And it is expected to more than double again by 2050, with the total value of all inheritances in Germany between now and then projected to equal €6.4 trillion, the report says.

Legacy Futures began its first pilot project in Germany in February 2025, working with 13 leading charities including Greenpeace Deutschland, WWF Deutschland and Amnesty International.

Those 13 collectively received €149m from 1,169 legacies in 2024, an average of about €127,000 per gift. This represented 23% of their total donor income.

More awareness, fewer staff

The report notes that the number of legacies to charities is growing faster than the country’s mortality rate (1.4%), suggesting growing awareness of charitable bequests.

However, there appears to still be a significant untapped market, with 82% of Germans aged 50+ saying that they had not seen any communication, and only 20% saying they were positive about charitable bequests.

It also notes that 65% of people in this age group do not yet have a will, but 15% plan to write one during the next five years.

The report notes that despite legacies contributing a quarter of donor income, the 13 charities in the project dedicate just 4.8% of fundraising and marketing staff time, a figure which has declined slightly in recent times.

The 13 charities in the project saw legacy income grow 13.3% annually between 2019 and 2024. This compared to 8.5% and 4.5% respectively for Legacy Futures’ consortia of charities in the Netherlands and the UK.

Fundraising Europe reported last year that half of UK millionaires have included a charitable gift in their will, rising to 75% for those worth in excess of £5m – and that the 200 largest charitable organisations in the Netherlands received a record amount of €464m from legacies in 2023.

Photo by Tobias Aufschläger via Pexels

Nearly a third (31%) of this fundraising income came from legacies, a category which has grown by 32% in the past four years.

Nearly 8.8m people in the Netherlands supported charities during the year, and 255,000 volunteered for them, says the report. It is based on figures from 235 of GDN’s members, who together make up the vast majority of the total sector income.

Total income for these charities – including other sources such as grants, public funding and trading revenues – rose by 7% to €4.6bn.

Even fundraising growth

The Netherlands’ largest charities had the fastest overall growth rates.

Organisations with annual income above €20m increased their total income by 8% (or a total €283 million), while small (less than €5m income) and medium-sized charities both grew at half that rate (4%).

However, fundraising income growth was more evenly distributed, with large charities growing 6%, medium-sized charities 8%, and smaller charities 6%.

Education charities: legacy boost

Looking at individual sectors, education saw by far the largest overall fundraising income increase at 38%, or an extra €2m.

The much larger health and social welfare sectors were the next fastest growing, adding 11% – or €41m and €21m respectively.

A significant factor in education charities’ increased fundraising was a 500% rise in legacy income to just over €1m – it was worth nearly half (48%) of the sector’s total income in the year.

The only sector for whom legacies were worth more than half of fundraised income was arts and culture, at 68%.

Looking at spending on charitable activities, nature and environment charities increased their outlay most substantially at 23% (an extra €96m), alongside animal welfare charities (also 23% or €18m), and health organisations (22%, €89m).

Staff and fundraising costs

Across the sector as a whole, 90% of income is spent on charitable activity (as opposed to back office costs including fundraising) a figure that drops slightly among smaller and medium-sized charities.

The proportion of income spent on fundraising operations ranges from 5% in international aid and social welfare to 12% in animal welfare, and 10% in arts and culture, and education.

Feiten & Cijfers also looks at figures around charity sector staff and salaries.

The average director salary in 2024 was €134,498 in large charities, €89,774 in medium charities, and €116,390 in smaller ones.

The 235 charities participating in the study employed 15,326 full-time equivalent staff in 2024, virtually unchanged from 2023. More than half (58%) of these worked in social welfare organisations.

Picture by Helena Jankovičová Kováčová from Pixabay

Those estates make up just 27% of total estate wealth, but deliver 33% of all charitable bequests, according to new data from Legacy Futures and Smee & Ford, both consultancies working in the wills and legacy giving space.

The new analysis notes that while estates worth more than £3m hold 23% of assets, they contribute only 12% of charitable bequests.

It also shows that giving correlates with wealth – just 6% of estates under £100,000 include a charitable gift, increasing to 29% of estates over £5 million.

However, wealthier donors prefer to make specific cash gifts in their wills, while smaller estates are more likely to include a residuary gift. Residuary gifts, which involve promising a percentage of the estate after relevant debt, taxes and other specific payments are made, tend to more generous than cash gifts.

