Leaving a gift to charity in your will
A charitable gift is easy to make and easy to get wrong. This covers the three kinds of gift and how they behave, and how to name a charity so the money actually reaches it. It is general information about the law in England and Wales, not legal or tax advice: we are will writers, not solicitors.
Three kinds of gift, and why the difference matters
A pecuniary gift is a fixed sum of money: a set amount to a named charity. It is simple, but it stays fixed in cash terms for as long as the will stands, so a sum that felt right when the will was signed can be small by the time it is paid. Fixed sums are settled before residue, and if the estate cannot cover them all they are usually scaled back against each other.
A specific gift is a particular asset: a painting, a holding of shares, a plot of land. If you no longer own it when you die, the gift usually fails and nothing is substituted for it. Selling the shares to pay for care can quietly cancel the gift, so it is worth naming a fallback.
A residuary gift is a share of what is left after debts, funeral costs, expenses, tax and every other gift. Written as a percentage it moves with the estate, so it does not need revisiting for inflation, and it holds its proportion if the estate grows. If you use percentages, check they total 100 across all beneficiaries, or the part left undisposed passes under the intestacy rules.
Name the charity so the money can find it
Three things identify a charity with the least room for argument: its full legal name, its registered charity number and its registered office address. The name alone is not enough. Near identical names exist, and a local branch or area association can be a separate legal entity from the national charity, with its own number and its own bank account. Executors who cannot tell which was meant may have to stop and take advice, at the estate's expense.
Check the details on the register of charities kept by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) in Scotland, or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. Not every charity appears on a register. Where there is genuinely no number, use the full legal name and the registered address.
Then decide whether the gift is for the charity's general purposes or for a restricted purpose. General purposes is often the safer default: a restriction the charity no longer carries out can leave a gift stuck, or refused outright. If a particular use matters to you, a letter of wishes alongside the will says so without binding anyone.
If the charity merges, renames or closes
Charities merge, rebrand and occasionally close, and a will can outlast all three. Naming the charity by its full name and its registered charity number is what lets the people dealing with your estate identify the right organisation years later.
The fix is a clause, not a rewrite. Ask for wording that sends the gift to whichever body has taken over the work or the assets of the charity you named, and that lets your executors decide which body qualifies.
If the charity has closed and nothing has succeeded it, the gift can fail. It then falls into residue, or, where it was itself the gift of residue, passes under the intestacy rules. Rather than rely on any of that, name a substitute charity, or give your executors power to choose one doing similar work.
Inheritance tax: where to check the current position
Thresholds, rates and the rules on which charities qualify change, and they have changed in recent years. GOV.UK carries the current position, and there is an official calculator for estates where a charitable gift may reduce the rate of inheritance tax. Check there, and take advice from a solicitor or a tax adviser before relying on any figure.
What to have to hand before the clause is written
Have these ready before the clause is drafted.
- The charity's full legal name, exactly as registered.
- Its registered charity number, from the Charity Commission register in England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland, or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. If the charity has no registered number, its full legal name and registered address instead.
- Its registered office address.
- Which kind of gift you want: a fixed sum, a specific item, or a percentage of residue.
- Whether it is for general purposes or a restricted purpose.
- A merger and successor clause, so the gift can follow the charity through a rename or amalgamation.
- A substitute charity, or a power for your executors to choose one, in case it has closed.
- If you are using percentages of residue, confirmation that they total 100 across everyone.
What a will cannot do here, and when to use a solicitor
This page is general information about how charitable gifts in wills work in England and Wales, not legal or tax advice on your own situation: we are will writers, not solicitors. Some of what follows needs someone who is.
- A charitable gift does not put an estate beyond challenge. Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 a spouse or civil partner, a former spouse or civil partner who has not remarried or formed a new civil partnership, a partner who lived in the same household as you, as if married or in a civil partnership, for the whole of the two years before your death, a child, a person treated as a child of your family, and anyone you were maintaining wholly or partly immediately before your death can apply to the court for provision, and the court can cut into gifts left to charity to make it. If you are leaving out someone who might expect to inherit, take legal advice and record your reasons.
- If the 10 per cent reduced rate is the point of the exercise, have the arithmetic done by a solicitor or a tax adviser. Baseline amounts, component elections and the grossing up that applies when residue is split between charity and taxable beneficiaries are technical. A will that aims at 10 per cent and lands at 9 gets none of the benefit.
- Business or agricultural property, private company shares, land, assets abroad, or an existing trust: use a solicitor. Those reliefs interact with a charitable gift in ways a standard will is not built to handle.
- A will cannot make a charity spend the money the way you would have. A restricted gift can be drafted, but a charity may decline a restriction it cannot deliver. If the use matters to you, speak to the charity in your lifetime.
- This page is England and Wales. Scots law differs on what a surviving spouse, civil partner or child can claim regardless of what the will says, so a Scottish estate needs advice from a Scottish firm.
Common questions
Do I have to tell the charity?
No. There is no obligation, and you can change your will at any time. Some people tell the charity so it can plan, and many charities will confirm their correct legal name and registered number if you ask. Telling them commits you to nothing.
Is there a minimum amount?
No. There is no legal minimum for a charitable gift in a will. The 10 per cent figure people quote is only the threshold for the reduced inheritance tax rate, not a minimum for giving.
Will leaving 10 per cent to charity mean my family gets more?
Usually not. Giving more to charity leaves less for everyone else, because the tax saved is smaller than the gift. That is a question about your specific numbers, not a general rule.
Can I leave my whole estate to charity?
Yes. In England and Wales no share is reserved for family. But a spouse or civil partner, a former spouse or civil partner who has not remarried or formed a new civil partnership, a partner who lived in the same household as you, as if married or in a civil partnership, for the whole of the two years before your death, a child, a person treated as a child of the family, or anyone you were maintaining can apply to the court under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, and the court can order provision out of an estate left entirely to charity. If that is your plan, get legal advice and leave a written record of your reasons.
Start when you are ready
If you already know which charity, a will writer can take the details over the phone and talk through how you want the gift recorded: £49 for a single will, normally £249. Offer ends 31 August.
Family & Estate Will £49, normally £249. Couples Will for you and your partner £99, normally £498. Offer ends 31 August.