How to leave Border Collie Rescue a Legacy or Gift in a will

On this page we are not offering legal advice, just some guidance on how you can make a donation or gift to Border Collie Rescue in your will and how much such bequests mean to the charity.

It is important that you seek professional advice on such matters though a solicitor or a member of the Institute of Professional Will Writers and that you always consider the needs of your family first and recognise those who have been your closest friends.

A legacy or bequest is a donation from someone who has been kind enough to leave us a gift in
their will. Gifts left in wills can be as much or as little as the donor wishes and need not be money.

A good proportion of donations received by Border Collie Rescue have come from legacy's. The fact is
that would not be able to sustain our work without these gifts of financial support. We would not be here.
If you are considering leaving a gift in your will to Border Collie Rescue, there are some options outlined below.

If you want to leave Border Collie Rescue some sort of legacy you can do so in three ways.
You can gift a specified sum of money.
This is a pecuniary gift.
You can gift all or part of what is left of your estate once you have left what you want to your family and friends.
This is a residual gift.
You can gift items that the charity can use or sell to raise funds - for example a car, jewelry, artwork, land or property. This is a specified gift.

Sometimes we have been left a specified amount or item in a will and sometimes, once family and friends have been left specific sums, many people have chosen to leave us what is left of their estate - the residue.

On some occasions we have shared the residue of an estate with other charities, usually in equal amounts although there is no reason why someone could not leave 50% of the residue to one charity and 25% each to two others or any combination they wish.

A Legacy left to us is free of inheritance tax because we are a registered charity but is not eligible for Gift Aid.

If you have not made a will and wish to include a gift to Border Collie Rescue please ensure you have looked after your friends and family first.

If you have already made a will and have now decided to change it in order to include Border Collie Rescue as a beneficiary you may not need to write a new will.
It may be possible to add a codicil to your existing will in order to make the change.
In any instance you should take the advice of a qualified professional such as a Solicitor.

You need to be aware that if you enter into marriage or a civil partnership after making a will, the will will become invalid unless it referred to and considered such a change when it was written. In most cases a new will would be required.

The basic information you will need to provide to whoever draws up your will, or any codicil, is the means of precisely identifying Border Collie Rescue as a beneficiary. It should include our registered name and charity number -

Border Collie Rescue. Registered Charity 1128983. 57, Market Place, Richmond, North Yorkshire. DL10 4JQ.

If we change our registered office address your executor will be able to get our new contact address and other details from the Charity Commission using our name and charity number.

Any legacy we receive, unless otherwise stated, will go into our Central Fund which covers any bills incurred by the charity in respect of our work rescuing and rehoming dogs and the purchase and fitting out of properties to run as a centres.
However you could state that your gift is to be used in a specific way.
A conditional gift must be used in the way that the donor requests.

For example you could make a condition that your legacy be placed in our Welfare Fund which is a restricted fund and only pays bills directly associated with the care of dogs and not things like general administration or running costs.
This bears careful thought because our Central Fund pays any bills, including all those associated with the care of dogs so if our Welfare Fund is short Central Fund can pay its bills.

It does not work the other way round. If our Welfare Fund is buoyant but our Central fund runs dry we cannot pay any general running costs so we would find it difficult to continue.

You could make it a condition that your gift is set aside specifically for the purchase, equipping and running of properties as centres for rescue, rehabilitation, assessment, retraining, accommodating and rehoming dogs in our care.

Legacies are important to us, small or large, but if you don't feel you could leave us a legacy you could instruct your executors to take donations for us in lieu of flowers at your funeral or pick your choice from the left hand menu.

If you want to talk to us about legacies, please call us on 07707 485813 between 2pm and 5pm Tuesdays to Thursdays.

We used to rent a property near York and ran a very successful centre for many years.

We were able to take in difficult dogs. Traumatised dogs. Reactive dogs.
The sort that we could not place in a foster home.

We were able to assess dogs for a variety of future homes centrally and conveniently and we were able to offer day release and residential opportunities to students wanting to understand more about the breed to help them in their future careers as vets, veterinary nurses and in various agricultural capacities as well as run seminars and courses for anyone wanting to get a better understanding of Border Collies.

The centre was very successful but we had to close it down because we had no control over its maintenance and upkeep. That was our landlords responsibility. One he did not take very seriously.

We vowed never to be put in that position again and that any future centres would be owned by the charity so any work we did to develop them would benefit the charity and our dogs in the long term. We are saving but property is expensive, especially with land and outbuildings attached.
We don't want kennels but we do need to set up a variety of different sorts of accommodation for the variety of dogs we take in.

Our rescue centre appeal

We are appealing for funds to purchase and convert a suitable property to use as an assessment and rehabilitation centre.
Some funding is promised but it depends on us raising a further £300,000.00 before it is made available.

We are launching a long term project to raise these funds and are appealing for specific donations towards this purpose.
You can donate to the project by any means shown in these fundraising pages. Remember to let us know what the donation is for.

When we have raised the required sum the project will remain open and we will continue to raise funds towards opening another.

For more details of what we have in mind based on what we have already done with a property we rented for this purpose, please click on the "BCR Centre" button in the left hand menu.