This new analysis was released by Legacy Futures and Smee & Ford to support the launch of Legacy Navigator, an online platform to support charities in their legacy fundraising. Its features include real-time legacy tracking; benchmarking tools; and access to webinars, training and insight reports.

Ashley Rowthorn, CEO of Legacy Futures, says:

“The £1-3m sweet spot is where legacy fundraising delivers maximum impact and charities looking to grow income from gifts in wills can’t afford to overlook the power of the mid-value donor.”

The new analysis builds on data released by Legacy Futures earlier this year, which showed that legacy gifts provided a total of £4.5bn to UK charities in 2024. The organisation expects that to more than double to £10bn by 2050.

Picture by cottonbro studio on Pexels

In the UK, legacies now raise an annual £4.5bn for charities, providing an invaluable and resilient income stream for organisations of all sizes and across all causes. As a young charity that took over the responsibilities of the state-owned British Waterways however, pre-2022 the Canal & River Trust hadn’t done much in the way of legacy marketing.

Despite this, we had already received a few gifts in wills that were making a difference by funding projects. We could also see that other charities within our cause area were very successfully fundraising for legacies. So, in 2021 – as we approached our 10^th anniversary year – the Trust appointed me as a dedicated gifts in wills manager to help design and implement a legacy fundraising strategy. This appointment saw me focusing on three key areas: increasing the profile of gifts in wills, creating a culture to promote them, and celebrating their impact.

Starting from the beginning – engaging warm donors

With no database of enquirers about gifts in wills at this point, we initially concentrated on promoting legacy giving to our warm ‘Friends’ audience – supporters who give regularly each month. This enabled us to use existing insights to understand what messaging would resonate, and through which channels.

We were able to drip feed our gifts in wills messaging throughout existing communications – including monthly emails and our supporter magazine – sharing pledger stories and case studies. Starting with two pilot events in 2022, we also launched a legacy enquiry events programme, inviting members of our Friends programme to one of our sites to see the impact a gift in their will could make. From small beginnings, we have since expanded this programme, now holding around eight visits a year which have welcomed over 500 supporters so far.

Canal & River Trust event at Hatton Locks

Developing a stewardship journey

We also developed a stewardship journey to go hand in hand with our enquiry programme. This ensures that supporters who are thinking about leaving a gift (or have pledged to do so) are properly acknowledged and kept up to date with our work through bespoke communications and the opportunity to attend three events each year.

Through our events, we’ve taken supporters to the bottom of a drained canal lock, across the longest aqueduct in Britain, and to an underwater room to view the rare Twaite Shad climb our fish ladder and migrate up the River Severn! Supporters often remark that they had no idea of just how much, or the variety of, work we’re responsible for.

When we began this programme, we had 23 known pledgers and an initial goal of doubling this number. However, we quickly exceeded it and have now built up a community of over 200 pledges. Gift notifications have also started to increase, and we’ve seen extra benefits, with some legacy pledgers choosing to also give during their lifetime through major gifts.

Celebrating impact

With gifts in wills making such a difference to the Trust, we take great care to share stories of their impact – both in way of celebration and thanks, and to raise awareness of the importance of legacy giving.

Last year, we produced a gift in wills impact report for the first time, in recognition of our highest ever year of legacy income at £476,750: an incredible rise from around £33,000 back in 2020. The report shares how we’ve used this legacy income, along with stories about our legators through a series of case studies: some with a supporter focus, and others on projects that have been funded. This includes how June’s legacy had repaired vital swing bridges in Yorkshire, and how Barrie’s gift is supporting canal-side woodland to grow in Wiltshire.

Nurturing a culture of support

Creating a culture that supports and promotes legacy giving has been central to our success. When we first started promoting gifts in wills there was very little awareness internally, so we really upped our communications on the topic to help colleagues understand that promoting legacy giving is a priority for the Trust, raise awareness of the positive impact gifts in wills make, and highlight how they can get involved.

To help colleagues feel confident when talking about legacies, we’ve worked with our customer service and supporter care teams to produce briefings for fielding any initial enquiries, and have also launched legacy conversation training. These workshops normalise talking about gifts in wills, explain the language we use when talking about them and encourage people to try out conversations in an informal setting. We’ve had great feedback from colleagues and volunteers so far, and will be continuing to roll these out to a wider audience.

