Should you donate to charity in your will?

Fewer people than ever are donating to charity – and the reason isn’t difficult to grasp.

Rising living costs mean many people simply feel unable to give. The Charities Aid Foundation’s UK Giving Report shows that only half of people donated to charity in the past 12 months, with donations and sponsorship at their lowest level since records began.

When 5,945 people were asked why they hadn’t donated, 44% said they couldn’t afford it.

Whether your budget is being squeezed, or you're helping loved ones under financial pressure, charities may not be top of your agenda.

But what if there was a way to help both loved ones and the causes you care about, without cutting your spending today?

Here we explore how you can make a difference in your will, the tax incentives you could benefit from and the mistakes to avoid so every penny counts.

The impact of a legacy

Every day around the British Isles, in fair weather and foul, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is out saving lives – 23 a day, it estimates. It’s among the most popular of the charities mentioned in our December survey of 1,334 Which? members, many of whom live by the coast and have seen the RNLI at work.

Six in 10 of those lifeboat launches are funded by donations in people’s wills, often referred to as legacies.

‘Many of the charities we work with and across the UK are reliant on legacies’ says Lucinda Frostick, chief executive of Remember a Charity, which brings together 200 charities to encourage such donations. 

She notes that for some charities under severe pressure from falling donations and rising demand, such as the Youth Action & Diversity Trust, legacies can literally keep the doors open. 

Legacies account for 30% of the fundraising income of the top 1,000 charities that receive them, according to the Legacy Giving Report.

You can write a donation to a specific charity or charities in your will and, when you die, your executors will ensure it’s paid.

You don’t have to name a specific amount in your will (a pecuniary gift); instead you could stipulate a percentage goes to charity (a residuary gift) or that money goes to charity under certain conditions, such as beneficiaries no longer being alive (a contingent gift). You can donate assets to charity, which they can use, or sell to generate income.

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‘No matter what age somebody is, that donation will matter’

One of the key attractions of leaving a donation in your will is that it doesn’t require you to give money now. 

‘Giving is a bit of a journey’, says Frostrick. ‘You might be in a position to give much more generously later in life than now. No matter what age somebody is, that donation will matter.’

It’s possible to insist a donation is increased by inflation, so it will have the same purchasing power in future. 

This can make all the difference, explains James Antoniou, head of estate planning & senior solicitor at Co-op Legal Services, ‘If you’re thinking about leaving a token £100 or £250 to charity, if you’re 30 and going to live for many more years it could be the equivalent of a bus ticket by that time.’

If you don’t have a will, leaving a legacy can help you get one for free. Many charities provide will-writing services if you include a legacy, and during the free wills months in March and October many solicitors will draw you up a will if you’re over 55 and write in a donation.

Having an up-to-date will can make all the difference to loved ones. An unmarried partner, even if they live with you, don’t automatically inherit your assets without a will; the same goes for step-children or foster children. 

The lack of clarity can lead to disputes and those most in need won’t necessarily be prioritised.

Writing or updating a will is also a spur to hold difficult but important conversations about, as Frostrick puts it, ‘the triumvirate of topics we don’t talk about – death, taxes and money’. This goes beyond inheritance, including provision for children, care in later life and even funeral plans.

And when it comes to taxes, leaving a legacy doesn’t just help with planning – it can increase the amount of money your loved ones will receive.

The inheritance tax discount

Thanks to a combination of allowances, your estate – what’s left when you die – may not incur much or any inheritance tax (IHT). 

But with IHT charged at a rate of 40% it can take a huge bite out of what your loved ones might receive. And with defined contribution pensions soon to count towards your estate from April 2027, you might leave more than you expected.

Donations to charity in your will won’t be taxed, and won’t use up your allowances. Furthermore, if you leave 10% or more of your taxable estate to charity, the rate of IHT applied to the rest will fall from 40% to 36%.

The tax discount means that, in some situations, leaving more to charity will mean your beneficiaries inherit more. 

If you’re planning to leave more than 4%, you may as well leave 10%, as the money saved from tax compensates for the money going to charity.

However, Antoniou warns that the 10% rule is ‘never quite as simple as the headline suggests’. 

You need to donate 10% of what’s left after allowances have been applied, not your overall wealth. Indeed, estimating how much your wealth (including property) can be worth, potentially decades in the future, can be difficult. 

