About Course
Legacy Fundraising
CPD Accredited – July 2026 Edition
A comprehensive, UK-focused training course covering legacy giving, the legal and regulatory framework for gifts in Wills, and the art of building and administering a sustainable, compliant legacy programme for your charity.
Who Is This Course For?
This course has been designed for anyone involved in planning, developing or managing legacy fundraising in a UK charity or voluntary organisation. Whether you are a:
- Fundraiser or development professional looking to add legacy giving to your income portfolio
- Trustee or CEO responsible for long-term income strategy and financial resilience
- Individual giving or major donor fundraiser wanting to extend supporter relationships into planned giving
- Volunteer or new entrant wanting to understand legacy fundraising from first principles
- Finance lead who wants to understand the legal and accounting implications of legacy income
- Charity manager who wants to connect legacy fundraising with their wider fundraising strategy
This course will give you the knowledge, frameworks and legal grounding to build a legacy programme that complements and strengthens your wider fundraising activity. No prior legacy fundraising experience assumed.
Course Overview
5 modules · Average 3 to 4 hours to complete · Work at your own pace
Foundations of Legacy Fundraising
Legacy fundraising, encouraging supporters to leave a gift in their Will, is one of the largest sources of voluntary income for UK charities, worth around £4.5 billion in 2024, a record high (Legacy Giving Report 2025, Smee & Ford / Legacy Futures). Yet only around 22% of people say they have included a charitable gift in their Will, up from 14% in 2010 (Remember A Charity tracking study, 2026), leaving significant untapped potential. This module explores the scale of the opportunity, why legacy fundraising is appropriate for organisations of all sizes, how it connects to and complements grant fundraising, and the distinctive relationship-centred approach it requires. The Remember A Charity and Institute of Legacy Management frameworks provide the professional context.
The Legal & Regulatory Framework
Legacy fundraising operates within a complex legal framework that every practitioner needs to understand. This module covers the Charities Act 2011 and its implications for receiving and administering legacy gifts, the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (including the 10% IHT charitable incentive for larger estates), the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 and contested legacies, Charity Commission reporting requirements for legacy income, and your obligations under UK GDPR when managing legacy prospect data.
Types of Legacies
Not all legacy gifts are the same, and understanding the differences is essential for both fundraising and administration. This module covers the five main types of legacy gift available under English and Welsh law: pecuniary legacies (a fixed sum), residuary legacies (a share of the estate), specific legacies (a named asset), reversionary legacies (payable after another beneficiary), and contingent legacies (conditional on an event). You will learn the relative value of each type, how to encourage residuary gifts, and what each type means for administration.
Building a Legacy Fundraising Programme
How do you build a legacy programme from scratch, or strengthen one that already exists? This module covers the essential components: identifying your legacy prospects from your existing supporter base, building a cultivation pipeline, developing messaging that is sensitive, confident and in line with the Code of Fundraising Practice, incorporating legacy asks into your existing communications, and using the Remember A Charity consortium resources and free Will-writing schemes such as Will Aid and the Free Wills Network to maximise your reach.
Compliance, Stewardship & Legacy Administration
Once a legacy gift is received, a new set of legal and relationship obligations begins. This module covers how to manage the administration of a legacy gift, how to work constructively with solicitors and executors, how to handle contested gifts, what your Charity Commission reporting obligations are for legacy income, and how to thank the families of legacy donors sensitively and compliantly. Long-term stewardship of legacy pledgers who are still living is also covered in depth.
What You Will Learn
On completion of all modules, you will be able to:
- ✓ Understand the scale and strategic importance of legacy giving in the UK charity sector
- ✓ Navigate the legal framework governing legacy gifts including the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 and the Inheritance Act 1975
- ✓ Identify and explain the five main types of legacy gift and their relative value to your organisation
- ✓ Build a legacy prospect pipeline from your existing supporter base and develop sensitive, compliant legacy messaging
- ✓ Administer legacy gifts compliantly and report on legacy income in accordance with the Charities SORP
- ✓ Steward living legacy pledgers and the families of deceased donors with sensitivity and professionalism
Benefits for You and Your Organisation
✓ Access a Transformational Income Stream
Legacy income represents over £4 billion to UK charities annually. This course gives you the knowledge to build a programme that accesses this income in an ethical, sustainable and legally compliant way.
✓ Stay Legally Compliant
Understand your obligations under inheritance tax law, the Charities Act and UK GDPR, and administer and report on legacy income with confidence that you are meeting every regulatory requirement.
✓ Build Long-Term Financial Resilience
A strong legacy pipeline provides long-term income security. This course shows you how to develop one alongside your grant fundraising, creating a more diversified and resilient income base.
✓ Deepen Supporter Relationships
Legacy donors are among your most committed supporters. This course teaches you how to identify them, cultivate them sensitively and steward them in a way that honours the depth of their commitment.
✓ A Resource You Will Keep Using
Download and save the course for future reference. Return to it whenever you are developing your legacy programme, reviewing your funder pipeline or onboarding a new team member.
✓ Recognised Achievement
Complete all five modules and receive a personalised, printable CPD-accredited certificate of completion to support your continuing professional development.
– Amie Elliott, GeckoFundraising Ltd
How It Works
Complete your purchase using our secure online card payment. Access to the full course is granted immediately upon payment being received, no waiting, no delay.
Work through the modules online at any time, at your own pace. Your progress is saved automatically in your browser, so you can dip in and out across multiple sessions to fit around your work. Please complete the course on the same device and browser throughout, as your progress is stored locally and will not transfer between devices.
Once complete, save the course as a PDF to keep on your desktop. Return to it whenever you need it, a practical reference resource you will use again and again.
Complete all modules and generate your personalised, printable CPD-accredited certificate of completion instantly, at no extra cost, a record of your professional development to share with trustees, employers or commissioners.
Course Investment
One-off payment including VAT · No subscription · Instant access on payment
- Complete online at your own pace, 3 to 4 hours on average
- Full course available to download and save for future reference
- Links to authoritative UK legislation and official guidance throughout
- Personalised, printable CPD-accredited certificate of completion on finishing all modules
- Course content covers the legal framework for charities in England and Wales · Also available in course bundles and the Full Catalogue (£649 including VAT)
Access to the course content is granted immediately upon receipt of your completed online card payment. You will be able to start learning straight away.
Important: complete this course on one device
Your progress, knowledge-check answers and certificate details are saved locally in the browser you use to open the course. They are not stored on our server and will not transfer to another device, or to a different browser on the same device. Please start and finish the course using the same device and browser. Clearing your browser history or site data, or using a private or incognito window, will also erase your progress. Your downloadable copy of the course is unaffected and can be opened anywhere.
Course Content
Legacy Fundraising
Legacy Fundraising