LEAVE A LEGACY® is a campaign conducted by the National Committee on Planned Giving to inspire people like you to make charitable bequests. Bequests are just one type of "planned gift" – a gift that will be distributed sometime in the future – to a charity that is meaningful to you. Through LEAVE A LEGACY, people who have made charitable bequests and other types of planned gifts share their experiences in the hope of encouraging others to give.

LEAVE A LEGACY® is a broad-based community campaign that involves all types of nonprofit groups, including social service and arts organizations, churches, hospitals and educational institutions. The program is conducted by professionals who assist donors with charitable estate planning. These partners help promote the message that people from all walks of life – covering a wide range of ages and income levels – have the ability to “make a difference in the lives that follow” by leaving a charitable legacy.

LEAVE A LEGACY® does NOT solicit gifts for any particular organization. We want you to choose the charity that has touched you for any future donations you wish to give. It is simply our mission to encourage bequests to charities you deem deserving.

Charitable Statistics: An Untapped Well of Good

There are more than 260 million Americans, of whom approximately two million die each year.

In 1996, 79,346 estate tax forms were filed with the federal government. (At the time, these forms were required for estates in excess of $600,000.) Eighteen percent of the forms listed a charitable gift.

In other words, 82 percent of the nation's wealthiest individuals left nothing to charity.

In addition, the IRS tells us that charity is getting a decreasing share of the money in these wealthy estates, from 21.8 percent in 1976 to 6.3 percent in 1992.

According to a 2004 Associated Press news story, only 42 percent of adults have wills, a five percent drop since 2000.

If only 20 percent of Americans left a charitable bequest, the current number of charitable bequests would more than double. Imagine what the impact to charitable organizations would be if the 80 percent of Americans who give during their lifetimes also made a charitable gift through their estate plans!