68% of People Choose to 'Leave Their Mark' on the World By Including a Charity in Their Will

When asked how they would like to ‘leave their mark on the world, a donation to charity topped the list but the research also revealed some of the more unusual selections:

• Donation made to your favourite charity 68%
• Planting of a tree in your name 58%
• Donation of your body to medical research 38%
• Publication of your memoirs 17%
• To become cryogenically frozen 8%

When asked whether they would include a charity in their will if writing one today, as many as 62% of the general public stated that they would leave a donation to charity. Women were more likely (66%) than men (59%) to choose to donate to charity.

Jonathan Parris, Director of Remember A Charity, says:

"This research highlights public goodwill towards charities and recognises donations as the most popular way to ‘leave your mark’ on the world. By increasing awareness around just how easy it is to support your favourite charity in this way, we hope to see this figure rise substantially over the coming years.”

This news comes at the same time as Remember A Charity’s national awareness campaign which aims to raise awareness about the importance of charitable legacies. The Campaign has issued the first ever multi-charity interactive TV ad – now playing on Channel 4 and More 4. The ‘I will. Will you?’ campaign, fronted by Michael Buerk, highlights the importance of charitable legacies, enabling TV viewers to click on the ‘red button’ to request more information about charitable legacies and to find out about any of the 140 charities behind the consortium. The TV campaign is complemented by targeted press advertising throughout March.

Remember A Charity is a consortium of over 140 charities working to raise awareness of charitable legacies and to increase legacy income to UK charities.

For more information or a free will guide, visit www.rememberacharity.org.uk