By remembering Butterfly Conservation in your Will, you can ensure that future generations will experience the joy of watching butterflies and moths in the wild, as you have done.
Butterfly Conservation is reversing the declines in butterflies and moths but we need your help to ensure these remarkable insects can survive. Gifts of any size make a difference.
Butterfly Conservation uses the legacy gifts it receives to create and restore habitat, carry out research and acquire land for nature reserves for butterflies and other wildlife.
Here are just a few examples of how your gift can make a difference:
- £100 would pay for 100 Kidney Vetch plugs, the caterpillar food plant of the Small Blue caterpillar.
- One acre of woodland could be coppiced for £1,000, creating new habitat for threatened fritillary butterflies.
- £10,000 would help protect a key landscape area and meet the cost of creating vital links between fragmented habitat patches, helping butterflies to re-colonise new sites naturally.
The prospect of making a Will may seem daunting, but in most cases it is a simple process. By taking action now, you can make a lasting contribution to the people and causes you care about the most.
Why legacy gifts are vital to Butterfly Conservation
Many people support Butterfly Conservation by becoming a member or by volunteering their time, whilst others help by making a regular financial contribution over many years. Without this support, Butterfly Conservation could not survive.
Legacies represent over a third of all gifts donated by our supporters and make a crucial contribution to Butterfly Conservation's work. Much of our grant funding is short-term, but we have adopted a policy of phasing the use of legacy income over five years, thereby providing key projects with greater continuity of funding, especially for the most important 'landscape-scale' projects or the purchase of land to create nature reserves for the butterflies and moths which are most at risk.
Legacy income is also used as match funding to 'unlock' large grants from other sources such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Landfill Communities Fund.
Dr Nigel Bourn, Butterfly Conservation's Director of Species Conservation, recognises the value of legacy gifts to our work:
This vital support now contributes towards the cost of running practical conservation programmes for butterflies and moths in more than 70 diverse and beautiful landscapes throughout the UK. Just think of the difference your gift could make, helping us to reverse the adverse impact of habitat destruction and changes in agricultural and forestry practices.
By leaving a gift to Butterfly Conservation in your Will, you will be making a vital contribution to the long-term conservation of butterflies and moths, and you will be helping to provide the funds we need to ensure continuity of the Society's conservation work.
How Butterfly Conservation will use your gift
The legacy gifts we receive are used to help fund some of our most important work, which currently includes:
- Over 70 landscape-scale conservation projects in key butterfly areas throughout the UK.
- Ongoing management of Butterfly Conservation's 34 nature reserves covering 750 hectares, and the acquisition of new sites.
- Advisory services and specialist training in conservation management for butterflies and moths for farmers, foresters and land owners.
- Educational activities including over 700 public events every year and the development of learning materials for school to encourage a new generation of butterfly conservationists.
- Vital research into the reasons behind the rapid declines of some species and the best methods of countering these worrying losses.
Alners Gorse Nature Reserve
The purchase and management of this nature reserve in Dorset was made possible by a generous legacy given by Miss Lewis. Alners Gorse is a wonderful remnant of the old Blackmore Vale Commons, with Marsh Fritillary, Brown Hairstreak, White Admiral, Dingy Mocha and Nightingales among the many notable species present.
Want to know more?
Although we would like to thank you if you are planning to leave a gift to Butterfly Conservation, we recognise that writing a Will is a private matter, so please do not feel you have to let us know. If you do consider leaving something to Butterfly Conservation in your Will, thank you.
For more information please contact Helen Corrigan 01273 453313 or hcorrigan@butterfly-conservation.org