Colleagues and volunteers are now directly helping with our gifts in wills programme. From speaking at an event, signing off an appeal or meeting the family of a legator who has funded a project they are managing, our legacy fundraising has been a truly collaborative effort. We’ve also seen greater engagement from senior managers, and additional investment in the team and programme that has enabled us to employ a further member of staff and increase our marketing and events activity. Engaging colleagues with legacy giving has also inspired some to generously support the Trust with their own gift.

Acknowledging our work, we were also really pleased to win Best Start-up Legacy Programme at the Smee & Ford Legacy Giving Awards in 2024, and to feature in Smee & Ford and Legacy Futures’ recent Legacy Giving Report 2025!

Looking forward – building on success

Thanks to the success of our strategy to date, we’re forecast to achieve our highest ever legacy income for the second time in 2025-26. Our next move is to start marketing to colder audiences, as a lot of our gifts to date have actually come from people we don’t know. One of the things we’re exploring is more digital acquisition, including through Facebook. It’s been an incredible journey so far and we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Canal & River Trust behind the scenes event

Key learnings

1. Using already engaged audiences as a starting point

Starting our legacy fundraising journey with a focus on Trust ‘Friends’ enabled us to use existing insights to tell us what kinds of messaging would resonate and through which channels, and to drip feed our gifts in wills messaging – including pledger and impact stories – throughout existing communications.

But with building relationships absolutely key to legacy fundraising, the biggest benefit to starting with a warm audience is that they already exist. With supporters we knew had an interest and longstanding relationship with our work, it was a logical next step to talk about how they could continue their support with a gift in their will, and ensure everything they love about canals is passed on to the next generation.

2. Getting colleagues on board

The greatest asset to our legacy fundraising programme is our wonderful colleagues and volunteers, but when we first started promoting gifts in wills there was very little awareness about legacy fundraising internally. Case studies have been a key engagement tool, as has recognising when a colleague has played a part in someone deciding to leave a gift.

We’ll sometimes be notified of legacies with no immediate obvious supporter history, however when we speak to the executors, they have often known one of our colleagues, and worked with them on projects in the local area. By highlighting the role colleagues have played in our legators’ decision to support the Trust, it enables other colleagues to think about their day-to-day interactions, and the possibility of enabling future legacy gifts.

3. Tapping into the charity’s unique selling points

All charities are different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ legacy programme. Use your legacy fundraising to highlight what makes you stand out, and capitalise on what your supporters love about your work. As a young charity, we had relatively low brand recognition and comprehension about our work and role. When starting our legacy programme, we therefore focused on directly showing the impact supporters can make through an events programme, showcasing current projects taking place and connecting them with our expert colleagues.

Tangibly demonstrating the impact of support has not only led to success in our legacy programme, but has been beneficial for supporter retention and we have seen an increase in regular donations, volunteering enquiries and even major donations.

4. Just go for it!

We started our legacy programme extremely quickly, and didn’t necessarily have every journey, marketing channel or strategy mapped out. But this enabled us to test, find out quickly what worked and to start building relationships with supporters straight away.

So, our biggest tip would be to just go for it and not let hesitancy around legacy fundraising or overplanning hold you back. And most importantly, celebrate the successes in your programme, and thank your colleagues who have helped play a part in them!

Emily Ding

About Emily Ding

Emily Ding has worked in the fundraising sector for a decade with a background in higher education fundraising and heritage conservation fundraising. Emily joined the Canal & River Trust in 2021 to manage legacy fundraising, implementing a strategy focused on raising awareness of gifts in wills, increasing the number of supporters leaving a gift, ensuring their impact is properly celebrated and ultimately growing legacy income for the Trust.

Main image by Bob Jenkin on Pexels; other images shared by Canal & River Trust

The research, which was commissioned by Remember A Charity and conducted by independent research firm Savanta, also notes that legacy giving amongst high net worth individual (HNWIs) may extend beyond a donation in a will, finding that nearly a third of the group (32%) have established a charitable Will Trust, and three in ten (28%) have donated using a Donor Advised Fund (DAF).

Opportunity to engage

Among those millionaires who have not included a charitable legacy in their estate plans, the majority (58%) say they are open to doing so, and 26% say that they hadn’t thought about it before, highlighting an opportunity to engage this audience at the will-planning stage.

