Legacy Giving: Why Working Together Matters
- Aug 25
- 3 min read
Creating a joint Campaign for Jersey Legacy Week
From 7–13 September 2026, charities and organisations across Jersey will come together for Jersey Legacy Week under a shared message:
Legacy fundraising is inherently long-term. But it is also transformational.
For some charities, gifts in Wills are among the largest individual donations they will ever receive. They can provide the freedom to invest, maintain services, protect buildings and places, fund core costs or simply give an organisation greater confidence about its future. For smaller charities, one legacy can change what is possible.
Why work together?
One thing I have been struck by while developing fundraising campaigns is that fundraising works most effectively as a shared cultural shift.
The UK Remember A Charity Week's main purpose is to raise awareness about the impact of leaving a gift to charity in your Will. Over the years, it has shifted public attitudes, engaged professional advisers, and driven billions of pounds to vital causes.
Locally, charities can benefit greatly from having the confidence to talk about legacies with their supporters. Wealth managers, lawyers and advocates also share this responsibility, as they are often well placed to raise charitable giving when someone makes or updates their Will.
As a Jersey Fundraising Forum Initiative, I’ve had conversations with the Association of Jersey Charities, Jersey Community Foundation, Jersey Law Society, local charities, lawyers, wealth managers and the media.
What's encouraging is that people understand the opportunity. The challenge is bringing all of those conversations together. That is really what Jersey Legacy Week is trying to do.
What matters to you, and what would you like your impact to be after you are gone?
Jersey gives us an extraordinary opportunity to tell that story. Much of the Island we value today exists because people before us chose to give something back, whether through money, land, buildings, collections, community organisations or charitable foundations.
Legacy giving is deeply emotional. People rarely make these decisions because of a statistic alone. They do because a cause connects with something they care about, often a person, a place, an experience, a value, or a memory.
That is why storytelling is so powerful in legacy fundraising and such an important element of our IslandKind regenerative cycle.
A strong story helps someone imagine the difference their gift could make. It can create an emotional connection, trigger memories and help people picture the future they want to influence.
We can celebrate what previous generations made possible, connect that to the Jersey we know today, and invite people to imagine what their generosity could make possible tomorrow.
For charities, the practical message is simple: don’t just say you accept gifts in Wills; show people why they matter.
Starting small, but starting together
The focus for 2026 is on creating the foundations: a shared identity, usable campaign resources, stronger relationships, charity stories and conversations with professional advisers.
It focuses on inclusion and participation. A charity might personalise a poster, include something in its newsletter, share a supporter story or explain what a future legacy could make possible.
A law firm might share guidance or simply help make charitable giving a natural part of an appropriate Will conversation.
A business might share the campaign with its staff or clients. Collectively, those small actions create visibility.
Where next?
There is an opportunity to build a much more ambitious Jersey Legacy Week in 2027 — properly funded, planned earlier and developed collaboratively with charities, funders, professional advisers and media.
But first we need to start talking and making it visible.
If you work for a charity, law firm, wealth management business, or another organisation that would like to take part this September, you can download and use the Jersey Legacy Week presentation, posters, and campaign resources.
Campaign resources developed with support from Jersey Hospice Care as part of the Jersey Fundraising Forum initiative.
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