If you believe your estate is likely to incur inheritance tax (our calculator can help you work this out), it could be worth talking to a financial adviser and solicitor about your plans to help loved ones and donate. 

Antoniou points out this has the added benefit of providing written evidence from an independent source about your reasons for donating in case your will is contested.

Why wait to donate?

Large donations in a will require thinking through. James Buchan, solicitor at Which? Wills, warns that legacies take priority over the residuary estate (eg what will be left to your family). 

If you’ve specified a specific sum to go to charity, and the value of your estate shrinks, the executors are legally required to make sure the charity gets its share. 

This could involve, for instance, having to sell the family home or other assets that were intended to be passed on, though beneficiaries can make up shortfalls in the estate with their own money to ensure this doesn’t happen. 

How you instruct IHT bills to be paid could also end up with beneficiaries receiving less than expected. A will writer or solicitor can help avert these problems.

There is also a separate question of timing. ‘The last thing we would want to do is discourage people from donating during their lifetime,’ says Frostick. ‘By giving now, you allow charities to act now.’ 

Unlike legacies, donations you make in your lifetime benefit from Gift Aid, as long as you’re a taxpayer. The charity gets to claim back an extra 25p for every £1 you donate, at no cost to you; you simply need to complete a simple Gift Aid declaration provided by the charity.

If you pay higher or additional-rate income tax, Gift Aid can benefit you. On your self-assessment tax return you can claim back the difference between the tax you’ve paid on the donation and what the charity got from gift aid. 

Say you’re a higher-rate taxpayer who donates £100 to charity and the charity claims Gift Aid to make your donation £125. You pay 40% tax so you can personally claim back £25 (£125 x 20%).

Like legacies, donations in your lifetime can also reduce the size of your estate, meaning less or none of it will incur inheritance tax. However, only legacies can get you the reduced rate of inheritance tax.

The balance to be struck between donating in your lifetime and your will is similar to the dilemma over when to give money to loved ones. The tax system rewards giving and gifting in your lifetime, through Gift Aid and IHT-free allowances. 

But you’ll still need money to live on, and a home to live in, so the most generous legacies and gifts may have to wait until you no longer need either.

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5 tips for leaving a donation in your will

If you’re thinking about leaving a donation in your will, it’s worth getting the basics right.

1. Pick a charity

Start with a cause you care about: Which? members planned to donate in their will to charities involved in research into health conditions that had affected them or their family, such as health, or when they had observed its work in the UK and abroad. 

The Remember a Charity website lets you search and filter its member charities by cause, while The Charity Commission has the full list of registered charities.

2. Estate planning

Deciding who will inherit what is a core part of reducing inheritance tax, given you can pass on assets tax-free to your spouse or civil partner, and get an extra £175,000 allowance if your main home is left to direct descendants. 

This will help you decide how much to donate and whether your donation is enough to qualify for an inheritance tax discount.

3. Write or update your will

‘The biggest mistake we see is someone not taking proper advice and trying to deal with things themselves’ says James Antoniou. 

While you can write a will yourself, using a solicitor or a well-reviewed will-writing service can help avoid errors. 

With many charities having similar names, including the charity reference number is essential and you can stipulate a back-up option if the charity has ceased operating, or ask your executors to choose a charity supporting a similar cause.

4. Discuss with loved ones

As Antoniou observes, ‘any will can be challenged’ but ‘the most important factor to stop a challenge being brought is good communication and good record keeping’. 

A letter of wishes to accompany your will can explain your decisions, but won’t deal with the problem of loved ones being surprised at receiving less than expected, which an open discussion can. And it needn’t be confrontational. 

Reflecting on her own discussion with her father about his donation plans, Frostrick recalls that ‘I felt a real sense of pride that he wanted to do this, it became a journey of discovery and felt I knew my dad better as a result of it.’

• Find out more: 4 important money matters to discuss with loved ones in 2026

5. Keep your will updated

You can always change your will to protect loved ones, such as by reducing a donation if your wealth shrinks, or to adjust plans following a divorce. 

But most reasons to update a will are positive, such as wanting to cater for newly-born children and grandchildren, or finding new causes you’re passionate about and want to support.