Leaving a legacy for civil society

In this chapter, Rhian Powell examines the perspectives and priorities of older people when thinking about the legacy they will leave after their death. She draws on semi-structured interviews with twenty-two people willing to discuss whether or not they intend to leave a legacy gift to charity in their will. The research shows that decisions to leave a charitable bequest are complex and require the donor to balance a number of potentially competing obligations – particularly between the family, civil society and the state. When participants think about their inheritance, considerations about these competing institutions are strongly connected and consequently how participants think about one will affect their views on the others. For this reason, it is impossible to only discuss participants’ attitudes towards civil society without also considering their attitudes towards family and the state.