Remember A Charity's first Awareness Week starts today

Remember A Charity's first Awareness Week, the ‘Forget Me Knot’ Week, gets underway today with the aim of persuading more people to remember the importance of leaving a charitable gift in their wills.

Margaret Mountford, former lawyer and adviser to Lord Sugar from 'The Apprentice', is fronting the campaign.

The week will use the tying of a 'forget me knot' through a range of activities to engage campaign members, supporters, local and national press, the legal profession and the general public.

Charity supporters are being asked to tie a virtual Forget Me Knot as a symbol of their support for their favourite causes.

The 140+ charity members of the Remember a Charity coalition will promote the campaign in various ways, including via a banner on their websites and HTML emails to their supporters and staff, featuring a ‘Forget Me Knot Week’ logo and wrist bands.

A range of national and regional PR activities are underway, including a national photo shoot with Margaret Mountford and a UK road tour visiting nine cities with members' involvement.

Lawyers will also be encouraged this week to ask clients whether they would like to leave a gift to charity in their will, after they have looked after friends and family. New Remember A Charity research shows that 75% of people would not mind being asked the question by a solicitor or will writing professional.

Margaret Mountford is a trustee of heart disease charity CORDA. She said: "As a retired lawyer I recognise that will writing professionals could play an important role in changing the status quo. If more people were simply asked the question when drawing up a will I’m sure it would make a huge difference to the long-term future of so many of our charities".

The week will be further supported by media activity, including a burst of Remember A Charity’s current ‘memorable last wishes’ themed TV advertising campaign on Channel 4, ITV3 and Gold, radio advertising on Classic FM and online advertising at telegraph.co.uk and guardian.co.uk.

The end of the week will see a legacy giving supplement produced by the Daily Telegraph in collaboration with Remember A Charity on Saturday 19 September.

Stephen George, Chair of Remember A Charity and Development Director for Legacies at NSPCC said: "Our first ever Awareness Week is a welcome addition to the overall campaign and will provide plenty of opportunities for member charities to talk to their supporters about the importance of legacies and to gain local and national PR.

"The mix of celebrity, press, TV and PR will, we hope, make a big impact with the public and help us take a step closer to our long term goal to make gifts in wills a social norm for the many."

www.rememberacharity.org.uk