Leave a Gift in Your Will

Please help Aid to the Church in Need to do so much more to help persecuted and suffering Christians – please consider leaving us a gift in your Will.

How your bequest will help suffering Christians

Thanks to your generous bequest, Aid to the Church in Need can:

• Support more than 15,000 seminarians each year on their path to the priesthood
• Provide Mass stipends to priests ministering to needy Christians around the world
• Build and repair churches and chapels where they are most needed
• Help priests and Sisters travel thousands of miles in their ministry – by bicycle, car, boat and even donkey
• Teach the Good News using Aid to the Church in Need's Child's bible, printed in 157 different languages
• Proclaim the Word of God by supporting catechetical work and publications

How your gift to the persecuted Church will be remembered

Your bequest offers an important lifeline to Christians suffering for their faith around the world.

In thanks, we will ensure that a proportion of your bequest is used for Mass stipends for poor priests, who regularly offer the Holy Sacrifice of Mass for departed benefactors of Aid to the Church in Need.

We will also add the name of the deceased to our In Memoriam Book.

The In Memoriam Book is kept in the Lady Chapel in our office, watched over by a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, to whom the charity is dedicated.

We remember all our departed friends and benefactors each day at midday, when staff gather to pray the Angelus.

Each November, we hold an Annual Requiem Mass for Departed Benefactors, which you are very welcome to attend – you can find more details of this Mass on our Events Calendar.

How to make a bequest to Aid to the Church in Need

If you would like to leave a gift to Aid to the Church in Need, you will need to specify this in your Will. Your solicitor will be able to help you with this.

Why make a Will?

If you have not made a Will, no charity can benefit directly from what you leave on your death (known as your estate).

Without a Will, your estate will be distributed according to statutory provisions, which may not be in accordance with your wishes.

Making a Will ensures that your assets are distributed as you wish – including leaving money to charities.

The law does give persons financially dependent on you the right to claim on your estate if you have not made adequate provision for them in your Will, but otherwise you are free to leave your estate to whomever you please, including charities.

Consulting a solicitor

We strongly recommend that you consult a solicitor when making your Will. Solicitors have traditionally charged modest fees for preparing straightforward Wills.

If you can provide your solicitor with basic information about your circumstances, he or she will be able to draw up a Will that meets all your requirements.

You can download Aid to the Church in Need's Legacy leaflet, 'Thy Will Be Done', which suggests a wording that your solicitor can use.

Types of gift you can leave in your Will

It is up to you how you decide to remember Aid to the Church in Need – or any charity – in your Will. Your gift may be one of the following:

Pecuniary Legacy
A specific lump sum gift. Even if this is only a small amount, it will be gratefully received, and make a real difference to our work supporting persecuted and suffering Christians

Specific Legacy
A  gift of non-monetary assets, such as stocks and shares, or real property such as land, flats or houses.

Residuary Legacy
The residue of your estate is the amount left after all debts, funeral expenses, administration costs, pecuniary and specific legacies have been paid.

You can leave all or a proportion of that residue to charity, divided among as many individual charities as you wish.

Any type of legacy to a registered charity such as Aid to the Church in Need is exempt from Inheritance Tax. By leaving money to charity you are reducing the size of your estate that may be liable to Inheritance Tax.

If you leave money for Aid to the Church in Need's general charitable purposes, this gives us the discretion to use your gift where the need is greatest at that time.

If your Will is too specific about what your gift should be used for, it is possible that in the future the cause you have chosen is no longer available because of changing circumstances, and in extreme cases this might even mean that we could not receive your gift.

Questions about leaving a gift to Aid to the Church in Need in your Will

If you have any questions about leaving a gift to Aid to the Church in your Will, you may be able to find the answers on our Frequently Asked Questions About Legacies page.

Or you can download Aid to the Church in Need's Legacy leaflet, 'Thy Will Be Done'.

If you still cannot find the answer to your question, please contact us and we will do our best to help, or get in touch with your solicitor.

Thank you for your committed support!