job isn’t to manufacture these motivations. It’s to recognise them in your supporters and give them the opportunity and encouragement to act on them.
Talk about the future your charity is building. Share stories of impact that connect emotionally. Make legacy giving simple and accessible. Ask supporters directly whether they’ve considered it. Build trust through good stewardship.
Most importantly, understand that legacy fundraising isn’t about what you need. It’s about what your supporters want: a way to support something they care about that outlives them.
Give them that opportunity clearly, confidently, and authentically, and more of them will take it.
Want to go deeper? Read our Complete Guide to Legacy and In-Memory Fundraising for comprehensive strategies on building programmes that work.
Need expert guidance? Join Fundraising Everywhere as a member for access to the Legacy & In-Memory Conference, workshops on messaging and stewardship, and a community of fundraisers working on the same challenges. Learn more about membership