The proportion of charity donors who say they have left gifts to charity in their wills has increased by about a half since 2010, latest figures show.
Research published by the legacy consortium Remember A Charity shows that 17 per cent of charity supporters aged 40 or over polled by the research charity nfpSynergy said they had included charitable bequests in their wills, up from 11 per cent in 2010.
The proportion of respondents who said they were planning to do so remained flat over the same period at 10 per cent.
The figures mean that the number of people who have left or are considering leaving charitable gifts in their wills has reached record levels, according to Remember A Charity.
Researchers, who polled 1,000 charity donors in November and December, found that the proportion of respondents who said they were unaware of legacy giving had fallen from 20 per cent in 2010 to 11 per cent this time around.
They found that 9 per cent of respondents rejected the idea of leaving a charitable legacy, down by three percentage points from 2010.
Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, which comprises more than 200 charity members, said: “We’re continuing to see growth in legacy giving over the long term, which is fantastic news for charities across the sector.
“It’s clear that there’s a real appetite for supporters to do something meaningful for good causes at the end of their lives, and charities are communicating legacies well, creatively and sensitively, demonstrating how important they are in funding vital services.
“Legacy growth is being driven not only by charities communicating their own legacy cases for support, but their willingness to work together to grow the market. Having a proactive and collaborative approach to legacies is critical if the sector is to succeed in normalising legacy giving and increasing the income pot so that there every charity can benefit.”
Figures from Legacy Foresight last month showed that the voluntary sector might expect to receive £500m more in legacy income over the next five years than was previously estimated.