Whether you’re advising a client or administering an estate that includes a gift to Guide Dogs, we can help. If you’d like information on anything not covered here, please feel free to get in touch with us.
Guide Dogs is a working name of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Registered Office: Hillfields, Burghfield Common, Reading, Berkshire RG7 3YG. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (291646) and a charity registered in England and Wales (209617), Scotland (SC038979) and Isle of Man (1334).
Blind Children UK (BCUK), formerly The National Blind Children’s Society, became part of Guide Dogs in 2013 and continues to operate as company limited by guarantee in England and Wales (03133018), and as a charity registered in England and Wales (1051607) and Scotland (SCO42089).
We have drafted wording for people to use when leaving gifts:
A Residuary Gift (the remains of your estate after any specific gifts have been distributed, and any debts have been paid): “I give free of Inheritance Tax (…%) of the residue of my estate to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association…”
A Pecuniary Gift (a specific sum): “I give free of Inheritance Tax the sum of... pounds to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association…”
Then follow with: “…whose Registered Office is situated at Hillfields, Burghfield Common, Reading, Berkshire RG7 3YG (Registered Charity No. 209617 or SC038979 or 1334), for the general charitable purposes of the Association, and I declare that the receipt of an authorised official for the time being shall be a good discharge to my executors.”
For a pecuniary gift, your client may wish their gift to be adjusted for inflation; please add in the suitable wording.
As Gifts in Wills are so important to Guide Dogs, we want to understand why your client chose to support us in this way or what prompted the gift.
We ask you to pass on a thank you letter to the Next of Kin, so that we can thank them personally for the deceased’s gift. We know that supporters like to be valued and we want the Next of Kin to know how much we appreciate their loved one’s gift. If they’re interested, we can also arrange for them to visit one of our Training Schools to see how their loved one’s gift is being used.
Yes, this is a popular way for people to leave us a gift in their Will. Your client will need to make the specific statement in their Will, and we ask for a gift of £5,000 to Name a Puppy. This reflects the cost of putting one dog through its first fourteen months of puppy walking until it goes to Training School. When we receive a gift like this, we name the puppy and send regular updates on the puppy’s progress to the nominated Next of Kin or friend. We ask that there are three suggested puppy names written in the Will and we’ll try to use your client’s first preference where possible.
The cost of breeding, training and supporting a guide dog through its lifetime is currently around £50,000. A guide dog owner can have up to eight dogs in their lifetime, so costs can rise to nearly a quarter of a million pounds. Please remember that if your client leaves a specific gift, its value will reduce over time, so they may want to consider index linking the gift.
Yes, we’d be happy to forward more information about Guide Dogs on to you or your client, either by post or email. Life Changers is a booklet that explains how we generate funds, how we spend the money we raise, and what a difference it makes to our guide dog owners. Pick up a copy of our free Gifts in Wills Guide.
If your client leaves a gift in their Will to Guide Dogs, please do ask them to let us know. We’ll then be able to thank them and keep them up to date with our work.
Yes, we’d be delighted to welcome your client along to one of our Reception Days.