## **Chairpersons Report 2022** A warm welcome to all our members and a special welcome to representatives from our member charities to their first Will to Give AGM. Thank you to our existing members with special thanks to Coleen Tinnelly as Vice Chair, Anna Morton as Treasurer and Sarah Leeman as Secretary. Also to committee members Clare Galbraith, Mark McMahon, Natalie Metz, Jonathan Smyth and Julia Smith. As committee members we greatly appreciate you giving of your time freely to continue to maintain and develop the organisations aims. Our special advisor Michael Graham continues to offer us guidance and supports all our endeavours. We are eternally grateful and appreciative of the time he gives to Will to Give. Thank you for making the office of Cleaver Fulton Rankin available to use for meetings each year. Our Development Officer Claire Smyth continues to be an invaluable member of the team. We will mention later the fantastic Future Kindness Event which Claire skilfully organised and helped to deliver. Our monthly meetings are an important part of the Will to Give membership benefits and we are thankfully for Claire’s organised approach to hosting, securing speakers and distributing information useful for us all both at the meeting and through our social media channels. To everyone who attended our meetings through another busy and tumultuous year within the charity sector, thank you for your engagement. I would like to offer my thanks to all members and Claire for supporting me as Chair through the year. It is with regret that I will be stepping down this year however I would encourage all members to consider any of the committee posts to help insure the future of this great collaboration. ## **Membership** Up to date membership figures will be included in the Financial Report. 2022 was another year of challenges to the charity sector so we have seen movement within the membership but also we are delighted to welcome some new charities and hope that this platform helps to develop your legacy income stream within your own organisations. ## **Future Kindness Event** I think that we can all agree that the 1[st] Future Kindness Event which we ran on 7[th] November 2022 was an overall success. The event was well attended by both member organisations but also in the afternoon by non-member organisations and guests from our organisations. The event covered everything from legacy administration, building case studies, marketing, stewardship and we took a delve into the Northern Ireland Legacy Landscape as it stands now. There are many highlights from the event, but I think we can all agree that having Master Hardstaff in attendance and becoming a great fan of Will to Give was a major achievement and hopefully one that we will benefit from moving forward. Thank you to everyone who hosted a session, invited guest speakers, suggested the event topics and attended. A special thank you must be given to Claire, without you this event just would not have happened. Like all great events, lessons were learnt however the general consensus through feedback is that we should run the event again in the coming years. So watch this space for me details. ## **Wills Notification Service** We have seen a great improvement within the wills notification service where due to resource continuity within NICVA has led to stability in receiving the notifications. During the year we have continued to keep communication lines open, building on our relationship with NICVA/Sector Matters. ## **Finance** We have had a very troubled year in the administration of our banking arrangements with Ulster Bank. We hope that the problems with online access will soon be resolved. To anyone this has impacted we would like to express our thanks for your patience and understanding. ## **Special Projects** ## **Legacy Foresight** We have a great relationship with Legacy Foresight which has been cultivated over a number of years. As we continue to inform Legacy Foresight of the data from Northern Ireland, it was of great reward to see this information used in Kathryn Horsley’s session at our Future Kindness event. ## **NI Legacy Landscape** The NI Legacy Landscape data project is ongoing. We are collating the relevant information from the Wills Notification service and we will continue with this through 2023. ## CLOSE In conclusion 2022 was an empowering year for Will to Give. We have maintained a good membership level, gained further insights into the legacy sector in Northern Ireland, hosted an inaugural NI legacy focused event and supported many of our members in dedicating new focus into the gifts in wills income stream for their charity. Through all members desire to increase legacy pledges from supporters within our communities, together we will shape the NI legacy landscape now and into the future.