Charities face a potential loss of as much as £1.5bn due to a drop in giving and fundraising, according to asset manager Rathbones.
In a new analysis of charitable giving, Rathbones found that only one in three (31%) adults who have written a will have left money to charity in 2025, compared to almost half (46%) of adults who said they had done so the previous year, a dramatic 15% point fall – based on a comparable value of estates, the fall could represent a drop of £1.5bn in giving.
The news comes in the run-up to Christmas, traditionally a positive time for donations known as Giving Season, and a time of year when many give thought to conversations around legacies and will-making when with family.
The charity sector has experienced a bruising year from a financial perspective, with previous Rathbones research showing a fall in both donations and volunteering, a collapse in giving in wills could be yet more damaging.
It means that if charities are losing such a vast chunk of their income there will be less for charitable organisations to invest, having an impact on them as institutional investors and creating potential problems for their financial stability further into the future.
The Legacy Giving Report 2025 estimates a record £4.5bn was given in legacy income to charities last year, but noted this was due to probate backlogs being cleared.
Legacy income accounts for an average of 30% of fundraising income across the top 1,000 charities, the report says, underlining its value.
Despite the anticipated fall in legacy giving, there is some positivity in the research in a continued desire to do so.
According to the study, around a third (30%) who are planning to write a will in the future say they will include a bequest for charity, which is the same number (30%) who said they would do this when asked in 2024.
Comments