Legacy Giving

Octopus Legacy was started to help people through, and plan for, death.

In December 2016 their founder Sam lost his mother tragically in a car accident. The support from family and friends that followed the accident was amazing. But managing that support together with the funeral and wake proved difficult. It was during this challenging time that Sam came up with the ideas of making a secure and private online service specially designed to help families through these hard times.

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Through a recent survey, 51% of people answered that a free will writing service would be beneficial in updating or making a will. so we have teamed up with Octopus Legacy to offer our members a free will writing service. This service provides access to expert advice to answer any questions you have while considering making or changing your will.

See all the survey results here. 

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust’s vision is a county with more wildlife, more wild spaces and more people coming into contact with nature. But we can only make that happen with the help of people like you. We especially rely on the gifts that kind supporters leave us in their wills. Your gift could help us purchase and restore a new nature reserve, or even help save a threatened species such as the dormouse or nightjar. You can be confident that your legacy, big or small, will make a real difference and will be put to good, use meeting the most urgent conservation needs.

Leaving just 1% to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust in your will can make a huge difference

• Continue supporting the recovery of some of our rarest species.
• Care for our nature reserves and help others manage their land in a wildlife friendly way.
• Inspire young people about the natural world through our education activities.
• Stand up for wildlife across planning and policy so that nature is not taken for granted.
• Support our work across the county to create a Living Landscape.

We absolutely recognise your loved ones come first in your will. We will never ask you about the size or type of gift if you decide to support our work this way. You never have to tell us your intentions – we respect your right to privacy. We fully understand that circumstances change and there might be a time when you need to take us out of your will. There is no binding commitment to us. We promise to use your gift wisely, in line with your wishes.

If you already have a will and wish to add a charitable gift, it is usually easy to do so using a form called a codicil. We do recommend using a solicitor for this to make sure it doesn’t inadvertently change any other arrangements in your will.

Gifts to charity are tax free. If you leave a legacy to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust the value of the legacy is deducted from your estate before inheritance tax is calculated. This means your gift not only benefits the Trust, it can also reduce your liability to inheritance tax. Since April 2012 the rate of Inheritance Tax has been reduced from 40% to 36% on those estates that leave at least 10% of their value to charitable causes.