Wills and keaving to charity

I know what you mean Peonyrose it's a real dilemma. As you wish to nominate a children's charity I'm sure a Google search will come up with lots. Have you considered Childline, Salvation Army or a children's hospice? I think you're wise to do wills regardless of the charity you nominate. My tablet also predicts words and changes to some weird and wonderful ones - some can be quite embarrassing if not spotted

If you have a straightforward will you could do it yourself online. The MoneySavingExpert website had a link to one last year on a free offer, worth keeping an eye out on there. I did mine and they were good I thought, they check it for you and ask questions (I didn’t want to include somebody). I’ve kept a subscription with them for £10 a year and it means I can change my will any time for no further charge.

Gillybob* Can’t you just name all your beneficiaries and then make a statement that you don’t wish to leave anything to so-and-so because of whatever-reasons, then they can’t make a claim later that you forgot them?

a kind of anti-will you mean Hooty ?

To be fair I don't have a lot to leave anyone but would hate to leave my DS and DD with a mess to sort out.

There are lots of very good Children's Charities. Try Googling "Children's Charities" using the quotation marks, and see what you find. You could add an Area inside the quotation marks to find "local" ones, if you wish. National and International ones will probably show in the results, in any case. My hubby and I have listed lots of Charities in our Wills, as our family are already well provided for and have said that they do not need anything. Obviously, we have still left personal bequests, but this whole matter is different for each of us, and entirely down to personal choice.

I worked in the charity sector for some years and frankly was horrified. I went from nursing to a large UK wide charity. I was provided with a lease car that was around 20k in value. The expenses I could claim were unreasonably high. I found out the first charity I worked for only had 6p in the pound that went to the actual cause! Ask the charity what percentage is used for the beneficiaries and how much for running costs and make your decision based on that.

Not all charities’ funding goes to beneficiaries in a direct way, cancer research, Alzheimer’s research, for example.
Another example : Each Citizens Advice is a charity, but does not give money to people. The overheads have to be paid, and there are paid staff too, caseworkers, supervisors, IT specialists, researchers, admin, but much of the day to day advice is given by volunteers. How do you quantify that?

I think if you wish to give money to charity you need to do your homework and follow your heart.

I am head of finance at a medium sized charity.

Charities are tightly regulated now. In order to comply with regulations they must be administered properly. If the charity's income is more than a few thousand pounds per annum, it is not a job for well intentioned amateurs.

Charities mostly (some not - they are called exempt charities) have to file their accounts with the Charities' Commission. You can look them up on the CC website. Look at the Income and Expenditure account and Reserves (particularly the General Fund). If the General Reserves are more than a year's net income then they probably don't need your money. Next look at the pay of the highest paid employee (it will be in the Notes.) If it's much more than about £120,000 inside the London area, £100,000 outside, they are paying too much and you should avoid them. Finally try to work out what they are spending on administration. It should be roughly 10-20% of their income. Much less and you get the danger of things going Very Wrong (think Kid's Company.) Much more and it's possibly being wasted.

Those would be my rules of thumb for working out where to give money.

I listened to a Radio 4 programme a few years ago where the discussion was about Will bequests to charities.

One elderly person had been persuaded to leave a percentage of their estate (mainly consisting of their house) to a well known charity (I can't remember which) that she used to collect for.

The house was put up for sale by the executors and an offer accepted. However the charity named in the Will blocked the sale as they said the offer was not good enough and they had to protect the amount of money that could be raised for the charity. This left the family in a predicament as they had to renew the insurance and continue to upkeep the property for a further number of years until an offer was accepted by the charity.

A representative of the charity was interviewed and asked to comment on the stress put upon the family, and their suggestion was that if the bequest had been for a particular sum and not a percentage of the estate they would have agreed to an earlier sale of the property so they could benefit from the money left to them.

I also prefer to give to charity now not after I die. McMillan, Water Aid, Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes and I sponsor various people people doing charity events.

I currently have not named a charity in my will. I do DD contributions every month to the local cancer hospital that my son was treated at and to an African charity as I am sponsoring a child through school and hopefully if here long enough through university and medical school. This girl wants to become a doctor and go back to Uganda and help her own people. I get letter contact from her a couple of times a year and sent extra once a year for her to have a Christmas present .

We made our wills in 1987, girls were young, DH went abroad for work frequently. We left £500 each to the local British Heart Foundation. It now seems that the money went into the general pot when he died in 2011. Not what we wanted ? I changed my will 5 years ago, no Charity donation. I give now to those who need it ie Food Bank, Red Box for Schools and the local Hospice. My clothes and books go to charity shops.

I have 3 DDs to charities.
Before I'm on my last legs I plan to donate specific sums for specific items or purposes to those 3 for either equipment or beds or training, not to go into an all-purpose pit pot.
I will tell them the amount, they will give me option as to what they would like for that amount and I will make the amount out to the 'seller' or training establishment.
That way I know every penny has gone on the gift.