Annual Report 2021/Story: Wills, estates, legacies and all the preparatory work

Enabling

2021

In this Story a generous gift to the Wikimedia movement is presented and the many steps that were needed to secure it are outlined.

In August 2021 an estate reached out to us out of the blue and introduced us to the fact that we were one of the beneficiaries in a will. The donated amount was significant, with around 400,000 USD in stocks and money being donated to the association. This type of funding will allow us to think and plan long-term as our buffer for unexpected expenses now has reached a comfortable level.

To be able to receive such a large sum of money a number of steps had to be taken. As this was the first legacy that Wikimedia Sverige was to receive and because there were some unclarities of how to process this gift this was a non-trivial exercise. The legacy led to a flurry of activities in 2021 and a lot of exchange with, and generous support from, the fundraising team at Wikimedia Foundation. Amongst other things, we needed to prepare supporting policies and guidelines. We also initiated the work of a legacy program where we outlined what steps future donors should take if they want to mention Wikimedia Sverige in their wills. The work on how to handle legacy gifts in the future will continue in 2022.

Developing a dedicated landing page on our website was a priority. As an organization we are now ready to actively, but respectfully, communicate about this possibility to our donors and members.