Building a legacy

In this interview with STEP Journal Managing Editor, Kaitlyn Gutzke, Lucinda Frostick shares her wealth of knowledge from more than two decades in the charity sector. 

A long-standing advocate for legacy giving, Frostick offers her invaluable insight on trends and challenges in the sector, debunks common myths and explains how advisors can join the charge towards a future of giving.

Can you share a bit about your background in the charity sector?

Funnily enough, my very first role in the charity sector, more than 20 years ago now, brought me almost right to Remember A Charity. Having spent three years in financial services, mainly in a public relations (PR) capacity, I longed to work with a charitable cause and stumbled upon a PR role in a dynamic government-funded initiative called The Giving Campaign.

The campaign’s mission was to inspire a culture of philanthropy in the UK and I found myself utterly swept up in that goal from the word ‘go’. It was a short-term campaign, which meant there was little chance for office politics. The team was brilliant and the work was fascinating. We ran consumer programmes building awareness and understanding of tax-effective giving schemes like Gift Aid, supported charities in making best use of those tax reliefs and even developed a citizenship programme for schools.

In the office, we worked alongside a sister organisation, then known as the Legacy Promotion Campaign, with a mission to build and grow charitable gifts in wills. This organisation continued beyond The Giving Campaign and is now known as Remember A Charity.  

I went on to develop a career in communications, remaining in the charity sector. And if you’d told me at that point that I would be picking up the reins at Remember A Charity, many years later, I’m not sure I would have believed it.

What is the most rewarding thing about your role?

It might sound like a cliché, but it’s such a privilege working for an organisation where you know that, if you play your part and more people choose to leave a gift in their will, this will help generate significant funding for charities and charitable services for years to come. This is an incredibly motivating factor for all of us in the Remember A Charity team. Plus, the work itself is invigorating and exciting. We can be bold and humorous with our consumer campaigns, innovative in the way we find new opportunities to accelerate market growth, and determined in our collective voice for the sector.

What are some of the challenges facing the sector? 

The economic landscape has had a devastating influence on charities, with the COVID-19 pandemic, funding cuts and rising living costs all taking their toll. The upshot is that far too many charities are facing closure or have had to cut back on crucial services, and all at a time when the public needs their support more than ever.

Charities need a mix of short and longer term funding streams to diversify their income and to operate cost-effectively, but in this environment, charitable legacies have become even more vital, with gifts in wills now bringing in around GBP3 in every GBP10 of public donations to UK charities.[1]

What are some of the current trends you have noticed?

Perhaps the most important trend from our perspective is the continued rise in appetite for legacy giving, with more people choosing to leave a gift in their will each year. Our consumer benchmarking studies show that around one in five charity supporters aged over 40 now say they have written a gift into their will;[2] a considerable increase from one in seven in 2010. Still, twice as many people (two in five) say they would be happy to give in this way, leaving considerable scope for growth. Part of our role is to unlock that desire to give, removing the barriers and inspiring people to consider their charitable legacy.

It's fascinating to explore how the causes and charities people choose to support can change over time. I often think of charitable legacies as a barometer for people’s values and most-loved causes. After all, we can be quite impulsive when we give; supporting a friend who is selling raffle tickets, sponsoring a colleague running the marathon or donating to a fundraiser we meet in passing. But a gift from a will is usually something people think about deeply; it's symbolic of who we are and what we believe in, and it influences how we’re remembered when we’re gone. 

In terms of how the market is changing, we’re seeing greater breadth and diversification. Not so long ago, it was mainly the largest and most well-known charities benefitting from legacies, but now there are around 11,000 charities named in wills each year, including smaller, younger and many local community-based organisations, to whom a sizable legacy can be utterly transformational. 

While health and animal charities still have the lion’s share of charitable legacy income, increasingly people are choosing to donate to causes such as mental health, homelessness, the environment and human rights. It’s exciting to see more charities named in wills and this shift is hugely important for the future of the charity sector. 

From the public’s perspective, this breadth is key too. People need to understand that no matter what charity they care about, how much or how little they wish to give, this type of giving can work for them. Their will can be a wonderful opportunity to shape the world they leave behind. 

What do you think the future of legacy giving looks like?

With the baby boomer generation increasing the volume of estates passing through probate, legacy giving is predicted to grow over the longer term and I would expect it to become even more diversified with more causes being named in wills. However, an ageing population will inevitably see the demand for charitable services rise further still, increasing the need for legacy donations.

Can you tell us about Remember A Charity? 

Remember A Charity is a consortium of almost 200 charities working collaboratively to grow the charitable legacy market here in the UK. Although we work all year round, the campaign is best known for running Remember A Charity Week, which takes place during the week of 9–15 September 2024. This is a great opportunity not only for us to reach the public, but to activate our partners and professional advisor networks to equip them with the resources and tips they need to participate in the week, using the platform to engage with new and existing valued clients about writing or updating their will.

What initiatives is the organisation currently involved in? 

There are three main strands of our work, which include: 

• delivering high-profile consumer campaigns to build public understanding of charitable legacies; 
• working with professional advisors to normalise charitable will-writing; and 
• serving as a collective voice to protect and nurture the UK legacy giving environment.

Recently, for example, we lobbied government, highlighting the importance of the inheritance tax incentives for legacy giving, and we continue to work with HM Courts and Tribunals Service to convey the impact of probate delays on charitable beneficiaries alongside grieving families.

What advice can you give practitioners advising clients, in relation to legacy giving? 

Professional advisors play such a key role in making clients aware of the opportunity of including a charity in their will. Research carried out by our Behavioural Insights Team over a decade ago showed us that just by raising the charitable option with clients, advisors double the chances that a client includes a charity in their will. That’s why working with STEP and other trade bodies is so important if we are to succeed in normalising legacy giving here in the UK. We encourage all estate practitioners and advisors to make relevant clients aware of the option of leaving a charitable gift, offering resources to support them in raising the topic at Remember A Charity’s website and through our free Campaign Supporter scheme. This ensures that clients know that this option is open to them, that they understand the tax breaks, so that they can make an informed decision. 

Often advisors tell us that these discussions with clients can be a great opportunity to deepen relationships and that they are an empowering part of people’s estate planning.

Are there any myths or common misconceptions in the industry that people should know? 

There are a couple of key misconceptions that are front of mind. The first is the myth that people need to have considerable wealth or no family to leave a charitable gift in their will. In reality, people can give any sum and gifts can fit around their wishes for their loved ones. Typically, charitable legacies are given as a fixed sum or pecuniary gift, but the greatest value by far comes from residuary donations, where people give a percentage (or the remainder) of their estate. Residuary gifts can help inflation-proof donations and to structure them in line with the tax incentives, but we encourage people to speak to an advisor for specialist support.

The other misconception is around the reasons why people don’t leave a gift to charity in their will. We ask this question in our professional advisor and consumer benchmarking studies. Solicitors and will-writers rightly say that wanting to leave the full estate to family is one of the main reasons, but they also think it’s because clients are concerned that charitable gifts might lead to dispute with their family. However, when we ask the public this question, the issue of dispute is rarely cited. In fact, our consumer polling shows that family members often feel a sense of pride when thinking about the charities included in their loved ones’ wills. For charity supporters, other than taking care of their family, one of the key reasons they say they don’t include a gift is simply that they didn’t think of it at the time they wrote their will. Nobody raised it with them. And this emphasises again why advisors really do play such a crucial role in the charitable legacy landscape. 

[1] Legacy Foresight 2024, based on the top 1,000 legacy charities

[2] Legacies on the rise: tracking study, 15 April 2024