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Felix Dennis the entrepreneur has left the biggest UK charitable legacy ever. Estimated at around £175 million. Is it for a big charity? No, it is for “his” 30,000 acre forest in Warwickshire. His legacy has fulfilled his own vision. The three largest legacies in the history of UK legacies have been Christina Foyle, Anita Roddick and now

This could be considered a cruel blog. It is aimed at fundraisers around the world where legacy fundraising is often called planned giving. Planned giving should be re-named planned fundraising. Why? Because it is so easy to plan to do it but you do not get round to it. Pressures on your professional life can

I know I shoot from the hip occasionally (and I hope it encourages debate) but I feel incredibly passionate about regulation because I was around when the Institute of fundraising was founded. It was founded  to ensure best practice (for fundraisers) , and to ensure donors were, in effect, made “happy donors” in terms of recognising

On a BBC2 programme this week I discovered that the British public spend more on chicken breasts than they give in legacies to charities every year. That is very depressing. Please dear British public do not chicken out, act now and lay the foundations for financial security for your favourite charities by a gift in your Will

My blog on Tony Elischer’s article seems to have ignited passions around the world with some expressing real outrage, through Twitter,  at the thought of giving donors a break from an ask and focusing more on a thank you. This fascinates me. I am not someone who thinks we should NOT ask, but in this recession my

charities spend a lot on branding or rather re-branding. This can have a really detrimental effect on legacy income because the older generations get confused by the change (if it is radical and involves aname change) and is also seemingly expensive. It can also have side effects and one example I saw on a lorry