When you include City of Sanctuary UK in your will, you’re helping to build a lasting movement of welcome. Your gift helps ensure that people seeking sanctuary—refugees and asylum seekers—are met with a warm welcome, support and meaningul opportunities. It’s a gift that carries forward your values — compassion, justice, and community — to benefit generations to come.
Why Your Legacy Matters
- Sustaining Impact for the Long Term
Legacy gifts help anchor the charity’s work, ensuring vital programmes like Schools of Sanctuary have the resources to expand and thrive. These programmes support hundreds of UK schools to foster cultures of welcome for children seeking safety. - A Future Rooted in Kindness and Belonging
Your support enables new schools, local authorities, arts organisations, and community groups to gain Sanctuary Awards—strengthening the network of welcoming institutions across the UK.
How Your Gift Creates Change
| Your Legacy Gift Supports… | Outcomes for People Seeking Sanctuary |
|---|---|
| Long-term infrastructure | Schools, community groups, and cultural institutions can continue to welcome, support and work with people seeking safety |
| Education & awareness | People from across the networks are supported to speak up for people seeking sanctuary whilst students learn empathy and solidarity through Sanctuary programmes embedded in school culture. |
| New voices uplifted | Sanctuary Ambassador networks ensure people with lived experience shape the movement’s direction |
Suggested Wording to Include (Example)
“I give [%/£] of my estate (or the sum of £*) to City of Sanctuary UK, registered charity number (1184613), to be used for its general charitable purposes to encourage welcome and solidarity with people seeking sanctuary in the UK. I declare that this instruction shall be deemed a specific legacy.”
Not Ready to Write the Whole Will Just Yet?
- Ask your solicitor: Many law firms offer free consultations in November (Will Month), and some accept online legacy instructions.
- Contact City of Sanctuary UK: We can help you express your intent, offer suggested legal wording, and guide you on how your legacy will support the movement’s long-term vision.
Why It’s So Powerful
- Your compassion becomes permanent: A legacy gift ensures a kinder future where more communities actively embrace people seeking safety.
- Your values live on: Even when you’re no longer here, your generosity will still shape schools, organisations, and individuals who practice welcome and create change.
Thank you for considering this meaningful way to stand with people seeking sanctuary. Your legacy can help build a UK that’s kinder, fairer, and more welcoming—for today…and for generations to come.
Why Edward chose to give to City of Sanctuary UK from his mother’s estate:
“My mother always looked out for the underdog – whether they were at the end of our road or thousands of miles away. She had a real interest in people who found themselves at the bottom of society, often through no fault of their own. She was a people person. A traveller. A Christian. And someone who truly believed we’re all connected, and that we all have a responsibility to look out for each other.
She was 98 when she died. As a student during the Second World War, she had a strong belief in international cooperation – I think she always saw herself as an internationalist. In the 1950s, she even went to live alone in Italy – which was quite something back then – because she wanted to understand the world beyond our borders.
When she passed away, my sister and I inherited her estate. We both felt that we didn’t need all of it, and that we could use some of it to support the kind of causes she believed in. We chose to vary her will – a deed of variation – so that we could donate part of the estate directly to charity. It’s worth knowing that doing this can also help reduce the inheritance tax on the estate, which felt like a good use of the money too.
For my part, I chose to support City of Sanctuary UK. I first came across them through the Big Give match-funding campaign, and the more I learned, the more I felt this was something Mum would have stood behind.
People seeking safety in this country are some of the most maligned in society. They’re often treated with suspicion or outright hostility. If there’s someone out there looking after them, standing up for their rights and dignity, then I want to support that work. And I know Mum would have too.
Growing up, we spent a lot of time in churches as a family. So it makes me really happy to see churches now stepping up and becoming Churches of Sanctuary – adapting their mission and offering real, practical welcome to people who need it. That’s exactly the kind of progress Mum would have loved.
Supporting a smaller charity like City of Sanctuary UK has also felt particularly rewarding. You can see your donation getting to work quickly. It feels personal. Useful. Like you’re part of something good.
I think Mum would be really pleased with this choice. I know I am.“