Legacy giving: working together to harness its potential

There is something very special, very personal about the decision to leave a gift in one’s will to a good cause. For most people it will be the largest donation they ever make, and sometimes they can transform an organisation. So it is no surprise that legacy giving is critical to hospice care. With hospice finances under increasing pressure legacies play a crucial role in shoring up the future of our services. But with 59% of people unaware that we provide our essential services for free, hospices need to join together to show people just what care looks like, and the role they can play in protecting it.

Anyone who has peeked behind the curtain of how hospices are run will know that the hospice funding model is complex, and not sustainable in its current form. Government funding pays for around 40% of the care provided by adult hospices, and around one third for children’s services. 

Hospices must rely on dedicated, generous donations from their local communities to fill the gap, keep their doors open and their specialist services running. With 2 in 5 hospices planning cuts this year, hospices desperately need fairer funding. Government action will be essential here, and Hospice UK’s four-point plan charts a course towards fairer hospice funding. But even then, legacies will have a critical role to play too.

Charitable income will always be important for hospices. It’s what allows us to deliver exceptional, holistic care that goes beyond NHS provision, and it creates a precious link with our local communities. Providing 20% of hospice income, gifts in wills underpin the care for the 310,000 people a year, and the 89,000 family members and loved ones we support. 

Yet despite their importance, the hospice sector has historically underinvested in legacy marketing. Even 20 years ago, as Cancer Research UK’s first legacy fundraising director, we were investing over a £1m a year, just in marketing legacy giving. Hospices have historically lagged behind our competitors, who have been investing in legacy marketing consistently over the past two decades, and now our market share is falling. 

But there is enormous potential for growth. And it is not too late to act. There is a huge generational transfer of wealth underway, and for perhaps the first time in history, those making a will have a real choice over how to distribute their wealth, as many of their children are doing fine.

The legacy market is forecast to grow from £4.3bn in 2025 to £5.3bn by 2032, and reach over £10bn by 2050. At the same time, demand for our services is expected to grow 25% by 2048 – we can’t miss this opportunity to secure the future of our services.

But how can hospices gain a significant foothold in this vast market? Legacy advertising is becoming more crowded: TV impacts doubled from 2 million (2019) to 4 million (2023), making it harder for hospice voices to cut through on their own, against the likes of big spenders like Cancer Research UK, or the British Heart Foundation.

This is why the National Hospice Legacy Campaign is so important. Run by Hospice UK, This Is Hospice Care harnesses the collective power of the sector, using a national platform and combined spending power to encourage people to leave a gift in their Will to their chosen hospice, making sure we can continue to provide compassionate and specialist care for future generations. 

There are already cross-sector campaigns working to promote legacies, but hospices have a particular communications challenge. Recent polling showed that 59% of people aren’t aware that hospices provide their services for free. Together, we can use the campaign to raise awareness about the vital role hospices play in communities, shift public perceptions of hospice care, and give people a tangible way to support hospices for generations to come.

This Is Hospice Care shows people just what hospice care is – supporting people to die in dignity and free from pain, helping children and young people with life-limiting illnesses be well enough to make cherished memories, supporting families and loved ones through bereavement – and how this vital support wouldn’t exist without the generous support of individuals.

18 months ago this was just an idea, now it’s a growing movement. And we’re seeing that collaboration works. Together, we raised a campaign budget of over £1m and built a unified national hospice voice and brand. 

The results speak for themselves – 18.1 million adults reached nationally via our TV ad. Participating hospices saw a 904% uplift in traffic to their legacy pages and a 409% increase in legacy enquiries (combined 2,300+ enquiries reported across two bursts of the campaign in 2025).

Sadly, there are still too many hospices who can afford to take part, but who have not yet signed up. A bigger media spend means we can reach even more people and keep up with the charities spending big on legacy marketing – something we just can’t do individually. Together, we can lift giving to hospices, benefitting everyone.

This is such an important conversation for hospices to be part of and the more hospices who join, the stronger the sector wide visibility and long-term benefits will be. Our competitors show no sign of slowing, so neither should we. We need everyone who can play their part.

Year two of the campaign is underway, the TV ad has expanded to include radio and there are new creative assets, customisable for individual hospices, to help you engage directly with your local audiences. 

We want year three to be even bigger. Collectively we have the spending power and the local reach to cut through a crowded market. We can be innovative across channels that are normally out of reach, our creative can be increasingly dynamic, and our national PR efforts can be bigger and bolder. 

Together we can make the most of this once in a generation opportunity to help secure our future. The future generations who need hospice care are counting on us to be there for them. Signups are now open, please play your part and join in.

Paul joined Shooting Star Children’s Hospices in September 2021 as Chief Executive. He has 25 years leadership experience in both the charity and commercial sectors. He’s been a champion of the National Hospice Legacy Campaign and a member of the Steering Group from the outset. He brings extensive knowledge in marketing, fundraising and children’s hospice knowledge to the group, including being Cancer Research UK’s first Legacy Fundraising Director.