Around a quarter (26%) of the millionaires surveyed say they have prepared to leave a percentage of their estate to charity, rather than pledging a fixed sum, while 40% say they would be willing to donate a share of their estate. In the UK, around 90% of legacy income comes from residuary gifts with high value estates driving up legacy values, which Remember A Charity highlights as demonstrating the importance and potential impact of increasing percentage gifts in this market.

Gifts in wills more prevalent among HNWIs with children

In contrast to mass market trends, where child-free individuals are twice as likely as those with children to leave a charitable gift, this study found that, for HNWIs gifts in wills are more prevalent for those with children (50%) than for those without them (42%). Remember A Charity says this indicates that, at this level of wealth, individuals may well recognise they are able to both secure their family’s future and provide support for charitable causes. This may also reflect the fact that intestacy tends to be higher amongst those without dependents, with 1 in 5 saying they don’t have a Will and have no plans to write one.

Lack of up-to-date wills

The research also showed a lack of up-to-date wills amongst this demographic. Only 31% say they have an up-to-date will, and 35% of those aged 55-65 don’t have one at all. A quarter of the millionaires surveyed for this study say they are in the process of writing or updating their will.

Lucinda Frostick, Director of Remember A Charity, said:

“Charitable legacies are hugely valued across the sector, no matter the size of the gift or estate. But these insights into the high value legacy market reveal that legacy giving is even more prevalent in this space than many of us will have anticipated.

“While this is certainly encouraging for charities, many of which are becoming increasingly reliant on donations from those with wealth, this also helps to reinforce to professional advisers just how relevant philanthropy is to their client base – and how crucial it is that they can support their clients in achieving their charitable legacy.”

“However, the study also demonstrates that there are considerable differences in this market, where family is less likely to be seen as a barrier to leaving a charitable gift. By understanding these nuances, sharing inspirational stories from legacy pledgers and equipping professional advisers with the information they need to support their client base, we can work together to support and empower more people with wealth to fulfil their philanthropic goals.”

This week – 8-14 September – is Remember A Charity Week in the UK: the annual public-facing flagship event of Remember A Charity: a consortium of almost 200 charities working with a network of legal advisers, partners and Government to grow legacy giving all year round.

Picture by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash

The findings come from the German Legacy Insight Programme’s nationwide market research study for 2025 and are based on a survey of more than 2,000 Germans aged 50+. The Programme, from Legacy Futures, is supported by 13 nonprofit organisations and works to pool data and knowledge on charitable bequests, foster exchange, and support the development of the sector.

36% of the study’s respondents said they have a will in place, with a further quarter showing interest in future will-making – 15% of them within the next five years.

While 3% of people over 50 in Germany have named a charitable organisation in their will, this figure stands at 7% in the Netherlands and 13% in the UK, suggesting that the market is still at an early stage of development in Germany with growth potential for legacy giving.

Why people in Germany give

In Germany, the most common motivations for gifts in wills are altruistic in nature: 52% said they want “to do something good,” 46% cited the needs of the organisation, and 31% mentioned their own sense of personal fulfilment.

Communication about legacy giving by charities seems largely unseen by potential legators with 82% of respondents saying they had not noticed any communication on charitable bequests in the past year. With a fifth of over 50s open to the idea of including a charitable bequest, this also suggests an important role for nonprofits to fulfil in offering interested individuals information, guidance, and suggestions for planning their estate.

Nonprofits as trusted partners

The German study also shows that trust in nonprofit organisations is generally strong. 54% of those questioned said that they trusted the charities they support to spend money wisely, and 68% agreed with the statement that organisations must continue to ask for money to continue their work. 52% also agreed that charities could provide more information about the impact of donations.

The full study report is reserved for the Programme’s participating members.

Picture by Marcus Aurelius on Pexels

These figures are based on data from the Centraal Bureau Fondsenwerving (CBF – The Dutch regulator for fundraising and charities) and are in line with findings from the Legacy Monitor Netherlands, an annual study conducted by Legacy Futures.

Growth across all types of charities

This growth is seen across the entire sector. It applies not only to large organizations that received bigger legacy gifts, but also to smaller charities and organizations receiving a legacy for the very first time.

Several factors are driving this increase:

• A rise in the number of deaths due to an ageing population and the lasting impact of COVID-19;
• An increase in the average wealth of older individuals;
• And a growing willingness to include charities in wills.

In-depth analysis to follow

The eleventh edition of the Legacy Monitor Netherlands will be published in summer 2025, offering participating organizations detailed insights into developments in the legacy market.

