This is entirely up to you! Of course, you’ll first want to make provision for your family and that should be your priority. But after you’ve taken care of your loved ones, please prayerfully consider leaving a gift to Compassion and, indeed, other causes you are passionate about.

A couple of things that might help your planning: please consider leaving a percentage of your estate, rather than a fixed amount, in your Will. It provides much more flexibility for whatever happens to your financial circumstances in the future, and even small amounts such as 1% or 2% can make an enormous difference. Plus there might be inheritance tax benefits to donating to charity in your Will which you may want to take financial advice about.

We would be delighted to know if you plan to leave us a gift in your will, and we will update your supporter record to reflect this. We’ll also add you to the special communications we have with people who’ve chosen to leave legacy gifts, plus we’ll also make sure you stop getting asked to leave a legacy in the future! 

Of course, we’ll also make sure we know to look after the child you sponsor and support them financially until they depart the programme, and find someone to write to and pray for them.   

Just let EstherA@compassionuk.org know that you’ve left us a legacy and she’ll do the rest.   

Knowing about future legacy pledges is extremely helpful for Compassion to decide how we spend our limited marketing budgets. We might contact you to learn which of our promotions are working so we can steward our advertising budgets more carefully in future and prioritise those activities with the best response rates.   

Please name Compassion UK, rather than any sponsored children by name in your will. You never know what changes might happen to the children you sponsor in the future, and we commit to ensuring your child will be supported throughout the programme using your legacy gift.   

A relatively large amount of money given to a child or young adult living in the poor communities we serve could even be a harmful thing – it can take a lot of time and effort for our staff to make contact with someone who left the programme years earlier, plus a one-off large gift to someone in poverty could put them at risk of attack or exploitation from others in their local area.   

If you have any questions about how to sign up for a gift in will, please contact EstherA@compassionuk.org who will be very happy to help you.  

Our Legacies team (giftsinwill@compassionuk.org) can answer any questions you have and they’re also the team to tell once you’ve made a legacy pledge in your Will.

If you wish, Compassion can use your gift to support any child or children you sponsor until they complete their time in the Compassion programme. We’ll even find someone else to write letters and pray for them.

To make this happen, please contact us after you’ve set up your Will, and we’ll mark on your supporter record that Compassion UK will continue to support the child you sponsor until they leave the programme. We promise to do this even if the amount Compassion receives in your Will ends up being less than the costs of supporting your sponsored child in the programme over multiple years. And, of course, any extra money will be passed on as a blessing to other children in poverty.

As we’ve carefully stewarded your sponsorship donations over many years, we will also steward your legacy gift. Our administration and fundraising costs are amongst the lowest in the charity sector, ensuring most of your donations reach children who need them.