Gifts in Wills can have a huge positive impact on charities and their service users. As part of Remember a Charity Week in 2025 we’d like to say thank you to everyone who has remembered the Gatehouse in their Will already, and also all of the people who will add a Gift to us in the days and years to come. We’d also like to highlight how important this can be by telling you the story of Sybil’s Gift.
A few years ago the Gatehouse received a significant legacy of over £60,000 from Sybil, a long-time supporter of the charity. At that time these funds were the equivalent of around one third of total annual expenditure, so this had a massive impact, and enabled a wide range of service improvements to be fast tracked whilst maintaining overall financial stability.
The temptation when receiving an unexpected windfall like this is often to go on a spending spree, but the Gatehouse’s trustees took a more considered approach by assigning the funds to be spent over a three-year period, during which they funded a service development programme alongside the recruitment of three new, part-time staff members. Overall this approach enabled new services to be introduced alongside extended opening hours, and it also allowed sufficient time to introduce additional fundraising programmes that have ensured the sustainability of these services.
One area which saw massive changes as a result of Sybil’s gift was the Gatehouse’s Casework Team. Originally launched in 2017 with one staff member this service immediately experienced huge levels of demand, with long waiting lists soon building up. The new funds enabled the recruitment of two additional Caseworkers and a significant increase in capacity, with a much higher percentage of guests able to benefit from this service.
The Casework Team works with individual guests to provide a wide range of individual support across areas such as tenancy sustainment, homelessness prevention, accessing legal support, mental health and other health needs, general wellbeing, addictions, benefits and budgeting, accessing education, work and training, safeguarding of vulnerable adults, modern slavery and victims of crime and abuse. Their goal is to offer long-term, holistic support, enabling guests to achieve reintegration into the local community through a transition back into permanent housing, employment and independence.
This is just one example of how a legacy can make a huge difference to a charity, but all legacies, whether big or small, make a difference. In recent years around £4 billion has been received by UK charities directly from legacies per annum. This is hugely significant in ensuring the long-term sustainability of charities, and now makes up around one third of donated income from individuals in the UK, but only 1 in 7 people currently leave a Gift to charity. If the other 6 in 7 Wills also included Gifts of just 1% of their estate value that would treble the money received by charities from this source. Imagine how much more good work that would fund.
Leaving a Gift in your Will to the Gatehouse
Gifts in Wills are becoming an ever more important source of funding for the Gatehouse’s charitable activities, and however large or small they might be, they all provide a positive impact on the lives of individuals in need. Details about how you can support the Gatehouse by leaving a Gift in your Will can be found on our Gifts in Wills page.