Picture by Pixabay

This figure, an increase from €110m in 2023, meant that it accounted for 11% of the total €1.08bn given to charities during the year.

And that proportion could increase further, with FVA saying that 18% of Austrians over 40 could imagine making a legacy gift, a figure that has grown from 13% in 2018.

These figures were released by the Vergissmeinnicht (Forget-me-not) campaign, which was founded by FVA and for 13 years has been encouraging more people to consider remembering charities in their wills.

Some of the 100 organisations participating in the campaign came together for a joint photo in Vienna last month (see top of page), before distributing 2,000 packets of ‘legacy seeds’ to people across the country, to encourage an interest in legacy giving.

Markus Aichelburg, who leads Vergissmeinnicht, says that demographic changes may lead even more people to consider legacies in future. He comments:

“For years now, the population in Austria has been growing towards more people without descendants, and more single-person households. Accordingly, a growing number of people are asking themselves what should happen to their assets after they die.”

On top of that, the campaign notes that by 2050, the number of assets currently inherited in Austria each year will nearly double, to €41bn. In addition, there are around 900 heirless estates each year, in which no will has been made and there are no natural heirs – this meant €22m going to the state between 2017 and 2019.

At the end of 2023, Aichelburg told EFA that the number of over-60s in Austria with a will had grown from 33% to 43% since 2019, and that more than 90% of legacy givers did not have children.

Picture by Claudia Madlener/VGMN

The Donation Monitor was commissioned by the German Fundraising Association and conducted with the initiative “My Legacy Does Good. The Apple Tree Principle”. For 2024, it surveyed 2,674 people aged 50-70 and included questions on legacy giving for the first time.

The Monitor reveals that the vast majority of respondents – almost 90% – are aware that they can leave their inheritance, or part of it, to a charitable organization.

Willingness to leave a charitable bequest is higher among those aged 50 to 59 at almost 24%, while among members of this age group who have donated in the last 12 months, 32% can imagine leaving a charitable legacy.

The most popular causes for potential legacy givers are animal welfare (40%); environmental and nature conservation (27%); and child and youth welfare (24%).

Of those who cannot imagine leaving a legacy to a charitable organization, 72% said they primarily want to use their inheritance to provide for their relatives, while around 20% also believe that their inheritance is too small and can’t therefore achieve anything.

Larissa Probst, managing director of the German Fundraising Association, commented:

“The new insights we are gaining with the help of the Donation Monitor and the “My Legacy Does Good” initiative are highlighting significant social opportunities. A positive approach to aging is combined with shared responsibility for the future beyond one’s own lifetime.”

Susanne Anger, spokesperson for the “My Legacy Does Good. The Apple Tree Principle” initiative, which brings together 26 nonprofit organizations in Germany added:

“Many people are increasingly looking for alternative ways to pass on their values to the next generation. Therefore, the desire to leave one’s legacy to a good cause holds significant potential for the common good, because many future testators want to give something back to society.”

Picture: Press conference with (from left to right) Susanne Anger, spokesperson for the initiative “My Legacy Does Good. The Apple Tree Principle,” and Larissa Probst, managing director of the German Fundraising Association

This preliminary forecast comes from its latest quarterly data, which shows that 70% of members report an increase in public gifts for 2024 compared to 2023. Meanwhile, 57% saw increased legacy giving.

Between 2022 and 2023, corporate giving dropped by more than a third to SEK 1.1bn. For 2024, corporate giving remained “stable but shows no signs of increasing at the moment”, according to Charlotte Rydh, secretary general of Giva Sverige.

Giva Sverige says that the increase was modest for many charities, with middle-sized charities – those raising SEK 25m to 99m annually – performing most strongly across the year. Larger organisations saw more growth during the second half of the year, and were also more likely than middle-sized ones to report an increase in legacy income.

The 5% preliminary forecast for growth means that the sector has regained much of the ground lost in the previous year – in 2023, Swedish charities reported an average 12% drop in donations. That followed a particularly strong 2022, during which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted many extra donations.

Reflecting on this preliminary data Rydh, who was also EFA president from 2021 to 2024, says:

“It is fantastic to see that the commitment of Swedes continues to be strong. The needs both in Sweden and in the world are enormous right now and the long-term support of donors is more important than ever.”

Giva Sverige says that the full data will be published in May.

Picture by by Jasper Graetsch on Unsplash